How to Check your Home for Chinese Drywall

If your home was built or remodeled after 2003, there is a chance that your house contains toxic Chinese drywall. Toxic Chinese drywall is a building material imported to the United States during the building boom of the mid-2000s, which contains an unsafe level of sulfur. This toxic Chinese drywall has not only led to damage of appliances in homes, but presents serious health problems as well, including headaches, nose bleeds, coughing, trouble breathing and asthma. If you believe you may be affected by this drywall, you should further inspect your home to establish whether you do, in fact, have toxic Chinese drywall.

Things You'll Need

• Screwdriver

Instructions

1. Remove the switch plate covers around your home. Any place where you have a light switch or outlet will do. There will be a bare copper wire inside the box under the plastic cover. If you can see the bare shiny copper, your house most likely does not contain Chinese drywall. However, if the copper wire is blackened, this is a sign that your house contains toxic Chinese drywall.

2. Check your circuit breaker, often found in the basement or garage of your home. Again, look at the bare copper wires in the box. Shiny copper is a sign of no toxic Chinese drywall, but blackened copper means you may have toxic Chinese drywall in your home.

3. Look at the backside of the drywall in your home. This can be accomplished by going into the attic and looking at the backside of the ceiling drywall, or accessing a crawlspace or other place in your home that exposes the backside of drywall. Look for the words "Knauf," "Knauf Tiajin" or "Made in China" on the back of the drywall. Any of these is an indication that you may have toxic Chinese drywall in your home.

4. Consider having either a home inspection, or purchase a less expensive and more convenient alternative, a Chinese drywall testing kit. This will allow the testing of your home for the presence of toxic Chinese drywall.

References

• Consumer Product Safety Commission; Interim Guidance -- Identification of Homes with Corrosion from Problem Drywall; Jan. 28, 2010