Spiderman S. Mulholland, U S Building Consultants, is Issuing a Warning About Conducting Remediation on Homes with Defective Chinese Drywall

Gainesville, FL, July 12, 2009 --(PR.com)-- A leading forensic expert on building envelope, water intrusion, toxic mold, and Chinese drywall, Spiderman S. Mulholland, Senior Forensic investigator and national consultant with U S Building Consultants and U S Building Laboratories Inc., is issuing a warning to those conducting remediation on homes and buildings across the states including Florida. It should be noted that remediation protocols have not been established, and cross-contamination is occurring, even after homes have the sheetrock torn out and replaced, out gassing of sulfur compounds and other elements continues to occur. In fact, remediation further jeopardizes public health when it is done without adequate safeguards or by unqualified individuals. Some individuals who are performing remediation are asking homeowners to sign away their rights to future litigation or liability by having this sheetrock removed and replaced.

The problem is that out-gassing will continue because the protocol for removal and replacement are greatly flawed. Scientific tests and analysis of construction materials and their out-gassing properties associated to other materials found that absorption rates, higher levels of toxicity, and cross contamination to be a serious factor; and other dynamics which will go unnamed at this time. Many builders and remediation companies have not fully understood all the dynamics which are at work here. Simply removing drywall from the home and replacing it with new drywall will not protect the homeowner from future problems. In fact, under current remediation practices, we are observing the situation getting worse because the proper controls are not in place; and there have been several unknowns that are just now being revealed through new science.

In our opinion, if people are remediating now, they are probably doing it wrong. We have changed our own remediation protocols which are under development numerous times in the last two months because of mockup testing and ongoing field inspections in five states. We have been warning builders, remediation companies, and homeowners for months not to start the remediation process yet. Without a proven standardized protocol for remediation, a secondary crisis can occur on top of the main crisis, essentially having to remediate a second time.

Homeowners will find it hard enough living through this crisis once, let alone twice. Residences in Florida and other states need to beware of those offering free inspections to jump start the remediation of your home or building. If they are unwilling to offer a warranty or bond after remediation, don’t remediate. If your remediation is flawed or can’t be certified, you take a risk in not removing the stigma from your home and losing additional resale value.

USBCI is in the process of securing national warranties, but this cannot be released to the public until the proper remediation protocol has been certified with appropriate controls and backed by credible science. Mockup testing at our laboratory (USBLI) continues around the clock to validate this process. We have also selected five (4) other laboratories across the nation including the University of Florida, to set proper controls of the inspection, testing, and analysis phase.

A rush to remediation IS Not in the best interest of the home owner, builder, remediation companies, or anyone for that matter. Many builders are being pressured to act or react now, rather than properly responding later. This is going to devastate both the homeowner and builder when they realize that their remediation efforts fail, cannot be certified, and will not be permitted to take part in a warranty program.

I commend those builders trying to rectify the situation because we know they could not have possibly recognized the defective drywall. This crisis is not about homebuilders trying to save money by providing an inferior product; this is a simple case of demand exceeding supply, which forced Chinese and/or other defective drywall to be brought into the county. In our opinion, those who are performing restoration without proper control could be jeopardizing their own health since several key dynamics are at work during the restoration. Some new scientific testing is being conducted for the first time and this is proving to be more complex than what any of these scientist thought.

If you are a homeowner and you are being asked to sign away your rights to future litigation and liability in order to get your home fixed, you need to consult your attorney or call the State Attorney General’s office (in Florida call Toll Free at 1-866-966-7226).

On a positive note, we have completed the preliminary testing on a specialized active carbon process that has been fitted in air machines that can temporarily stabilize the Chinese and/or other defective drywall out-gassing problems. These machines and there scientific process can be found at www.usbuildinglabs.com. We have performed both field and laboratory testing on these machines from Electrocorp and are impressed with the fact that they appear to significantly reduce or eliminate the toxic gases which are present from the sulfur compounds in homes with Chinese and/or other defective drywall. Although these machines are capable of temporarily stabilizing a home, they should not be considered as a long-term repair strategy to keep the drywall in the home. We are of the opinion that the Chinese and/or other defective drywall must eventually be removed to have an effective remediation and bring back the resale value of the home. This is very encouraging after searching through so many products that simply could not do what they proclaimed they could do when it comes to bringing a temporary solution for the health issues that are most likely occurring from the out-gassing of multiple sulfur compounds.

To learn more about Spiderman Mulholland and USBCI, go online to www.usbcinc.com, or to arrange an interview, contact annie@usbcinc.com.

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