Sunrise Homes sent letters to about 100 of the 350 home-owners in the Penn Mill Lakes subdivision north of Covington, asking for permission to check whether they were built with the Chinese drywall. For Linda Williams, the inspection gave her relief.
“The news was very good, and I was a little nervous,” she said. “I’m glad to hear that everything is going to be okay, that we don’t have the Chinese drywall.”

But nearby residents Steve and Dana LeBlanc got bad news, when the inspector found Chinese drywall in an air conditioning closet.

“It’s rough. I’m shaking right now,” Steve LeBlanc said. “I’ve got goose bumps. It’s hard, it really is hard.”

Wiring in a bathroom power outlet has turned black, so the couple is wondering whether their home could be contaminated.

“Just worried about what we’re going to do with our family,” a concerned Dana LeBlanc said. “I mean, do we stay here or do we leave?”

The Sunrise Homes Director of Operations said the company thought their supplier was providing only domestic drywall, until this controversy began.

“They were unable to guarantee us with certainty that none of it was delivered to our job sites,” said Natalie Culpeper, Sunrise Homes Director of Operations. “At that point, we obviously take these concerns very seriously, and thought it appropriate to actually do inspections.”

They are only inspecting homes built during the period when the Chinese drywall was in stock.

“I was glad to see we got a letter from Sunrise,” Dana LeBlanc said. “They were taking responsibility, and I only called on Friday for them to come out today.”

But there could be homes affected outside of this one subdivison. Sunrise Homes has sent letters to 400 home owners, from the Westbank to St. Tammany, all the way to the Mississippi Gulf Coast. They are still trying to figure out what they’ll do in cases where they find the Chinese drywall.

“Currently there is no established protocol for testing or remediation,” Culpeper said. “However, we have been in contact with the manufacturer and the supplier regarding what the appropriate next step will be. Unfortunately, at this point we are a little bit frustrated, because the manufacturer has not been able to give us what we feel is an appropriate answer to that question.”

“Is it going to be a month?” Dana LeBlanc worried. “Is it going to be two months, is it going to be six months, is it going to be a year? I mean how long do we stay here knowing that we already have it?”

Culpeper said Sunrise Homes is prepared to file suit if that is what it takes to get the issue resolved, and protect home owners. They hope to complete the inspections within three weeks.

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