Defective Drywall Causes Corrosion

There aren't many times when the topic of corrosion makes national press. When it does, there is usually some type of large problem. In the news this week is the problem of Chinese drywall being used on some houses. This drywall is said to have high sulfur content. This unfortunate situation has caused problems for many homeowners.

As the case with many large problems, there is a lawsuit pending. As many as tens of thousands of homeowners have their homes contaminated with this high sulfur drywall. The problems being reported are not limited to health concerns but actual appliance failure due to corrosion.

Sulfur is one of a few gaseous materials that promote corrosion. We are all familiar with rust, the corrosion of steel and iron. However, other metals corrode as well. The appliance failures reported are related to the corrosion of copper. Copper, as well as other yellow metals, are normally corrosion resistant. However, in the presence of a sulfur gas, these normally corrosion resistant metals will corrode.

Protecting copper and other metals in this situation is very difficult. In a smaller closed environment, there are products to adsorb corrosive gasses. However, in this case, the areas to be protected are too numerous to be effective or too impractical to enclose.