Drywall Inspection

Home inspection using X-MET XRF Analyser

Using the same technology as the U.S. CPSC (Consumer Product Safety Commission) and EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) the Oxford Instruments X-MET handheld analyzer offers fast and easy 'in-home' drywall screening, delivering reliable, instantaneous results.

The X-MET has been trusted for over 35 years by inspectors around the world for detecting Pb in children’s products, hazardous elements in soil, and restricted compounds in electronic components and is now optimized for drywall screening.

The X-MET offers a truly non-destructive test (NDT) of drywall in a home. With the X-MET there is no need to drill a hole in every piece of drywall in a room so there is no patching, repairing, or repainting after the inspection!

XRF (X-ray Fluorescence) analysis saves time and money detecting sulfur and strontium in affected Chinese Drywall material.

Improve customer service
Faster results
Non-Destructive Testing (NDT)
Complete more inspections per day
Lowers test costs and turnaround time
Improves results accuracy
Fast ROI payback through faster testing and improved accuracy

Oxford Instruments is proud to launch a NEW faster, lighter and smaller handheld XRF analyser -
the X-MET7000. With one pull of the trigger, the NEW X-MET7000 delivers faster than ever results for materials analysis, verification and screening. Take a closer look at the NEW X-MET7000. Click the link on the right.

XRF (X-ray Fluorescence) analysis saves time and money detecting sulfur and strontium in affected Chinese Drywall material.

Improve customer service
Faster results
Non-Destructive Testing (NDT)
Complete more inspections per day
Lowers test costs and turnaround time
Improves results accuracy
Fast ROI payback through faster testing and improved accuracy

The X-MET Solution

The X-MET handheld XRF analyser can help provide a fast and simple solution to drywall testing. Results can be available in only seconds using the gun-like handheld scanner making it hugely attractive to drywall inspectors. Home inspectors can complete more tests in a day on-site now no longer need to remove chunks of wall to send off for laboratory testing which can take weeks and be prohibitively expensive. Drywall testing using an X-MET5000 analyser can be done for a fraction of the previous ‘send out’ costs and is the ideal solution for identifying harmful substances within drywall pieces or boards that don’t have labels identifying the country of origin or manufacturer.

The X-MET securely stores over 100,000 test results, enough for almost 700 homes! This is almost ten times more than some competitive units. Furthermore, as X-MET uses an integral X-ray tube instead of a radioactive isotope, it is easy and safer to travel with the instrument, even across state lines.

Test for lead (Pb) and other hazardous elements in paint
Accurate and reliable identification of strontium in drywall
Identify individual suspicious boards to minimize remediation costs
Reduce the number of samples that have to be sent to a lab
Fast and reliable Go/No-Go decisions with simplified Pass/Fail alarms
Ideal for drywall pieces missing a label with the country of origin
No radioactive isotopes to license and replace
Long battery life
The X-MET is IP54/NEMA 3 rated for dust and moisture exposure, and is safe to use on an active work site.

For more information, contact us now. Or email us on industrial@oxinst.com and we can arrange a demonstration convenient to your location.

Perfect Calibration
What is Chinese Dry Wall?
Drywall Problems
Further Reading

Oxford Instruments provides a quick effective solution with its
X-MET analyser. A universal Fundamental Parameters calibration is installed on the X-MET to analyze various forms of drywall, including drywall that has been primed and painted. The instrument is simply placed against the drywall, and after a short analysis the concentration of strontium is shown on the screen. To further simplify the analysis a pass/fail mode can be used to clearly indicate what should be done with the drywall.

X-MET result

Correlation between strontium concentration and drywall source

X-MET - the perfect instrument

Our X-MET Series products each weigh less than 4 pounds and incorporate Oxford Instruments core technology, namely an efficient X-ray tube and high-resolution detector.
The X-MET products are rugged for outdoor use and are rated NEMA 3 (IP54) as splash and dust proof. The versatile PDA provides a bright and clear interface that’s easy for basic operators, yet powerful enough for more sophisticated users. Using the optional GPS receiver, measurements can be tagged with geographical data. Data stored on the PDA or SD memory card can be transferred to a PC through USB or wireless Bluetooth technology.

The problem - Tainted Drywall

At the height of the U.S. housing boom, when building materials were in short supply, American construction companies used millions of dollars worth of Chinese-made drywall because it was abundant and inexpensive.

Some estimates indicate that imports of potentially tainted Chinese drywall building materials may have been used in more than 100,000 homes built over the last four year period, including houses rebuilt after Hurricane Katrina and other storm damage.

There is a growing concern that tainted, imported drywall is giving off fumes with a sulfur smell that can corrode copper pipes, blacken jewelry and silverware, and potentially sicken residents and contribute to a feeling of ill-health. The Consumer Product Safety Commission and several state health departments are investigating these claims, trying to identify the source of the hazards.

Due to shortages in drywall products between 2002 and 2007, numerous American building companies in the south east United States utilized drywall imported from China in the construction of homes, apartments and buildings. This drywall, in many cases, is now believed to be defective, resulting in the stench of rotting eggs that homeowners have been unable to eliminate. Some have even been forced to leave their homes because the odour was so foul. Others have reported problems with their air conditioning and other systems that is also believed to be related to drywall imported from China.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) confirmed the link between the imported material and problems with corrosion in homes that have it. The conclusion followed testing at 51 homes in Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Virginia that found "a strong association between the problem drywall, the hydrogen sulfide levels in homes with that drywall and corrosion in those homes.''

Homeowners have been complaining for about a year to federal and state government agencies that their homes smell of sulfur or rotten eggs, the copper in their air-conditioning units and electrical wires in their homes are corroding and that other metals are turning black. They have also reported problems breathing, headaches and nosebleeds.

But until recently no agency had officially linked corrosion problems with drywall. "Not all drywall is alike,'' said Jack McCarthy, president of Environmental Health & Engineering, which conducted the testing for CPSC. He continues: "It depends on what the drywall is made of -- not the country it came from.''

CPSC spokesman Scott Wolfson said the agency is "not limited in the scope of our investigation to just Chinese drywall.''

To date, the CPSC has received over 2,000 complaints reports from residents in 32 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico who believe their health symptoms or the corrosion of certain metal components are related to Chinese drywall. The majority of those -- more than 1,500 -- are from Florida residents.

The agency has spent about $3.5 million on its investigation, which it said is the largest in its history. The next phase of the agency's work is on finding ways to identify problem drywall and come up with ways to treat homes.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has found high levels of toxic chemicals in Chinese drywall, which was, according to many experts, possibly installed in more than 100,000 homes between 2001 and 2006.

"We are not surprised that they found samples containing higher levels of strontium and sulfur because strontium sulfide is capable of emitting corrosive gases in moist air which, in our opinion, poses a health concern to homeowners and their families," said Spiderman Mulholland, leading investigator. "It confirms what we have been discovering in Florida homes over the last several months. The physical evidence is overwhelming and needs to be carefully evaluated from a forensic standpoint."

The analysis done by USBCI has identified 11 of 12 compounds that could be considered health concerns, depending on toxicity levels and multiple compound interactions. This does not factor in additional particulates under analysis.

While the Florida Department of Health has not yet concluded that there is a link between health problems and the imported drywall, Mulholland's team has been working with several families that are experiencing medical issues.

"We hope that state officials will quickly come to the same conclusions that we have, that this is indeed a health issue," Mulholland said.

The US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) says it has received more than 1,500 complaints about Chinese drywall from 27 states as well as Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. There have also been reports of metal fittings in homes being "blackened and corroded" by the drywall, with electrical wiring and gas pipes damaged. The majority of the cases occurred in Florida and Louisiana, both states which were badly hit by hurricanes including Ivan and Katrina.
(Source:BBC News)

The Consumer Product Safety Commission said it would be leading an investigation into the relationship between the drywall and the reported health symptoms, and electrical and fire safety issues reported by some home owners. Some of the drywall linked to the problems was used in rebuilding in southern states after damage from hurricanes. The agency said it would also examine the origin and distribution of the drywall, which are sheets of plaster used for home interior. The announcement came after months of complaints from consumers and local officials that defective drywall from China was leaking chemicals that caused illness and safety problems.

"We now have the science that enables the Task Force to move ahead to the next phase -- to develop both a screening process and effective remediation methods," said Consumer Product Safety Commission chairman Inez Tenenbaum. The study concluded that hydrogen sulfide gas "is being created in homes built with Chinese drywall."

For more information on how the X-MET handheld analyzer can help detect defective drywall fast and reliably, email us on: industrial@oxinst.com

Recent Articles - Feel free to browse this collection of informative articles.

http://www.miamiherald.com/business/story/1349057.html

http://www.usbcinc.com/

http://www.cpsc.gov/info/drywall/index.html

http://www.chinesedrywall.com/index.html

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