More homeowners report health problems linked to defective drywall

Q. A weird “rotten egg” smell has been filling our home for several months. Inspectors from our local gas company have come out twice and said they smell it, too, but have determined that we have no gas leak.

We have also checked out our home, from the crawlspace under the house up to our attic, and found no dead animals that could be creating the stench. Do you have any ideas about what is causing this problem?

A. That’s a puzzler, indeed. Perhaps it’s a sewer or septic-tank leak, which only a professional could detect.

Before you pay to have a pro to come out, though, call your local public works department and ask if it will send out a government-paid inspector who may be able to check the sewer lines on both your personal property and the main sewer line that travels under the street in front of your house for free.

There’s another possible culprit here — and it’s a stench-sowing son of a gun that is causing problems for a relatively small but growing number of homeowners across the nation: It’s the drywall that’s in their homes.

I have written about drywall problems in the past. Though faulty drywall doesn’t always have telltale signs of visible mold or other problems, the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission recently released a statement saying that other indicators may include “blackening of metal in or on electrical fixtures, appliances, plumbing and air-conditioner coils.”

The CPSC has now received more than 4,000 complaints from residents in 44 states that may be linked to faulty drywall. In addition to the rotten-egg smell that you are experiencing, other homeowners have complained of recurring headaches, difficulty breathing, unexplained bloody noses and other maladies.

If you suspect your current problem is caused by defective drywall, you’ll need to hire a licensed contractor to inspect it and, possibly, to remove and replace it. You might also need to replace the wiring that’s behind the affected drywall, especially if it’s black, rusty or corroded.

For more information, call the federal agency at 800-638-2772. If you want faster and more detailed information, visit

www.cspc.gov. Type “drywall” in the site’s search key, which is located on the right corner of the homepage.

REAL ESTATE TRIVIA Though some homeowners wonder why the CPSC didn’t catch the faulty drywall before it was installed in homes, agency officials note that they don’t have the legal authority to perform pre-market testing or to approve products before they are sold. In other words, they can’t do anything until something goes wrong.

Q. I read a newspaper ad that says that a home that is in foreclosure has a “BPO” value of $82,500. What is a BPO?

A. Most newspaper readers don’t see that confusing abbreviation often.

BPO is shorthand for “Broker Price Opinion,” a dollar figure that’s set by a real estate broker or sales agent who estimates the current market value of a home without the help of a professional appraiser.

Banks that are stuck with a lot of foreclosed properties sometimes use BPOs because doing so is cheaper than ordering a full-blown report from an appraiser.

But many such opinions aren’t very accurate, in part because realty brokers and sales agents are not trained to spot hard-tofind defects that can be costly to fix.