This sounds like a huge, huge mess. Lawsuits that could go on forever, and all over a problem that is potentially so nebulous that its causes will be impossible to identify.

Funny - I literally just submitted an article from the Washington Post to the news feed about this same topic.

yet another reason to buy domestic.......

interesting that "...Builders have filed their own lawsuits against suppliers and manufacturers..."

in WA you can't hold a builder liable for poor or defective workmandship...

wha, where there rest go?

it's interesting because apparently in florida, you can and people are holding the builders liable.

might be time for little johnny to play with some matches

Hmm, but aren't almost all of these modern building products in some way toxic? I mean MDF is almost half glue right, which in turn is mostly formaldehyde? Plywood is also full of glue which is full of toxins. EIFS is pretty much styrofoam and rigid insulation, when burned, gives off tons of toxic and carcinogenic chemicals not to mention the fact it will still be there when much of the rest of the house is gone.

this doesn't make any sense:
in WA you can't hold a builder liable for poor or defective workmandship...

do you mean poor or defective workmanship of the purchased products? Or just in general? How could you not hold a builder liable for bad building? Nobody would build anything properly in that case.

I had the same question, manta. That must be what holz means.

if you purchase a home, and said home has construction defects the builder refuses to fix, it is difficult to sue the builder in the state of WA, at least this is my understanding of the present law which allowed unenforceable warranties.

i was trying to link that to what seemed to be going on in florida, where homeowners were apparently trying to sue builders, but the builders (who were themselves in bankruptcy) were suing the product manufacturers (as if the mfrs were the reasons for the buider's bankruptcy)

unfortunately it got deleted and what remained was a garbled mess.

i think i need to take a nap.

a project of ours being built in chinatown in chicago is filled with nothing but chinese-manufactured products. we aren't doing CA because the client has an architect on staff, so we didn't approve any shop drawings or anything. we have been to the site a couple of times to check on the progress (which has been quite slow because everything keeps getting held up in customs), and everytime we are there all of the products have nothing but chinese characters on them. 30,000 SF mixed-use commercial gut renovation...this is going to be interesting.