
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 11, 1990                   TAG: 9004110424
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

FIRE-RETARDANT PLYWOOD PROMPTS SEVERAL SUITS

A fire-retardant plywood that has become a standard building material in town house developments in the last decade has now been found to decompose after only a few years, leaving homeowners and builders with leaky and unsafe roofs and large repair bills.

The plywood, called FRTP, for fire resistant treated plywood, has been used in the roofs of a million housing units east of the Mississippi, according to the National Association of Home Builders.

Since the problems were first discovered in New Jersey several years ago, scores of lawsuits have been filed against makers, suppliers and insurers.

And as the courts decide who is responsible, developers have spent millions replacing defective roofs and homeowners have begun organizing to demand reimbursement.

The plywood was introduced after fire codes were changed in the early '80s, just in time for the long nationwide building boom.

Now that the boom is past, worries about the plywood come on top of a glutted town house market, falling prices and a rash of builder bankruptcies.

People involved in the litigation say the issue could match the legal furor that arose over the costs of removing asbestos 20 years ago.

Lawsuits have been filed in Connecticut, Arkansas, Virginia and Florida, but the lead has been taken by New Jersey, where 45 suits have already been filed seeking more than $100 million in damages from makers and suppliers.

The repairs are costly, and though builders are now required to insure all new homes in New Jersey for 10 years, most private insurers have refused to pay claims.

The building association estimates the minimum cost of replacing the roofs at $2,000 per unit.

The culprit, according to scientists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's forest-products laboratory, is the chemical treatment of the plywood with organic and inorganic salts.

Heat built up on roofs by the sun - at temperatures as low as 150 degrees Fahrenheit - sets off the fire-stopping acidic reaction intended to happen only at the temperatures of an actual house fire, about 400 degrees.

The heat and the chemicals attack the cellular structure of the wood, causing it to weaken.

The wood treaters and suppliers maintain that the product is sound. They say the problem has arisen only when it is improperly installed and the attics inadequately ventilated.

"With improper levels of moisture there is a problem," said John Ferry, secretary-treasurer of the American Wood Preservers Association, a defendant in several lawsuits. "But with proper ventilation you don't get that problem."

The builders reject this argument, claiming that the decomposition of the plywood begins on the sheathing's top surface, not on the underside, where ventilation might help.

Before the plywood was introduced in the early '80s, town house developments were usually built with masonry parapets above the roof lines.

by CNB