By Gerald Witt
The News & Record

GREENSBORO, N.C. — A construction error on more than 90 new town houses built by Portrait Homes in Guilford County since 2006 means the homes don't meet North Carolina fire codes.

The faulty fire walls were detected only after an anonymous caller contacted Greensboro city inspectors in fall 2007 about the below-code drywall, according to David Jones, chief inspector for Greensboro.

Portrait Homes is making efforts to correct the problem with a layer of fire-resistant paint, county and city inspectors said.

Officials from Portrait Homes could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Any town house built in North Carolina in the past 10 years has a regular wall where one might hang a picture and another wall behind that to protect against flames spreading from a neighbor's house.

The problem with the Portrait town houses is that the layer of fire-protective drywall on the approved plans never made it into the homes.

Instead, a thinner, untreated drywall was used, unbeknownst to inspectors and homeowners.

"It's supposed to be fire retardant Sheetrock that's thicker than what's there," said Ernest Saunders, who moved into a town house in Portrait's Bridford Downs in 2007.

"To me, it is a major mistake," he said.

He and other homeowners received a letter from Portrait Homes in December that informed them of the problem and proposed a fix: a layer of fire-resistant paint.

The state of North Carolina requires that each jurisdiction meet minimum building standards, but after that, a city or county can enforce building codes as they wish.

So the paint solution is OK with Greensboro home inspectors, but not with Guilford County inspectors.

Forsyth County inspectors said the coat of fire-resistant paint is suitable there, where Portrait Homes has built town houses with the same problem.

Saunders' home got a coat of the fire-resistant paint in December. But Saunders wonders how well the paint might work compared with what he expected when he bought his home: a double wall made of five-eighths of an inch X Type fire-treated drywall.

Just one layer of that X Type drywall was installed in the affected Portrait houses.

Hidden behind that is a thinner, untreated, half-inch thick drywall used for the fire wall, not the required thicker wall.

"It concerns me," Saunders said, "You can live in a house for 34 years and there's never a fire, but there's always a possibility."

The paint, which puffs up when exposed to heat, makes a barrier that lasts for an hour, according to paint manufacturer Sherwin Williams. Portrait also got seals of approval on the paint from an outside engineer and an architect.

The error in fire wall installation happened sometime during construction. That process starts with a plan review by city or county engineers. The approved plans are then handed to the contractor, and the home is built.

North Carolina requires inspections on a home's footings, foundation, slab, framing and insulation. Then plumbing, electrical and other fixtures go in with inspections. The entire process is overseen by a superintendent on the job site.

"The superintendent's job is to get with the contractor ... to make sure that everything has been done correctly," said Melvin Sutton , chief building inspector for Guilford County.

Then a building inspector does a final inspection.

But several inspectors said it's difficult to check the thickness of a fire wall that's behind another wall and a layer of insulation.

"You've got to cut a hole in it, or you got to expect that they used the right kind of gypsum (drywall)," said Butch Simmons , Greensboro's director of engineering and inspections.

And there's no state-required check to see that the right kind of fire walls are used in townhouses.

Like so many things in business, honesty is an integral part of the process. "It's trust between the builder and inspector and the contractor," Simmons said. "And they're licensed by the state and know to follow the plans that have been used and approved."

If a contractor, engineer or inspector deviates too far from the plans, they can lose their license . That does not appear likely for Portrait, which has offered to fix and pay for the error.

Something like this drywall error isn't easy to do by accident, some inspectors said. Drywall widths are written on the side of each piece. And the thicker type is noticeably heavier. "People don't make mistakes like this," Jones said.

The thicker piece of drywall, which could be the difference between life or death in a fire, is more expensive than thinner drywall without fire treatment.

Drywall installation is often left to a subcontractor hired by the builder. And neither the county nor the city tracks the subcontractors on a project.

Guilford County now includes fire wall inspection on its list of required checks.

"We don't want anything missed," said Lacy Smith , director of inspections for Guilford County.

But missing what they paid Portrait to provide still irritates some homeowners.

"When that letter appeared, I thought, 'OK, that's great'," said Ralph Shaw , who lives in Portrait's Ridge Creek subdivision in Whitsett.

He wants Portrait Homes to install the correct fire wall in his home, not fix it with paint.

"Is this thing a five-year fix or a 10-year fix?" Shaw said about the paint.

"If you put up the five-eighths of an inch drywall, it will be five-eighths of an inch drywall 30 years from now."

And after that installation, he wants a refund for a smaller home. Adding another layer of drywall would reduce the dimensions of his town house.

"It's not much, but it's not what you paid for," Shaw said.