Norfolk business blames Chinese drywall

NORFOLK, Va. - A new development into a story WAVY.com has been tracking for months. Saturday, a local businesses which sold Chinese drywall held an auction to help pay off growing debt.

Sam Porter, the owner of Venture Supply in Norfolk, said he bought the drywall to help with the demand for sheet rock. Soon after homeowners across Hampton Roads filed laws suits claiming the Chinese drywall had a sulfur smell, similar to rotten eggs. Porter was stuck with 65,000 sheets which ended up going to the dump. He blamed the drywall for putting him out of business.

"Sam looked for drywall," said Porter's sister, Andrea Culligan-Porter. "He got it from China. He had no idea at anytime that there was ever anything wrong."

Many cities such as Virginia Beach and Norfolk banned the sheet rock from going into homes.

 WAVY.com investigated the Chinese drywall. We never found a home which had that rotten egg smell. We even took the drywall to an Old Dominion University chemist who couldn't find anything in it.

"He's a victim just like anyone else he had no idea," Culligan-Porter said. "Actually all of his 68 employees are victims as well, because they are all out of work now."

The money from Saturday's auction will help Porter pay back creditors. He said the Chinese drywall has cost him thousands and the place he invested his life for 25 years.