Oriented Strand Board Louisiana-Pacific Corp., Portland, Ore., is the biggest U.S. maker of this plywood substitute made from pressed wood chips and binders. In October 1997, the company agreed to replace faulty sheathing installed since 1984. But by 1993, moisture problems began to emerge in large numbers of homes, prompting a spate of lawsuits. Fla. Eight other manufacturers remain as defendants in the 1996 homeowners' suit. One of the nation's largest building insurers, Zurich Group Cos., Baltimore, no longer issues policies to builders of synthetic-stucco homes.
Some builders are so wary of the product that they refuse to work with it.
This roofing material was installed in about 150,000 town houses and condominiums east of the Mississippi from 1979 to 1989. Numerous homeowners complained that the treated plywood degraded under the sun's heat. Several suits by individual homeowners' associations did go forward, however, and some builders paid for repairs. The product, which is no longer sold, is made from a resin byproduct of the oil-refining process. It was installed in an estimated six million homes from 1978 to 1995.