Chinese drywall-sniffing dog 'Fifty' tracks sulfur in homes, saving homeowners thousands

RIVERVIEW, Fla. - A bay area bank recently called home inspector Morgan Ward to check out the possibility of Chinese drywall in a foreclosed home in Riverview.

Ward arrived to find the previous owners might have known about the substance, and did their best to strip away the evidence.

"Unfortunately, when it comes to the sale of your home, people have resorted to all sorts of deception," Ward said.

Ward noticed the home had been stripped bare of almost all its appliances.

Additionally, much of the copper wiring was black, which is a tell-tale sign of Chinese drywall.

To confirm his suspicions, Ward called in back-up from another home inspector: "Fifty" the dog.

"Fifty" is trained just like a narcotics K-9 but he sniffs for sulfur, an element in Chinese drywall.

"A canine is actually going to sniff and they can detect parts per million. So even the smallest amount of corrosive drywall, they can detect," handler Anthony Gimenez, explained. "There's really nothing else like it that's out there that does this type of detection."

Gimenez has inspected homes for years, and recently added "Fifty" to his team.

Typically, testing for Chinese drywall involves ripping out sections of every wall.

"He can detect the corrosive drywall being present without doing any damage to the home," Gimenez said.

Once "Fifty" detects sulfur, Gimenez can scrap tiny pieces of the wall into a container filled with a chemical compound that turns blue if sulfur is, in fact, present.

The process can save potential homeowners half the value of their home.

"Finding Chinese drywall is just a nightmare for consumers because it costs so much to remediate," said consumer lawyer Eric Seidel. "I've had clients say it cost tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars."

"Fifty's" services cost only about $400.

He is one of only a couple of Chinese drywall-detecting dogs in the entire country.