Following thousands of complaints and suits, Knauf Plasterboard Tianjin Co. (KPT), a German manufacturer of Chinese drywall with subsidiaries in China, agreed to an $800 million settlement over homeowners' claims that the defective wall boards contaminated their homes.

In a decision announced today before U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon in New Orleans, Knauf agreed to resolve claims by about 4,500 residential and commercial properties that were built using the faulty drywall. Judge Fallon has been supervising a total of about 12,000 suits filed over contaminated drywall. In 2010, he awarded $2.6 million in damages to seven families in Virginia affected by drywall from Taishan Gypsum Co. Ltd.

“KPT has agreed to provide thousands of families the opportunity to recover losses caused by KPT drywall,” Russ Herman, a New Orleans-based lawyer representing property owners, said in a statement.