any of you /diy/kes do any home demo/renovation work? I have a place built in the 30s that I'm having tested for asbestos (ceiling tile, plasterboard, flooring) and I'm shitting bricks.
aslo, how do all these retards on HGTV rip down walls with out a care but as soon as they hit some duct work wrapped in white stuff they flip out?
>>902368
>I'm having tested for asbestos
Best just to keep asbestos covered up and pretend it doesn't exist. You get fucked having to remove and then dispose of it.
Like the other dude said, its really fuckin expensive and just fine if you leave it in place and put another material over it.
If you're removing flooring throughout a small 2 bedroom house, expect a $5000+ bill to get rid of it. Not to mention a few hundred dollars just to tell you what you already know. A special company with special licensing removes it, and then they take it to a special disposal site. Its NOT something the average home-gamer is legally permitted to do. Same goes for any materials testing positive for lead.
For flooring, you're better off abandoning it, especially if its vinyl tile over concrete slab. It makes for a good moisture barrier and helps deaden sound still. If your tiles are about 6x6 or 8x8, they've got asbestos. If they were installed with black mastic, its got asbestos.
Check your local and state regulations. If you're doing under a certain square footage, you can often do it yourself, just wet all surfaces and don't let that dust get inside you, water will keep it from becoming dust in the air, vacuums can help minimize dust, and you should get a good respirator.
What kind of ceiling tiles are you dealing with? Why are you messing with the plaster walls?
>>902396
a while ago i had a bunch of electrical work done to replace all the knob and tube. this meant taking down a wall to run wire. I have a bit of experience working for a general contractor so I knew the basics of spotting asbestos (white pipe & duct wrap, floor tile, etc) but I never knew that it could be in the plaster board or joint mud. also, it is plasterboard, not plaster and lath that I have.
Looking back when I was younger, I have gutted god knows how many kitchens and bathrooms in historic homes with not much more than a N95 mask.
>>902368
put on a mask and rip it out, its not like radiation you know
>>902396
>If your tiles are about 6x6 or 8x8, they've got asbestos. If they were installed with black mastic, its got asbestos.
High likelihood especially with 8x8 tiles. No guarantee. Also the mastic is much more of a threat than the tiles themselves.
Leave the tiles down, and put flooring over them. Fill any spots with missing tile with a self leveling compound and move one. Leave that shit for the next home owner.
dont forget the sheathing underneath the siding
my entire home and garage were clad with asbestos board.
>>902525
Same guy as before.
I had to google plaster board, I assume thats the same as drywall, wallboard, and gypsum board.
Typically its the mud and joint compound that tests positive for lead or asbestos. You should check your local state, city, county, country laws regarding asbestos testing, safety, and disposal.
In CA, anything testing over 0.1% asbestos is advised to be removed by a special team. Anything over 1% must, by law, be removed and properly disposed of by a specially licensed company. Every contractor I talk to says that doesn't happen in most any other state in the US.
FYI, lead is primarily in paint, ceramic tiles, simulated stones. You doing a bathroom remodel also?
>>903000
yeah plasterboard is pretty much early wallboard
oh yeah i forgot to say that i have already ripped down 2 walls soooo... shit.
still waiting for the results from the lab.
the flooring i think I will just re layer even though I hate it when people do that. the bathrooms are prob the only rooms I havent planned on touching (cool tubs and sinks)
if the floor is 9x9 tiles (not 8x8) 99.9% sure it's asbestos (not even a lab test won't say 100%). anyways with the floor tiles, wet them down with HOT water to soften the glue then pop them up by hand, never use power tools. as long as you keep them wet you don't even have to wear a respirator (you could if you wanted to). Plaster and drywall is defiantly not something for a home owner to remove. (Well technically someone who isn't licensed isn't suppose to remove any asbestos but this is /diy/)
source: former low payed asbestos laborer
>pic related for proof
>inb4 lied to by boss
this was a very reputable company.
>>903188
>Well technically someone who isn't licensed isn't suppose to remove any asbestos but this is /diy/
That's why you never test for it.
I work in an elementary school. There is asbestos in the building in numerous locations. All in out of the way locations boiler room and rooms with air handlers. We're required by law to keep a listing of all locations it is in at the front desk and it must be presented if asked.
Every few years there is some uppity parent who learns about this law and asks and throws a shit fit because MAH BABIES!
People think it's basically a hyper poison that rapes your mother if you get within 50 feet of it.
>>903188
actually most states have exceptions for home owners. because lead paint. etc. it would be impossible to do anything so many house if you had to call someone to repaint your windows etc.
>>903272
Funny story, I was working on an apartment building remodel and the plumbers needed to replace all the drains but there was sheets of asbestos laid over the joists before the subfloor was put down. So a company comes in to remove the asbestos and everyone on site is freaking out because asbestos. Everything is done properly with air tests and all but an electrician comes in the next day and finds a pile of dust on the floor, just dust as this was a construction site, and starts yelling "ASBESTOS ASBESTOS" and runs off the site and calls the safety inspector. The safety inspector comes to shut down the job site until he gets all the paper work from the removal company and the air testing company. Anyways, everyone involved hates the electrician for making their jobs harder and he gets fired.
>>903335
and what do you do with the waste? throw it in the garbage for the garbage collector to breath in?
>>903609
Well, I'd presume that there could be regulations as to where you'd be allowed to dispose of it without regulating who has to do the work.
That's apparently the way it is around here (Europe), I helped my father removing the old asbestos siding from our garage. We left them at a designated spot at the local landfill.
>>902368
TL;DR the stuff around ducts is more "friable", and unless you're Mike Holmes, you don't really care about the "encapsulated" stuff inside other stuff.
As having been trained in it, u less you are dealing with removal on a daily basis, the risk to you removing it is virtually nil. If you want to remove it, just wet it down and fucking remove it. Put it in double trash bags and throw the shit away. Its a natural mineral, its not radiation or uranium that will contaminate anything. If you get caught, play dumb. Unless you are in california or a commercial company that "should know better" they arent going to do anything. It wont hurt you. Its in most brakes, does anyone have a problem changing tires? Then quit ya'lls whining. Its bullshit mostly started by california. Can i cause asbestosis? Well yea. But the exposure limit is very high, would have to be in a very fine dust form, and you have to inhale it deep for even a chance. Put on a dust mask, keep it wet, do whatever the fuck you want to remove it, just keep from creating dust.
