Acess Your Asbestos risk

Table of Contents

Buildings Built After 1981 Generally Do Not Contain Asbestos

Access your asbestos risks by taking a thorough look around your property. Here’s a link to the EPA list of common building materials that contained asbestos in homes and commercial properties build after 1981.

If you have older ducts in your heating system that have white duct wrap that is broken or has breaks in the white fabric, there may be an asbestos problem. Leave it alone! Don’t try to fix or contain it.

If you see yellow foam inside older furnace registers, that is probably asbestos. Leave it alone!

If there is Transite tile on the outside of your building, proceed with caution – most older Transite tile contains asbestos. As long as the tiles aren’t damaged, there is no threat. This is a fact that should be disclosed correctly during a real estate transfer.

9×9 floor tiles and/or the glue installed before 1981 will usually contain asbestos.

Read the list of probable asbestos-containing building materials (ACM) from the EPA.

Have A Professional Assess Your Asbestos Risk

American Air Testing will come to your site and walk through and identify probable asbestos-containing building materials. Testing for the presence of asbestos requires that a small sample of the material be collected.  You can make the decision to leave the material alone and assume it is asbestos, if that fits your situation.  If you are planning a remodel or removal of a bearing wall, then physical removal of the materials for testing is highly recommended. Often we find that asbestos is not present in materials that are identified by the EPA, etc. Sometimes new materials like sheet rock, mud, and tape have been installed. Sometimes popcorn ceiling texture doesn’t have asbestos.

If you remove less that 100 square feet, your asbestos contractor may place that material in regular construction debris. If more than 100 square feet need to be removed, it’s required that material be taken to a toxic dump site. You can save a lot of money by only removing the materials that actually contain more than 1% of asbestos fibers.

So, if you need to know if asbestos is present in the glue behind the bathroom tile, then small samples of the tile and glue need to be removed. Sometimes a photo of the material is all that is necessary. Example: a real estate sale.

If you have reason to believe, or your tenants’ believe, asbestos fibers have been released into the air, we can take an air sample specific to asbestos fibers. This will determine if asbestos fibers are in the breathable air of the site of concern. Yes, this is adequate for litigation because of our asbestos licenses, our lab’s certifications, and the analysis method we select. If your tenant thinks asbestos fibers are in the dust in the rental unit, we can also test this dust.

 

If you have performed an asbestos abatement and need clearance, we do that, too. You need to have your abatement contractor leave containment, negative air, and scrubbers all on. These items are removed once the lab tells us the air is clear for asbestos. Leaving the equipment running is for your safety.

 

We also perform asbestos testing worker safety.

Have A Professional Abatement Company Remove And
Dispose of All Identified Asbestos to
Reduce Your Asbestos Risk

American Air Testing will come to your site and walk through and identify probably asbestos-containing building materials. To test for the presence of asbestos requires that a small sample of the material be collected. If we are looking for asbestos in the glue behind the bathroom tile, then we would need to destroy part of the tile. Often a photo of the material is all that is necessary. Example: a real estate sale.

Get a Clearance Document

The ONLY way to know for sure the contamination has been cleaned up is to test after the demo and before reconstruction. Please leave the containment and engineering controls in place until testing is successful. The containment and engineering controls are there to keep you, your family and pets, and your possessions free from possible contamination. This document will make the mortgage lenders and the buyers happy with your real estate sale.

Links

Asbestos Testing

Check an asbestos contractor license here.

If you need a referral to an asbestos contractor please give us a call and we will email a list to you.

Environmental Testing in the San Francisco Bay Area.

668 Madrid St. | PO Box 12479

San Francisco, CA 94112

 

American Air Testing