Asbestos Tests

Asbestos is still in use and is not banned generally. It has been called perhaps the biggest industrial problem in the last hundred years. It is blamed for many lung diseases including asbestosis.

In current houses, asbestos is most likely to be found as insulation around the hot water or steam pipes of the heating system or in old floor tiles (installed say after 1970), often in the kitchen or bathroom. Again, like lead, there is no problem with asbestos until it becomes air-borne and is breathed into the lungs.

So if you think the tiles or insulation contains asbestos, do not disturb it. Encapsulate the insulation and do not let it ‘blow in the wind’. If tiles hold asbestos, then do not chisel them up from the floor but lay thin Luan plywood over the whole floor and put your new tiles on that.

The tests consist of either an air test or a physical sample, both of which are $125.