Asbestos in Older Homes

Asbestos in Older Homes

Asbestos has been a growing concern for city governments and the owners of public buildings for some time. In recent years, concerns about asbestos have become a growing issue among the owners of single family homes. These are some of the questions most commonly asked of asbestos abatement companies by the owners of private homes, and their best answers.

1. How likely is my home to contain asbestos?

If your home was built after 1980, the chances that it contains asbestos or any materials that have asbestos added to them is very small. If your home was built or underwent major renovations between World War I and 1980, there’s a very good chance that there are materials in your home that contain asbestos.

2. How dangerous is asbestos in my home?

While asbestos is a known carcinogen, it is only dangerous in the form of tiny airborne fibers. Asbestos is a mineral that easily separates into tiny fibers that are light enough to float in the air. Those fibers were often mixed into things like paint, cement and wood pulp to help make them fire resistant and increase their insulating properties. As long as those materials are in good repair, the chance of them releasing asbestos fibers is very small, and there is little health risk in living with them.

3. Why is asbestos dangerous?

Breathing in asbestos fibers increases your risk of developing lung cancer, causes asbestosis – scarring of the lungs – and may lead to the development of mesothelioma, a rare cancer that is only found in people who were exposed to asbestos. For additional resources please see the resources at Asbestos.com

4. When is asbestos dangerous to me or my family?

Asbestos containing materials can become dangerous to your family’s health when they are damaged or disturbed enough to release fibers of asbestos into the air.

5. How can I tell if something in my home contains asbestos?

The only way to know for sure that a material in your home contains asbestos is to have it examined by a professional. It’s nearly impossible to identify asbestos by visual examination alone unless you have the experience and knowledge to identify specific brands and types of materials by sight. Even then, most professionals rely on a microscopic examination to determine whether a material contains asbestos.

If you suspect that something in your home is made of asbestos, you have two choices: you can assume that it contains asbestos and take the same precautions you would if you were certain that it did, or you can have it tested by a professional asbestos surveyor. Testing is not very expensive, and it could set your mind at east.

6. Where might I find asbestos in my home?

Asbestos was used in thousands of different products that were used in home construction and consumer products. Among the most common places to find asbestos are:

- roofing and siding shingles made with asbestos cement

- insulation in homes built between 1930 and 1950

- textured paints used for decorative ceiling and wall coatings (banned in 1977)

- pipe insulation and caulking

- furnace or water heater blankets may contain asbestos

- the floor and walls under and behind stoves, fireplaces and heaters may be protected with asbestos containing millboard, asbestos paper or cement sheets containing asbestos

- the door gaskets in oil or coal furnaces may contain asbestos

- joint compound used to seal wallboard may contain asbestos

- resilient floor tiles or sheet vinyl flooring may have been made with or backed with asbestos containing materials

- decorative plaster treatments on walls and ceilings may contain asbestos

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