Check with your county/city building officials. Some areas are not as strick IF, the asbestos is completly sealed, others demand everything be removed. RE agents do not know codes etc and will not be able to guide a buyer thru a sale. If you do get it tested, find out from your state officials who is certified etc. Also find out if the previous owners got the permits to add a room. If not, in some counties you have to get that permit or tear it out. Most of my information comes from Los Angeles County, one of the strictest in the US.

Sorry, you are going to have to disclose the asbestos, and yes, it will be a major defect. How that is going to impact pricing is incredibly location specific. If you were in an old city, every house would have some lead paint or asbestos somewhere, right? If you are in a young town with lots of new houses, your disclosure is going to stick out like a sore thumb.

Since it sounds like a lot of the remodeling was done already, you might want to find out how much it would cost to remediate the rest. I'm sure it will be expensive, but might be worth compared to the hit you would otherwise take when you go to sell.

I have never heard of disclosure of asbestos in joint compound, however, every house in your area that was built around the same time will have asbestos in the joint compound. It is what was used at the time. I suspect it will be the norm to buyers looking in your price range and not a huge problem.

I have never heard of it either. Where are you located?

Thanks everyone for your responses.

The kitchen cost was $2688 for removal of 350 square feet of wall and ceiling drywall. That does not include replacement and texturing of the new drywall. There is NO WAY that we would have all of the drywall in our house removed and replaced. I'm guessing that would cost about $30k to $40k. Then the whole thing would have to be painted. I would rather discount our selling price by that amount than go through a huge abatement like that. Our neighbors would be quite alarmed!

We are in a suburb of Denver.

Linda and ncrealestateguy: Certainly disclosure of the asbestos is not optional, right? Perhaps your state/area does not have a law requiring asbestos testing prior to pulling permits for remodeling? Colorado has a state law with this requirement, but my GC said that it was up to the local jurisdictions (counties) as to when they implemented the requirement.

I was able to find some documents online listing the abatement projects in Colorado and sure enough, there was our house! A quick search through this documentation shows several houses in our neighborhood, so Linda seems to be right about it being in most/all of the homes of our vintage.

I'm thinking that I should contact a realtor or two that list many homes in our neighborhood to see if they have sold any homes with asbestos. My DH is reluctant to disclose this info however, and I have concerns as well.

I'm linking a GW thread from a couple of years ago with some good info. Our analysis was done with the inaccurate PLM method, so we might get it re-tested using the point count analysis, but as Linda says, it most likely has asbestos. Reading this other thread is upsetting, with people alarmed and with valid concerns.

Thanks again, everyone. Any more ideas are appreciated!

You obviously have a very bad predicament. I would have no clue what to do with that. One one hand, the right thing to do would be to disclose it, but once you do that, you're screwed and you probably won't be able to sell it. On the other hand, nobody disclosed it to you, so why should you disclose it to anyone else? Of course I know two wrongs don't make a right. But 3 lefts do - haha.

I've always heard it's much better to leave the stuff alone. Once you start messing with it is when the fibers get airborne again. Instead of going through the expense/hassle of removing it, is there a way you can cover it with additional drywall? That in itself will still be expensive, but still a lot cheaper than removing it.

The bad thing about your situation is people will STILL be leery of buying your house even after you DO fix it. Once you tell them it was there, but you repaired it - a lot of people will STILL be fearful that you missed something, or that you didn't fix it correctly.

I feel bad for you. Sorry I don't have any real answers. I wish you luck. I hope you can figure out the best way to handle this.

Do you know for a fact that your state requires disclosing this? Here, we have asbestos siding, roof tiles, and pipe insulation. Our disclosure form does not ask about asbestos.
Remember that asbestos is only harmful if it is floating throughout the air and breathed in. I hope you had your HVAC system turned off when they did the first abatement. And if not, I hope someone advised you to have all of your duct work cleaned afterwards.
Let us know what your state disclosure form asks of you.

ncrealestateguy: I didn't even know there was such a thing as a disclosure form! I googled for this form, and unfortunately, there is an entry for asbestos under environmental conditions - see link.

The more I learn here, it really seems like we would have to significantly discount our price because of this. Honestly, if I was buying our house I would insist on a discounted price.

I will disclose this when we sell. It is not worth $40k to me to not disclose. For a lot of reasons.

No worries about the HVAC when we had the kitchen drywall removed. The abatement company advised us to turn it off. Also, they had two layers of plastic enclosing the area and created negative pressure out the window window with a fan. Air quality tests were done after the removal.

Here is a link that might be useful: Colorado disclosure form

Disclose the asebestos as sucinctly as possible. State that upon testing you used certified remodelers. Find a short report from one of the agricultural extension agencies or some other Phds, if possible, covering the asbestos in housing. This should be non-alarming as they have nothing to sell. Attach the report to your disclosure.
There are popcorn ceilings all over the country and kids knock it down with balls etc all the time. If it were that dangerous there would be a lot more media coverage and lawsuits. The people with 10 years heavy exposure on the jobs are the ones with disease. Obviously, you want to avoid breathing it, but undisturbed it poses little if any threat. It is essentially encapsulated in the texture medium.

Thanks for the new responses, marian and lazygardens. We really aren't that concerned about health affects of the asbestos, but not everyone feels that way!

lazygardens: I wasn't clear in my post above about my DH. I just meant that he wasn't comfortable telling a real estate agent about this problem because we aren't really thinking seriously about selling right now (I just want to be prepared as possible if we do decide to sell). We both know that we MUST disclose the asbestos on the disclosure form if we sell.

Hi, I just read this and wanted to give you a little reassurance. I live in Denver too and I can tell you that your issue is the norm here, not the exception. If your house was built in Denver during that time, it is going to have asbestos in the texture and joint compound. The last owner probably didn't know because they didn't have the same rules for testing before doing remodeling work back then. Or they did know and didn't disclose it to you. But it would cost you a lot of time and expense to prove it. The important thing is to not freak out. There are lots of homes in Denver that are in the same boat.

We are in a super tight housing market here and your home is probably still very desirable. If you sold right now, you would probably take no hit what so ever. I friend of mine just listed their home with asbestos and led paint in Denver for 1.5 million. Just be sure when you disclose it, that you keep your disclosure brief and include that the areas that tested positive for asbestos were professionally removed and remediated. Something like: "Asbestos was found in the kitchen area during a remodel and was professionally removed and remediated." Our disclosure forms in Colorado include a box that says "I don't know" if you really don't know for sure if there is asbestos in other areas of the house because they have not been tested, check the "I don't know box" for asbestos on the disclosure. Then write in "Asbestos was found and professionally removed from the kitchen during a remodel."

Then you are providing all the facts and leaving it up to the potential buyer if they want to do additional testing after they purchase the home or do any remodeling.

But seriously, don't feel bad. Your home is still great.

All the old homes here have asbestos siding (of course, being outside isn't as scary) but no buyers I've worked with have had any issue with it. Seems as if most people know that it's fine as long as it's not disturbed.

Thanks for all this info everyone! It’s 2022 now so I’m late to the party. But my husband and I are under contract on a home in Wheat Ridge built in ‘64. We had an asbestos test done at the time of inspection. And asbestos everywhere. We are trying to decide what to do … bail on the house, or seller for price drop? I know we could leave it all alone, but I have no interest in living in that house if we can’t remodel it. Interesting now that if we bailed, the seller would have to disclose that there is in fact asbestos…

" And asbestos everywhere. "

What the devil does that mean?

It’s in the insulation, floor tiles, laminate, drywall texture and joints. Every single spot he tested.

With your knowledge level, don't buy this home.

Do not buy this home. The risk of exposure is not worth it if it's "everywhere", and yes you WILL have to disclose if you ever sell.

"Interesting now that if we bailed, the seller would have to disclose that there is in fact asbestos…"

I don't know why you would think this "interesting"; regardless, this is the seller's problem, not yours.