Did he have to break up the tile or was he able to mostly scrape it off whole?

He used a tile scraper which some broke. They were also damp because we live at the beach. He said there was no dust.

Would you feel better if you had everything pro cleaned and ran a hepa air scrubber for a few days? Someone like Servpro could do it or just get cleaners and rent a big hepa filter. I get why you're freaked out but once its really clean, clean, clean, you can relax? Save a marriage?

Have you dealt with something like this SuzyQ53? if you knew my husband he is OCD/clean freak. So I am sure its clean. I forgot to mention he is a contractor lol. I guess i just wanted a professional asbestos person to tell me..."Yes, go home its clean!". Maybe i should trust my husband? lol . I called Servpro and they don't do air tests. I have freaked myself out by reading tons of comments on this site about the dangers fibers can pose. Then I read other comments about how VAT is non-friable unless messed with. Well my husband messed with it by using a tile scraper to remove it. I guess I need a professional opinion. I am more concerned for the little ones. I have two 10 years olds, a 12 year old and a 3 year old. Thank you Suzy.

Powerful hepa filters remove air borne particulates including asbestos. I'm not an asbestos expert but I did legal work for an asbestos company and did get quite an education. Its worth $550 to test it if that will help. My understanding is that in your scenario (damp, sealed off, properly removed, wiped down, thoroughly cleaned) the risk of breathing the fibers at this point would be very low.

Thank you Suzy. Wow interesting you worked in the legal area. I am a paralegal. This makes me feel better but yes I will call around and discuss the air test. I just want to go home and sleep in peace knowing my family is safe. Again, thank you for responding so fast. God Bless.

Welcome. Me too! Retired now. I was a litigation specialist. Mostly defending major corporations. We represented one of the largest asbestos producers in the world in multiple lawsuits.

I just had an asbestos abatement crew in to demolish a portion of a wall. My idiot neighbor upstairs caused a flood and so a portion of my wall became damp - it therefore had to be removed but could not be removed until it was tested for asbestos.

People associate asbestos with tiles and popcorn ceiling but it was also used in drywall construction so California Code requires that walls be tested for asbestos prior to removal.

My wall of course tested positive so the hazmat squad was here this morning. I also had my popcorn ceiling removed last year but that was a much more extensive removal operation.

The problem with your having your place tested is that IF asbestos escaped and became airborne, it has now settled so I am not entirely sure what they would be testing for. I would question whether any testing now done would actually determine if asbestos had been released and contaminated surfaces.

There are home tests for asbestos and maybe you could start with this - i.e. swab the items of furniture or walls that might have been exposed and see if they register positive for asbestos. These tests are relatively cheap.

Hi Helen: well since they have air quality clearance they can check if asbestos is still there. Thats what I was told.

If it gives you peace of mind, have the tests done. However, you might check out less expensive home testing alternatives and if you detect asbestos, then opt for the professional approach.

If it is any consolation, people were routinely exposed to asbestos for many years and in general it was workers who suffered the ill effects and not homeowners who came into casual contact with the material infrequently. Current regulations on asbestos removal are intended to protect the environment (all that asbestos being removed and not disposed of properly) and workers who come into contact with hazardous construction material frequently.

Not that I am downgrading the dangers of asbestos - just that it is unlikely that the level of asbestos you MIGHT have been exposed to probably not health threatening

So yes I am getting the PCM air test done and results will be in Friday. I was given the option of PCM or TEM. Any knowledge on the two? I am researching.

PCM does NOT distinguish asbestos fibers from any other fibers. If the area was still sealed off and the only fibers expected to be inside it were asbestos, it would work. But your situation is not like that at all, and you'll have all kinds of other fibers from clothing, carpets and general dust floating around. You'll need an asbestos specific test.

https://www.eurofinsus.com/environment-testing/testing-services/asbestos/asbestos-analytical-methods-by-plmtempcm/

I'm surprised they even offered PCM based on your description of the situation.

By the way, one night in questionable air is very unlikely to cause health effects. The way (most) env. standards are developed is to find a level that is both achievable in practice and so low that the occurrence of disease would be tiny even if people were breathing that level continuously. It's all based on statistics. If you are exposed to something exceeding that level, for a long time, it increases your 'risk' of disease later. For a short time, the increased risk is smaller. But if the air samples come back not quite clean, depending on how high it is, it doesn't necessarily mean that if you breathed it for a night (or three weeks) that you are at high risk of disease. The standards are set way below that kind of effect level.

Most of the air quality tests are for the area inside a plastic sealed area. I have had this done after mold remediation. In your case I assume the plastic is off and your husband may have run the HVAC or opened windows and doors. So not sure how that would work. Seems like you'd need some kind of powerful blower to get any remaining fibers into the air in order to collect a sample.

Yes I mentioned this to person doing the test. He said all the years he has performed the tests, he usually does TEM tests at schools. I think the test was somewhat pointless since my place is spotless and the job is done. If the PCM comes back positive then they do a TEM. They put 3 tests in home. And I will get results tmrw. I was also told that the PCM does not detect the difference in fibers but if any type of positive result comes back, there lab then uses the TEM method. This is just a huge headache and anxiety stress case!!

Yes I think all the stress is probably worse for everyone than such limited asbestos in the long term. I hope you get a clean result. Also for future remodeling or repairs remember there is likely tons of other asbestos in a house that age.

Yeah we are not going to do other repairs lol

I was given ”clearance”

So fast? Are you going home?

yeah 24 hour turn around. They did it yesterday afternoon. I may go back tomorrow. Rather stay at my moms anyway but I need to go back to my husband lol

Yay! You gotta be nice to DH. Won't the kiddos be happy to get back home? FWIW - I hated my husband for a long time after he refused to help me pack up the cars and prepare to evacuate from fast moving wildfires. He said I was being ridiculous (in not very nice words). That if there was an issue the authorities would already be there. I grabbed my meds, jewelry, kid and dog and drove out of there without him. He barely got out and the house and everything we owned burned to the ground. It's making me mad just typing this.

Omg!! totally something my husband would do. I would've done the same in your situation and I too would’ve of been pissed lol. I’m sure he thanked you for leaving after the fact.

Yes, the kids can’t wait to go back home. My little 3 year old keeps asking. Sorry to hear about your loss in the fire. It was bad here too but didn’t get close to the beach. However, it smelled so bad. A few of my friend lost their homes too. Any who, take care and thank you for the advice.

You can tell people that, but some people, if they are worried about toxins, just worry a lot. Which is not meant to offend the OP. Working in the field, I've met all kinds of people, from the ones whose yard is actually toxic but 'it never hurt us none' to the worryworts who don't feel safe no matter what you do because you can't swear there are 'zero' molecules of toxic stuff left (in fact it's impossible to prove or even measure 'zero'). I have the advantage of looking at this stuff every day, and I'm used to the idea that about a third of people get cancer at some point in their lives, and if X toxin is down in the point zero zero zero percent range, it's not a significant risk compared to that. There are traces of toxins everywhere and it's best to keep it in perspective.

Thank you

"Is it the kind of gone where she's at her mom's, coolin' down, she'll come around?"

OP, 35 years ago I tore out an asbestos floor before we new what it was - DIY. Dust everywhere. We found out when the trash hauler told us. No one in our family has gotten lung cancer and its unlikely that it will happen. As another poster stated you generally have to be around a lot of it and often there are other habits such as smoking involved. I think you have better odds of getting struck by lightening, winning the mega millions or getting abducted by aliens than getting harmed by what your husband did. I’m in healthcare. If you want to do “something’ to spend money, change out your filters and perhaps clean your air ducts.

Unless the trash hauler had a lab in his truck, he was unable to verify the presence of asbestos.

Joseph do you just always get up on the wrong side of the bed or is this your natural disposition. The trash hauler was the supervisor for the City of Tulsa, the house was built in 1924 and we got cited (ticket) for trying to illegally dispose of asbestos tile via the City - when in fact we had no idea. So I assume if you issue a ticket, that the City of Tulsa was sure it was what they said it was. I think anything installed as flooring tile before 1960 had asbestos in it, because if you do your math we are talking around 1985.

bell:

Had I gotten the ticket, I would have made the city prove the material in question was in fact asbestos. Proof as in science, not as in "a bunch of other old houses had it".

Depending on the City Code, a homeowner needs a permit to demolish or remove anything from a home built before a certain period. The burden of proof is on the homeowner to prove that there is no asbestos.

I recently had a leak in a wall from an upstairs neighbor and before a fairly small portion of drywall could be removed, I had to get it checked by a licensed testing agency bore anyone could remove it. . It had asbestos so the licensed hazmat crew had to come out - total cost to remove was about $2000 including getting the test. Tests and removal cannot be done by the same company for obvious reasons in terms of potential conflict of interest.

Same thing when my popcorn ceiling was removed - test was required and a hazmat squad had to remove it AND I then had to have it tested again for asbestos.

When I was looking for flooring several years ago, the flooring store asked me when the original vinyl tiles had been installed and told me that I would need to have them tested before they could be removed.

The trash hauler was probably required to ticket any construction materials being disposed of with the normal trash - especially in that era. Having asbestos removed properly adds significantly to the expense of just tearing it out. Everything has to be taped with negative pressure - the debris has to be properly wrapped up and then disposal is done at specific hazmat sites which are obviously more expensive than hauling out to the regular trash.

Joseph, the mayor son was my next door neighbor and the city attorney lived one door down. You obviously haven’t heard the saying you dont take on city hall. I took care of things without creating WW-III. I am sure the city can prove anything and then slap on a $3000 bill for the pleasure of taking on city hall. I opted for the southern polite way of addressing the issue and it was to everyone’s benefit.

Helen, you are spot on and generally you don’t need a permit to remove flooring UNLESS it contains asbestos or was installed prior to 1978. But getting back to the OP’s issue, I don’t think she has anything to worry about. She should enjoy her beautiful children and her hardworking DH and call it a day.

^^ Might be good to specify what kind of 'permit' you are referring to. Municipalities have different requirements as to what type of work requires a construction permit. As for asbestos regulation, a homeowner can remove asbestos him/herself if they desire. Not recommending anyone do that, especially with friable asbestos, just clarifying the law. Actually a homeowner can do all kinds of stuff themselves - electrical, plumbing, etc. - without having licenses whereas if you hired someone they would need a proper license for that trade. In either case the work might require a building permit. Trouble is homeowners often do not pull permits, so no one is inspecting their work. I am guilty of it myself (probably).

While a homeowner might need to pull a permit to remove asbestos as a DIY, in most places, one must properly dispose of the asbestos in a licensed facility since tossing it out with the regular trash is not permitted.

You would then need to wrap it and transport it safely and I would imagine there is some kind of permit or bureaucracy that needs to be dealt with in order to actually use the hazmat trash site.

While the danger to an individual who does a DIY asbestos removal might be relatively insignificant, the cumulative impact of asbestos waste being fed into the regular trash is significantly detrimental to the environment.

Where I live, state regulations require that you double bag residential asbestos, and simply label it ASBESTOS, and set it out at the curb. Properly packaged asbestos can be disposed in a regular landfill, and does not require a special disposal site or permit. Any questions should be directed to your trash service and/or local or state regulatory agency. [Contractors disposing of asbestos is a different thing, the above is for residential homeowners doing their own work.]

There should be no extraoridinary detriment to the environment once it is in the landfill, since asbestos is only dangerous when fibers get into the air. [At least, the detriment is no worse than the rest of the landfill, and I am all in favor of reducing our landfill input, but that's a different discussion!]