https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Sat, 16 May 2026 22:52:45 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/older-homes-and-asbestos#post-2463860 Tue, 16 Feb 2016 21:44:23 +0000 Ms maths 2463860@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Also wanted to add: our tile was installed over large sheets of plywood. This allowed us to take up entire sheets of tile/plywood at one time, without disturbing the glue bond or breaking many tile. If the installation of the tile had been different, I don't know that we would have removed the tile ourselves. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/older-homes-and-asbestos#post-2463854 Tue, 16 Feb 2016 21:39:29 +0000 Ms maths 2463854@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We only had the air test that was done as part of the professional abatement. I know we didn't have the work completed by the time the professional work was done, although we may have done some of it. (And we sent some various materials away to labs for testing as part of planning what we were going to do.) </p> <p>As @Jess1483 said, there is still asbestos in products, and it's a naturally occurring substance so there is just some out in the world anyway. I struggle with how to evaluate risk for it. With something like lead, there's basically a deterministic relationship: having lead in your system is going to affect development and the more of it you have the worse it is. With asbestos, most cancer cases have been associated with long-term/extensive exposure and there are surely many people who have been exposed without any effect. But there are the (relatively) small number of cases where very minimal exposure appears to have lead to cancer, and mesothelioma is a very nasty thing. </p> <p>Good luck with figuring things out. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/older-homes-and-asbestos#post-2463804 Tue, 16 Feb 2016 20:41:31 +0000 Jess1483 2463804@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We had our very nice elderly neighbor accidentally sand out asbestos tile floors in our new home (we had told him not to touch it and just lay over, but he didn't think light sanding was a problem.) we had the tile tested and then the air. (Tile was positive, air negative). It cost us $1000, but they determined their wasn't any asbestos in the air, so it was worth it. What i learned was they still sell asbestos stuff (except insulation). So potentially anything could be hazardous, even stuff now. And it's hard to tell on site (though there is a database). We covered with linoleum (it was only in bathrooms) and are happy with the choice. There was also some in the kitchen, and we put hardwood over it. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/older-homes-and-asbestos#post-2463789 Tue, 16 Feb 2016 20:30:03 +0000 Mrs. Sketchbook 2463789@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Ms maths: did you do air test afterwards? Thanks for all this help! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/older-homes-and-asbestos#post-2463785 Tue, 16 Feb 2016 20:26:35 +0000 Ms maths 2463785@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Other than my random bouts of anxiety--which I get about everything--I am totally happy with our choice. It was stressful at the time, but I think we did a good job with the work and I'm glad to have the material just gone from the house. The floors underneath weren't what we expected--painted wood--but we ultimately decided to repaint them and are pretty happy with them. (They are white, and our second floor feels like the middle of a bright, happy cloud on sunny days :))</p> <p>As I said, though, we did it before kids. That made it possible to do ourselves and probably kept my anxiety levels lower. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/older-homes-and-asbestos#post-2463769 Tue, 16 Feb 2016 20:18:50 +0000 Mrs. Sketchbook 2463769@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Ms maths: so knowing what you do now would you have ripped out again or put something over? I am thinking floating wood/pergo floor. I hate carpet. I'm also thinking I might use this to renegotiate asking price. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/older-homes-and-asbestos#post-2463760 Tue, 16 Feb 2016 20:10:44 +0000 Ms maths 2463760@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Our house had asbestos wrap on the furnace and asbestos tile on the entire second floor, all of which we knew about when we bought our house (which was a few years before we had kids). </p> <p>From our research and talking to asbestos abatement people, we came to the following conclusions:<br /> -The stuff on the furnace was the highly friable kind, meaning that it can easily become airborn if disturbed. Our furnace was original to the (1900) house and we wanted to update, so we had the furnace asbestos professionally abated. It was $10,000 and we had no furnace at the end :( But it was a cost we knew going in.<br /> -The asbestos in our kind of floor tile was well-encapsulated and hence not very friable. My husband did a big search of the research literature and was able to only turn up one study on this type of asbestos, but the study indicated little risk from removal if proper measures were taken. Our abatement people encouraged us to do this job ourselves (legal in our state) and walked us through the abatement measures they would take for the floor tile (for example, seal the room; negative air pressure; keep everything wet; protective clothing; thorough clean-up, etc) . We did it ourselves and saved about $5000.<br /> -Our neighbors had the same tile and covered it with wall-to-wall carpet.</p> <p>Edited to add: If the tile is in good shape, I think it poses little risk if left in place. From what we read, the traditional asbestos vinyl tile needs to be pulverized to release the asbestos. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/older-homes-and-asbestos#post-2463748 Tue, 16 Feb 2016 19:58:02 +0000 Mrs. Sketchbook 2463748@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Anyone own an older home with asbestos materials? We are under contract and found some asbestos-y looking tile under some carpet. If you are a fan of older homes, would this be a no go for you? This would have been the nursery. What would be best to install on top? If we decide it isn't a deal breaker. Typically environmental stuff like this doesn't bother me but ever since my son got elevated lead levels in our current 1960s era home I have become more wary. </p>