Been asked by a HO to give her a price to put Hardieboard on her old house (late 1950’s). It currently has asbestos tiles…about 12″ wide x 8″ exposure, sort of corrugated, very fragile. Are these tiles considered a hazardous product, requiring an abatement program? I think if I try to nail the hardieboard over the asbestos, the tiles will shatter.
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Try searching the archives for old discussion on this. I'll try to review what I remember of it. Myself, I would definitely remove them first.
It is only when they are crumbly and producing dust that they are a danger to you or the clients. It is breathing the friable dust that is dangerous.
Some states allow individual homeowners to remove them and haul to ______ without any special license but as soon as you, a professional, touches them, a while new set of rules pop up.
Excellence is its own reward!
"The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are." --Marcus Aurelius
Fed EPA regs allow for homeowner removal, but material must be double-bagged, taped and labeled and disposed of in an authorized landfill. Some states have their own requirements that meet or exceed the EPA's.
A few years ago I went through the asbestos abatement supervisor license cert. training at Georgia Tech and came away informed, but also somewhat cynical about the removal requirements for non-friable or less friable materials like floor tile, ceiling tile and shingles. (removing steampipe lagging and accumulated dust from the rafters of old brake shops SHOULD be done with full worker protection) A lot of the hoopla, IMO has been overblown and has created a lot of unnecessary expense for society.
Now that I've finished my rant, if the HO is able to remove the shingles, they should keep them wet down with a fogger nozzle on a garden hose, pile them on a big blue tarp, then bag them in the appropriate 6 mil plastic bags and label the contents. The shingles weigh up fast so have a lot of bags. And most of the asbestos shingles I've seen were installed with copper nails and there will be a lot of those.
If a certified abatement contractor does the work it will be expensive; trained workers will be suited and masked, will wear monitors that have to be checked periodically, special equipment will be required, like HEPA vacs, and a portable decontamination unit for employees, records must be created and kept for 20 years, there are permits and lab costs and disposal and ad nauseum...
The legal risks of YOU doing it are immense so if the homeowner wants to skirt the rules a little and maybe hire someone who needs a little cash, make sure you're not around until the dirty deed is done.
Fed EPA regs allow for homeowner removal, but material must be double-bagged, taped and labeled and disposed of in an authorized landfill.
True, and the not so funny part of it is, once they get to the landfill, they're dumped out of the truck, run over by a caterpillar, and spread across three acres. All that containment, for nothin. This could end up getting political. Its not dems or reps, it's anyone who didn't have the common sense in the first place when they made the laws to either forget about it and let the public make up their own mind, or extend the law to impact the dumps. I'm all for just about no government. Just a couple of statisticians tracking things and saying "in the event that you care, cigarettes might kill you. Have a nice day" and go away. Let me decide for myself.
In the class I was in in Atlanta, I had dinner with some big fat guy from Tennessee or somewhere who'd flown down for the class in his own jet. He was a bigtime abatement contractor who was just keeping his certification current, but, after a few single malts, started bragging about how he'd been on the EPA's rules advisory committee for the abatement program development...he was quite proud of how he'd been at the forefront and was able to feather his own nest!
And one more thing for the HO to consider: covering up the asbestos doesn't remove the fact that it's there, which could effect resale value down the road. All it would take is one alert home inspector (oxymoron?) to spot it or a future buyer to discover it as an "undisclosed problem" at sale to create problems.
True, but right now it's out in the open and plainly visible to everyone. So not only are they aware that there is asbestos siding, they are aware that it is chipped and broken, and rather ugly. At least if it was covered with hardieboard the appearance would improve.