Asbestos abatement requires demolition of original wood floors?
1917bungalow
10 years ago
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millworkman
10 years ago1917bungalow
10 years agoRelated Discussions
Advice on demolition of tile floor?
Comments (4)You can do a lot of harm to your home if you do not understand basic home framing. Often I see online people "Hacking" out large sections of their home's structure in the quest to "Make it Right". The wood floor that the Lino is installed in can be just nail, stapled, screwed or "Glued & Screwed". Any one of these systems makes for a pain in the backside to get up. You want to inspect your home for insect damage, water damage and to make sure your water and electrical are up to code. Leaving a section of subfloor to make things easy is like do half a job. If you don't see a problem - there is no problem. Start in the center of the room after the demo is done and slowly cut a square into the subfloor and try prying out the top layer of plywood. Watch for screws, sparks, and flying bits of thin-set. Once you carefully get through the middle of the floor determine which way the floor joist runs and start working out from the middle. Remember that when you build a house it goes up most times layer by layer. So the plywood nailed to your joist will support the walls above it. This means that if your joist is say 12" from your East wall and it runs parallel with the wall you can go and cut out this section of subfloor without removing the structure that is holding this wall up. If you get the center hole started and map it out with a sketch I can high light the areas we would remove if it was us doing the demolition for you here in Vancouver. Good Luck. Careful with the Skill Saw - it has a mind of it's own sometimes and the tool can "Kick" if you drive it into a hidden nail or fastener. John Whipple info@byanydesign.com...See MoreTested positive for asbestos - AFTER demolition
Comments (4)All construction dust is harmful. Asbestos is part of the natural environment, we are exposed to it daily. There is a focus on asbestos but others are just as bad or worse or unknown. This info is from the geologist I spoke with when having my own place tested pre-construction. He thought there were worse things to worry about, that people don't. Have the dust tested. Sample from various areas. If you haven't already, sample the various materials, including all layers, and have them tested so you know what you are working with. It is repeated, prolonged exposure that is hazardous. As in factory or construction workers. The construction workers I have known don't seem to worry or care about their exposure. They brush it off. Bottom line is it's all unhealthy so be cautious, contain and clean with all of it....See MoreSo we got our asbestos tests back, What would you do?
Comments (16)Correct, the HEPA filter you have in your regular vacuum doesn't make it a HEPA vacuum. The vacuum is also airtight. If you use your regular vac, you'll be spewing dust particles all over the house. Kudzu is right, you should weigh the risks very carefully. Warning: Personal Philosophy Statement Ahead As a culture we revel in taking great risks (extreme sports, are a good example, there are others) because in our everyday lives we are overly risk averse. That is not to say that DIY asbestos removal is not risky, but that given the right amount of education and caution, there is no reason why you couldn't do this work, imo. How many of us are much more capable of doing more than we do because we've been lead to believe that we're NOT capable? PullmanHolt makes a small HEPA vac that's about $450 or so. It's what our housing rehab program recommends for lead and should work for asbestos as well (double check this, though). If you do a search for asbestos respirator, you'll come up w/ a ton of links. Here's one: http://www.websoft-solutions.net/asbestos_respirator_asbestos_respirator_p/3m-2091.htm Commercial/Industrial supply houses should carry both of these or get them. Good luck, with whatever you do. That's the great thing about this forum, you should get enough opinions to completely confuse you and then you can go off and make the best decision for yourself. Here is a link that might be useful: PullmanHolt...See MoreAsbestos again - floor tile and adhesive removed now what?
Comments (20)anglophilia- I'm sorry your husband died of cancer. However, that does not mean that since he he didn't die of an asbestos-related disease what you did with your floors was necessarily safe. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't. Many people have exposures to toxic materials, even multiple ones, and it doesn't cause them health problems or kill them...but some are affected. In my posts above urging caution, I'm not suggesting that if you have an asbestos exposure it will kill you...it's just that you want to minimize avoidable exposures. I have a 93 year old relative who is still alive after decades of smoking and working around asbestos, and I also know of a 30-year old who died from asbestos exposure as a result of a several week summer job he had in college. Risk is a complex issue that depends on many factors, including genetics. One can't predict which individuals specifically will come down with a disease from a certain type of toxic exposure; we can only see what the overall incidences are and try to help people avoid taking risks that might make them one of the unlucky ones. We are all exposed to nasty stuff, often without realizing it. Typically, larger exposures --- such as occupation-related ones -- are more concerning. But there are some substances, such as asbestos and lead, where the medical and scientific communities have yet to find any level of exposure/intake that is guaranteed safe. People want risk to be black and white: it will kill me or it won't. But most environmental concerns aren't like that, so we have to live with a wide spectrum of gray, and make personal decisions on how cautious to be or not. I know for certain something will kill me some day, but I try to avoid making choices that will possibly speed that up.......See MoreUser
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