breetheflea
Drama Llama
Posts: 7,317 
Location: PNW
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Post by breetheflea on May 7, 2025 14:26:45 GMT
Our house was built in 1978, and the four bedrooms and the garage have popcorn ceilings.
The ceilings in the bedrooms are fine, but the popcorn part of the garage has a few spots where the popcorn has started to fall off.
We were in the middle of a giant garage clean out, but stopped and got the ceiling tested and it has 4% asbestos. They were supposed to stop using asbestos between 1973 and 1978 according to Google... if only our house was a few months younger.
DH is FLIPPING out. Granted, I hadn't finished my coffee this morning, but he doesn't want to get a quote because "the EPA" will come after us, and he thinks it's going to cost $100,000+ because they'll have to wipe and vacuum all his crap out there. From Googling it seems like more likely it would be around $5000. Yesterday, he was sure they'd make him throw out his tools, but I said only if they were made out of fabric and he stopped going down trail of irrationality and moved on to the EPA thing.
Anyway, if anyone can spare some positive thoughts, or has dealt with this and lived, can you send them my way before I kill DH (figuratively this is not a confession) that would be great.
Ugh.
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dawnnikol
Prolific Pea
'A life without books is a life not lived.' Jay Kristoff
Posts: 9,460
Sept 21, 2015 18:39:25 GMT
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Post by dawnnikol on May 7, 2025 15:11:49 GMT
I'm sorry you're dealing with his flip out on top of this stressful situation. I can relate.
However, I wanted to say that we had our bedroom scraped and our living area, because those particular rooms are very, very high and pointed by a company. They then sprayed it with whatever textured paint stuff. We were originally going smooth, but it costs more and shows imperfections. We'd actually scraped our own ceilings in the rest of the house up to that point.
Anyway. Cost wise it was ~$5K. It took the two dudes 3 days, then another because they did a shit job and didn't use primer on the drywall. Good luck!
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Post by Clair on May 7, 2025 15:35:23 GMT
I've dealt with asbestos in rental properties.
Yes - asbestos is bad but your husband is overreacting.
I've dealt with environmental testers, as well as remediation companies. The main problem is when asbestos partials are airborne. The best way to prevent this is to not disturb the asbestos or hose it down to prevent it from going airborne.
From experience if you go through state agencies it will $$$$$ to remediate it. Most contractors will use the hose down method and it will be much cheaper.
I have been told by state testers that there is still asbestos in many building materials. It is not supposed to be used in building materials, but it is occasionally I've had to have paint and building materials tested that were manufactured in 2024.
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peppermintpatty
Pearl Clutcher
Refupea #1345
Posts: 4,209
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Post by peppermintpatty on May 7, 2025 15:47:40 GMT
I know I will get blasted for this but we had the ceiling in our basement. We sealed up the basement, opened all the windows, covered ourselves from head to toe and then sprayed the ceiling and scraped it directly into bags that were sealed and disposed of. We did it ourselves about 10 years ago. We also have asbestos in the floor tiles that are under the carpeting in our basement. It's still there. We just put the carpet over the tiles. No worries. Your husband is overreacting. It isn't a big deal.
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Asbestos
May 7, 2025 15:53:31 GMT
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Post by Skellinton on May 7, 2025 15:53:31 GMT
I believe my mom had asbestos removed during her unfortunate kitchen remodel.
She lives outside of Portland. Opposite direction of us, but close. I will text her later to see she has any idea who she used if you would like. I know it wasn't anywhere near $100,000.
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breetheflea
Drama Llama
Posts: 7,317
Location: PNW
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Post by breetheflea on May 7, 2025 19:38:41 GMT
I believe my mom had asbestos removed during her unfortunate kitchen remodel. She lives outside of Portland. Opposite direction of us, but close. I will text her later to see she has any idea who she used if you would like. I know it wasn't anywhere near $100,000. Thanks for the info if you can find it. DH put me in charge of finding someone to take care of it because I told him he's being ridiculous  |
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anniebeth24
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,033
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Post by anniebeth24 on May 7, 2025 20:09:35 GMT
I believe asbestos is only an issue if it is disturbed. Covering over an asbestos tile floor, for instance, is fine as long as you don't tear up the old flooring.
Wondering if you could spray another layer of textured finish over the garage ceiling to seal in what remains instead of removing it?
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Post by melanell on May 7, 2025 21:41:27 GMT
People have a tendency to hear "asbestos" and freak out, but as others have said, it's only in the disturbing of it that it can present an issue. And there are different ways to work around that.
My house was built in the 1890s, so absolutely no asbestos, but then underwent a whole lot of "upgrades" in the late 1960s, so every ceiling and floor layer we encounter could have it, and the house had asbestos siding put on it as well.
So I get that it's a pain, but I don't feel it's nearly as big a pain as your DH seems to think it might be. Best of luck with however you decide to handle it.
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breetheflea
Drama Llama
Posts: 7,317
Location: PNW
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Post by breetheflea on May 7, 2025 22:11:27 GMT
People have a tendency to hear "asbestos" and freak out, but as others have said, it's only in the disturbing of it that it can present an issue. And there are different ways to work around that. My house was built in the 1890s, so absolutely no asbestos, but then underwent a whole lot of "upgrades" in the late 1960s, so every ceiling and floor layer we encounter could have it, and the house had asbestos siding put on it as well. So I get that it's a pain, but I don't feel it's nearly as big a pain as your DH seems to think it might be. Best of luck with however you decide to handle it. We will look into sealing it, if that's an option. The popcorn layer is literally peeling off the drywall, it's not going to take much for the rest of it to come down. Too bad it's toxic or I'd save $$$ and go out there and finish the job. |
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Post by melanell on May 8, 2025 1:19:19 GMT
People have a tendency to hear "asbestos" and freak out, but as others have said, it's only in the disturbing of it that it can present an issue. And there are different ways to work around that. My house was built in the 1890s, so absolutely no asbestos, but then underwent a whole lot of "upgrades" in the late 1960s, so every ceiling and floor layer we encounter could have it, and the house had asbestos siding put on it as well. So I get that it's a pain, but I don't feel it's nearly as big a pain as your DH seems to think it might be. Best of luck with however you decide to handle it. We will look into sealing it, if that's an option. The popcorn layer is literally peeling off the drywall, it's not going to take much for the rest of it to come down. Too bad it's toxic or I'd save $$$ and go out there and finish the job. I hear you. We took down one ceiling layer, and thought "phew!" only to find peeling lead paint underneath! It was falling off in flakes, so that pretty much forced our hand to make that issue the very next project. Good luck with it! |
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Post by voltagain on May 8, 2025 2:56:04 GMT
People have a tendency to hear "asbestos" and freak out, but as others have said, it's only in the disturbing of it that it can present an issue. And there are different ways to work around that. My house was built in the 1890s, so absolutely no asbestos, but then underwent a whole lot of "upgrades" in the late 1960s, so every ceiling and floor layer we encounter could have it, and the house had asbestos siding put on it as well. So I get that it's a pain, but I don't feel it's nearly as big a pain as your DH seems to think it might be. Best of luck with however you decide to handle it. We will look into sealing it, if that's an option. The popcorn layer is literally peeling off the drywall, it's not going to take much for the rest of it to come down. Too bad it's toxic or I'd save $$$ and go out there and finish the job. If you are physically able, why not? Buy a good respirator and do it. You can get respirators rated for asbestos removal for less than $100, a hazmat suit and gloves. respirator reviews , a tyvek hazmat suit (less than $20) and some latex/rubber gloves. Mainly you don't want to inhale it. Your dh is being a total irrational person. If he is so worried about his tools then pack them up and move them to a storage area until it is done. eta: I helped removed asbestos tiles flooring from a church back in 2000. We just bought some respirators, tyvek hazmat suits and did it. Here it is 2025 and I haven't suffered any ill effects from those days of working. You do want to work in a closed room, have shop vac to keep the dust down and do it. eta again... never mind. I see they make diy very costly in fines. |
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caangel
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Location: So Cal
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Asbestos
May 8, 2025 14:23:39 GMT
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Post by caangel on May 8, 2025 14:23:39 GMT
Our house was built in 1977, we did a whole remodel down to the studs and foundation in 2011. Turns out there was asbestos (we knew there might be), it added several thousand ($xxxx, I don't remember the exact number but under 10k) to our budget and time. We had had most of our ceilings scraped before, except the super tall ones but they didn't mention asbestos and we didn't think to ask at the time as we had just bought the house. I don't remember if it was in the popcorn ceiling and/or the duct work/attic.
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breetheflea
Drama Llama
Posts: 7,317
Location: PNW
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Post by breetheflea on May 8, 2025 20:49:45 GMT
So, the first quote (local place, the only one I could find with a website) is $4000. I need to write back and ask how much crap we need to get out of the garage first. I thought they'd want pictures or to see the garage in person before they'd give me an estimate.
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Post by Skellinton on May 9, 2025 1:39:43 GMT
So, the first quote (local place, the only one I could find with a website) is $4000. I need to write back and ask how much crap we need to get out of the garage first. I thought they'd want pictures or to see the garage in person before they'd give me an estimate. I will look at my mom’s house this Sunday for the people she used, she couldn’t find the paperwork, but I know where it all is. |
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breetheflea
Drama Llama
Posts: 7,317
Location: PNW
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Post by breetheflea on May 13, 2025 16:22:51 GMT
The latest news from the world of asbestos is they're going to need to rip out the entire garage drywall ceiling not just peel the rest of the crap off. Also everything not nailed to the walls (and I'm assuming in the attic above the garage) needs to be relocated for approximately two weeks (2-3 days for the work, 10 more for the EPA to make sure everything is asbestos free.)
Kind of regretting buying a house built in the 70s...
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