# Drywall Identification? Asbestos?



## Jim Ignatowski

After removing some insulation I found drywall that has venting holes. This drywall was cemented to brick which was the interior wall of a sauna. The bottom of the drywall was completely deteriorated into a pile of dust, and I'm very concerned that it contains asbestos given it's location and function. I put on the hazmat suit, respirator, gloves, and goggles; wet down the dust and removed most of the bottom, but the top remains. I'm not sure whether to encapsulate it, or remove it. Can anyone identify this stuff? If so, any thoughts on whether it would have asbestos? 

I'm planning on having it tested, but that will probably take some time.


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## joecaption

Looks like plaster board not drywall.
Not likly not asbestos, still scared get it test. Nobody can do it over the net.


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## Willie T

Boy, there are times I wish I was an insurance salesman. :laughing:


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## princelake

ya nobody can say for sure just by looking at a picture. your going to have to get it tested if you want to know for sure. 
if you've already tore half of it out you might as well finish tearing it out.
what you've done sounds good with the suit, wet down, etc.
did you set up an air tight containment with a cleaning area?
also you should have an air scrubber and a hepa vac and clean the whole place.


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## Nailbags

Well it could be or it could be nothing. if it is you already done the damage asbestos is safe and harmless if it is not disturbed and you tore it up now you want to know if it is. The thing to do is before you go and tear in to something old take a sample have it tested then go do your home improvement. because we can not tell you over the internet.


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## Jim Ignatowski

The pictures that I provided are what I found after removing the insulation. Being a holiday weekend, I didn't have a lot of alternatives. The only other option was to leave a pile dust sitting on the floor and trying to seal it up. Either way, it wasn't a good situation and definitely not how I wanted to spend my Saturday. 

I have a piece wrapped in plastic and will get it tested this week. Results take a while. I was hoping someone might recognize those holes on the board ... I've never seen that before.


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## gregzoll

Good ole Gyprock. Should be no Asbestos whatsoever in it. I had to go through checking with a local company that tests for Asbestos and when I told them the neighborhood and age of the home, their exact words were "No Asbestos was ever used in that development that we know of, through tests and research of past information filed with the county."

As for you, you need to do the same, if you want to make sure that they never used any Asbestos in your place, due to the Gyprock in your place, dates it around the same age as our house, which was pre-WWII/Attack on Pearl Harbor.


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## gregzoll

joecaption said:


> Looks like plaster board not drywall.
> Not likly not asbestos, still scared get it test. Nobody can do it over the net.


Actually it is called Gyprock.


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## gregzoll

princelake said:


> ya nobody can say for sure just by looking at a picture. your going to have to get it tested if you want to know for sure.
> if you've already tore half of it out you might as well finish tearing it out.
> what you've done sounds good with the suit, wet down, etc.
> did you set up an air tight containment with a cleaning area?
> also you should have an air scrubber and a hepa vac and clean the whole place.


Only reason to setup an air containment area, is to keep the dust down during demo of the area, or if they had a whole lot of mold, that came back testing as not good for breathing in by humans or pets.


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## princelake

asbestos going into your lungs and gives you lung cancer. if for some reason there is asbestos an air scrubber will take those particles out of the air just like on a mold job it takes the mold spores out of the air. and they are great for taking the dust out of the air during demo and also great for sanding drywall.


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## gregzoll

princelake said:


> asbestos going into your lungs and gives you lung cancer. if for some reason there is asbestos an air scrubber will take those particles out of the air just like on a mold job it takes the mold spores out of the air. and they are great for taking the dust out of the air during demo and also great for sanding drywall.


You have to be doing it for a very long time, or already have a lung/breathing issue, where you can be more susceptible to issues with large amounts of dust.

The way we did our vent, was place a fan in the window to pull air out of kitchen, as we knocked the wall down between it and the dining room, and plastic to separate the dining from the hall and living room. Same thing when we did our bath.

No going to real extremes, because 1) No asbestos in this material, 2) No mold, 3) Just a whole lot of dust during demo, and even with masks, you still get some in through your nose.


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## Nailbags

and to back up gregzol it takes 20 plus years to get cancer from asbestos.


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## ToolSeeker

You want to know how harmful asb. is watch the T.V. commercials.Have you ever watched the lawyer ads, they say if you worked in a shipyard or auto parts mfg, and the other places where it was ground and sanded and the dust was continually in the and you were there 8 hrs a day 5 days a week for years.Never have you seen an ad that says if you put down 150sq ft of asbestos tile you might have a claim. And believe me if that were true the lawyers would be lining up.


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## gregzoll

ToolSeeker said:


> You want to know how harmful asb. is watch the T.V. commercials.Have you ever watched the lawyer ads, they say if you worked in a shipyard or auto parts mfg, and the other places where it was ground and sanded and the dust was continually in the and you were there 8 hrs a day 5 days a week for years.Never have you seen an ad that says if you put down 150sq ft of asbestos tile you might have a claim. And believe me if that were true the lawyers would be lining up.


Do you also realize those tv ad's are called "Ambulance chaser" ads. Again, it takes a very long time, to have a person see the results of Asbestos on an XRay or MRI.


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## Maintenance 6

The stuff you are pulling down was known by different names. Most notably, "Rocklath" It was a gypsum based product, but then I have abated gypsum drywall that contained asbestos (160 apartments worth), so the only real way to know for sure is to test it. As far as needing 20 years to contract lung cancer from asbestos, that is unfounded and undocumented. The lawyer ads target mesothelioma, which is a specific type of cancer, slightly different than lung cancer, but 100% fatal and 100% linked to asbestos exposure. That makes it a cash cow for the ambulance chasers. Asbestos exposure is linked to mesothelioma, lung cancer and asbestosis. Of people who have been exposed and now have a health problem, it is typically with asbestosis, a thickening of the lung walls caused by scar tissue as the body tries to encapsulate the lodged asbestos fibers. Asbestos fibers can't be disolved, so the body controls them by encapsulation. The long term effects are shortness of breath and in extreme cases, death. The latency period for asbestos related diseases is normally 7 years and up. How much exposure is too much? God will let you know, because nobody on this board knows.


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## JamesT79

*Don't take risks*

My friends father died from asbestos related complications, don't risk it if you don't think it is safe. Best to err on the side of caution.


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## gregzoll

JamesT79 said:


> My friends father died from asbestos related complications, don't risk it even if you don't think it is safe. Best to err on the side of caution.


Again, do you realize that it takes years to be around the material, before you show complications. Coal miners still have "Black Lung" disease, even though they take precautions, but it takes years for it to set in.

Stuff like this is not going to happen from a hour or even 8 hours of exposure to material, during demo process. You have to be breathing it in for decades, or already have a pre-existing condition that enhances the capability to end up with lung disorders earlier.

It is like how people blame Radon on Lung Cancer, only because it is a easy scapegoat to set blame on something, that people even after these years, still do not fully understand everything about it.

It took decades of scientists and geneticists, to figure out exactly what was going on with those breathing in stuff like fine dust in mining operations, both from stuff like Coal, Asbestos, Gypsum, etc..


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## Jim Ignatowski

I've contacted the CDC regarding Asbestos exposure and they basically said the same thing as the previous post. The majority of reported illnesses were from people who worked in industries where they were exposed on a consistent basis. That said, I don't want it in my house and will take all precautions when dealing with any material that might contain it.


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## Nailbags

Just a FYI on asbestos. it is only dangerous if its fibers are airborn. out side of that it is safe. these are things that still have it in it even trace amounts. Here is a list of what is still alowwed to use it in America.

brake pads
automobile clutches
roofing materials
vinyl tile
and, imported cement pipe and corrugated sheeting


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## princelake

why even take the chance. ya you wont see the effects for 20 years but i want to live longer then that. i take all the precautions cause im not lucky and something like that will come back to bite me in the A.


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## gregzoll

princelake said:


> why even take the chance. ya you wont see the effects for 20 years but i want to live longer then that. i take all the precautions cause im not lucky and something like that will come back to bite me in the A.


You have breathed in so much bad stuff over the years that you live, a couple of hours with a mask on, so you do not soak your nostrils with dust, is not going to hurt you taking down that gyprock.

Too many people get the Chicken Little effect, when dealing with old houses. You actually have more danger taking a walk, or driving in your car and dying from the effect of someone hitting you, then you do, doing some demo in your home.

Because of being in the Navy, I have to get a semi-yearly breathing test, due to working around Lead paint, breathing in toxic fumes from the chemicals we used on board ship, also working around aircraft when they sat idle, running the APU's. Every test I have had to take, comes up clean, and every chest x-ray dating over 26 years, show no signs of any lung disorders.

Even after I demoed our bath & shared wall between the Kitchen & dining, my doctor was concerned of possible breathing in more dust than a person normally would, and still no signs after ten years from the after affects.

You are putting more fear into this, then you really should be.


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## princelake

you can take risks greg and i wont and i will not recommend taking a risk.


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## RWolff

Nailbags said:


> and to back up gregzol it takes 20 plus years to get cancer from asbestos.


Not always, and it doesn't always take a lot of exposure either, in theory breathing in just one particle can do it. In actuality we just don't know for sure about any of this, it's all speculation and to say its 20 years is like saying no child under age 20 should ever have cancer either, fact is even toddlers have been known to develop cancer, brain tumors etc and die.
The best exposure to asbestos is ZERO exposure, every exposure no matter how small increases risk, what that risk is will vary by individual.



> Every test I have had to take, comes up clean, and every chest x-ray dating over 26 years, show no signs of any lung disorders.


That's great, but there are many people out there who do the same things and wind up dead or incapacitated, everyone has a different tolerance level to things, yours may be especially or abnormally high, while someone else might be abnormally low.

This is similar to people with allergies, I work with someone who can't tolerate any kind of fumes or odors, there are people who get severe problems from a little bit of pollin, while others can go walking thru a field full of it and have no problem at all, one guy I work with has severe allergies to many things- mold, pollin, fumes etcs, he's always going to the allergist for shots and pills, the slightest bit of mold really sends him off, while none of that bothers me in the least.


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## gregzoll

RWolff said:


> Not always, and it doesn't always take a lot of exposure either, in theory breathing in just one particle can do it. In actuality we just don't know for sure about any of this, it's all speculation and to say its 20 years is like saying no child under age 20 should ever have cancer either, fact is even toddlers have been known to develop cancer, brain tumors etc and die.
> The best exposure to asbestos is ZERO exposure, every exposure no matter how small increases risk, what that risk is will vary by individual.


A lot of that has found to be genetics that are why toddlers have developed cancer, brain tumors, Leukemia.


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## gregzoll

princelake said:


> you can take risks greg and i wont and i will not recommend taking a risk.


Then I would suggest not going out for a walk or drive also. Again, the product we are talking about is no more of a risk, than the current building materials of today. If you ever have driven through a construction zone, area that has had large fires, or live in an area that has annual timber or grass fires, or drive in rush hour traffic, you breathe more toxins and pollutants during that time, than you will for this small little project.

Just wear long sleeves, a good face mask, put up plastic to keep the dust from spreading, tape off any vents in the space, that go to the furnace, use a fan to pull air out into the outside of the structure, and you will be fine.

As for discarding the materials, place the bag you place the debris in, into another bag, to double bag it, and then tie off, place in dumpster to be taken to construction debris dump and you will have no problems.


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## RWolff

gregzoll said:


> Again, do you realize that it takes years to be around the material, before you show complications. Coal miners still have "Black Lung" disease, even though they take precautions, but it takes years for it to set in.
> 
> ..



Coal is different from asbestos, the coal dust basically clogs up the lungs, you essentially lose the air exchange capacity, i.e the surface areas of the lung tissues that allow for exchange of oxygen with carbon dioxide is reduced by scarring and particles embedded, so basically it's a form of silicosis where you gradually lose the ability to exchange the two gasses and you suffocate to death.

Gypsum is a nuissance dust, but unlike coal, sand, asbestos, gypsum breaks down in water. I can tell you that if you leave any gypsum plasters in water like a bucket of water, it begins breaking down and decays. In the moist lungs this process would happen on a smaller scale, the lungs can repair and clean.

*With asbestos, think of the microscopic particles as being tiny RAZOR BLADES with sharp points, as these embed into the tissues of the lungs they cause irritation and jabbing*, it is this irritation, cutting and jabbing which causes inflamation, irritation, and scarring as the lungs try encapsulating the particles. But the cutting, jabbing and irritation along with the inflamation continues with every breath you take.
Over time the scarring becomes more extensive, like a large callous on your foot from chaffing. It is this constant irritation, inflamation and scarring which causes damage, which can start cancer, and which reduces lung capacity and at some tipping point the lungs lose so much capacity you are essentially suffocating even if you dont get cancer.



> Stuff like this is not going to happen from a hour or even 8 hours of exposure to material, during demo process. You have to be breathing it in for decades,


It doesn't matter how long you breathe asbestos in, whether it's one hour, 8 hours, 1 year or on the job, ONE particle is all it takes to start the irritation, inflamation and scarring where it embeds in the lung tissue, once it's in the lungs it's never coming out again, the lungs can't break it down or flush it out. 
Every particle of asbestos you breathe in is not going to just go away, it's embedded there permanently.

It goes without saying that the more you breathe in the more damage and the more risk, obviously someone spraying asbestos on a ship hull 40 hours a week on the job is going to breathe in a lot more than the guy who walks past the ship on the dock and only breathed in a few lungfulls of dust, but the guy on the dock might be especially prone to cancer, while the guy spraying it especially resistant to cancer, there is no way to tell.

The key word here is RISK, there is no _known_ safe amount of this stuff to breathe in and some people can be more prone to cancer than others, but there is no test to tell, thus you can only wisely assume you might be the one in a hundred who is more prone to cancer than your neighbor or the guy down the street, and take precautions to reduce RISK.

I certainly agree on the boogey-man scam of radon, most people don't LIVE in the basement any more than they sleep next to a nuclear reactor core at a nuclear power plant.


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## RWolff

gregzoll said:


> A lot of that has found to be genetics that are why toddlers have developed cancer, brain tumors, Leukemia.


Oh for sure, agree 100% there Greg, trouble is we don't have any tests to know who is prone to something like lung cancer and who isn't.


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## RWolff

Jim Ignatowski said:


> I've contacted the CDC regarding Asbestos exposure and they basically said...



Personally, and with all due respect to you Jim, I don't give a rat's fat a... what the CDC says, if you do some research on the matter of the CDC history, you will trust the CDC as much as you'd trust your local street gang with your house key and credit card info.

Doing a little research you learn the CDC is another govt shill and scam, it's morphed from the days of the govt branches collectively known as the "health department" etc DO a google search on the involvement with the Tuskeegee experiment, on the experimental hepatitus vaccine given gay men in NYC just months before the first cases of the HIV epidemic started in that very city. Do some research on the fluoridated water scam, and the more recent one of declaring the air around the WTC after 9/11 was "safe" so Wall street could be opened up fast, but proven later to be anything but safe.
All roads of the various health scams and things like illegal experiments (Tuskeegee and others) lead right back to the same govt departments which have morphed, merged and been renamed over the decades. Like I say, I trust what the CDC claims or tells me about as much as I would trust a Chicago street gang with my credit card and house key.



> That said, I don't want it in my house and will take all precautions when dealing with any material that might contain it


Excellent move Jim, if you can't get rid of it encapsulate it, this works well.


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## dstallworth

Are there test kits to determine if asbestos is present in material or does someone have to come and test it where it's at.

when was asbestos band in the u.s.a.

can the city say what areas might be more ikely to have asbestos 

or just anything built before the eighty's suspect

and can a diy'fer safely remove asbestos....if so where can one get the supplies needed...and at what cost


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## gregzoll

RWolff said:


> Oh for sure, agree 100% there Greg, trouble is we don't have any tests to know who is prone to something like lung cancer and who isn't.


There are, but they are still being perfected. That is one reason why most of us are going to explain deeper when it comes to people inquiring about Radon mitigation, which is another story.

As for safely removing any materials that contain Asbestos in a home, if it is a large quantity, you are best to pay a removal company that has the correct equipment. If it is a small amount, you just do as I described before, in what to do.


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## gregzoll

dstallworth said:


> Are there test kits to determine if asbestos is present in material or does someone have to come and test it where it's at.
> 
> when was asbestos band in the u.s.a.
> 
> can the city say what areas might be more ikely to have asbestos
> 
> or just anything built before the eighty's suspect
> 
> and can a diy'fer safely remove asbestos....if so where can one get the supplies needed...and at what cost


Yes, it is called a slide and a microscope. You get a picture of what Asbestos looks like under a microscope, and compare it to what you are seeing on the slide.

You do have to leave the fiber catching device in the space after the demo, so it can collect any airborne fibers that are settling towards the floor. Doing it during demo, you will get nothing.

Even without demo, you just have to get enough of a thin sliver of the material, that can be seen under a microscope, to determine what is the makeup.


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## RWolff

dstallworth said:


> Are there test kits to determine if asbestos is present in material or does someone have to come and test it where it's at.
> 
> when was asbestos band in the u.s.a.
> can the city say what areas might be more ikely to have asbestos
> or just anything built before the eighty's suspect
> 
> t



I don't know of any tests you can buy, you typically send a small sample out to be tested.

It is banned from building insulation and many things, but it's not completely banned:



> Many people mistakenly believe that asbestos was banned with the creation of OSHA in the early 1970’s. Unfortunately, however, the United States is actually one of the few industrialized nations in the world which has *NOT* acted to ban asbestos entirely.
> 
> 
> Over 60 countries have banned the use of asbestos including Australia, New Zealand, Egypt, Iceland, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Hungary, Greece, United Kingdom and most of the European Union. In fact, countries all over the world have begun to recognize the devastating impact of asbestos.
> In the United States, however, asbestos continues to be used in products and materials such as gaskets, friction products, roofing materials, fireproofing materials and various other consumer products in varying degrees.


http://www.mesothelioma.com/



> and can a diy'fer safely remove asbestos....if so where can one get the supplies needed...and at what cost


I would be very wary of removing and disposing of this yourself, there is also the issue of the legality of knowingly disposing of this in the trash since it IS a hazardous waste. Disposing of it in the normal trash also exposes anyone else who might come in contact with it to the stuff.

A developer here was sentenced to jail for improperly disposing of asbestos:

*Bob Knapp sentenced to 41 months for Equitable Building asbestos*



Developer Bob Knapp is expected to serve slightly less than three years in federal prison for his role at the head of a conspiracy to ignore federal asbestos regulations during a three-year renovation project at the Equitable Building in downtown Des Moines.
Knapp, who pleaded guilty to two charges in February, was sentenced today to 41 months behind bars.
Federal and state authorities say it was Knapp who pushed to cut corners on the Equitable renovation and dispose of asbestos-containing insulation and tiles without following government-required safety procedures.
Paul Wilson, a longtime Equitable Building engineer, testified this morning that Knapp paid him to work 10-hour shifts on the weekends, with no overtime, to remove pipe coverings and hide them in a dumpster. Court documents say the improper activity took place between 2005 and 2008.


Wilson, Knapp and construction supervisor Russ Coco took pains not to ever use the word “asbestos” in public, Wilson testified. Instead, they referred to the need to remove “the product.” That was done, Wilson said, “so that the tenants wouldn’t hear about it and word wouldn’t get around the building.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Debra Scorpiniti called Knapp “an incorrigible defendant” who had been warned before about asbestos regulations during his previous renovation of the Suites at 800 Locust.
“The motive here is nothing other than pure greed,” she said. “Here you have a situation where someone has superior knowledge and is taking it upon himself to make decisions for other people” about their safety.


Justin Cannon, a $13.50-per-hour construction worker who testified that he helped remove asbestos-containing material and went home wearing clothes caked with construction-related dust. 
“If I get sick that’s one thing,” Cannon said in court. “But in 15 years, if one of my kids gets sick, how do I look them in the face? I doubt Bob is going to call and set up a big concert if one of my kids get sick.”


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## gregzoll

RWolff, if you notice, the person that hired the other person got in trouble for not paying fair wages, which in turn brought to light the other activities.

As a homeowner, there is really going to be very little material is most modern homes, unless it is one of those with asbestos siding or shingles, or even has a boiler with the old asbestost wrap. Then you need to call in the professionals.

As for getting back on topic, doubtful there is any matter in that gyprock that contains even a microfram of asbestos.


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## Maintenance 6

dstallworth said:


> Are there test kits to determine if asbestos is present in material or does someone have to come and test it where it's at. There are no test kits available for a homeowner to self evaluate asbestos. Samples of materials must be sent to a lab equipped for phase contrast microscopy (PCM). Other filamenticious fibers mimic asbestos and the untrained eye cannot determine the differences. Usually a small sample of the suspect material is removed and placed in container which the lab will process for identification. Air sampling is a test for airborne fibers and is run before starting abatement, during abatement to insure workers are using proper protective equipment and procedures, and after completion and clean up as clearance samples, to insure that the abatement and clean up were properly handled.
> 
> when was asbestos band in the u.s.a. Asbestos was never officially banned in the U.S.. The U.S. EPA attempted a ban in the late 1970s, but it was overturned in U.S. Superior Court. The court ruled that the EPA did not have the authority to ban it, only to regulate hazardous discharge of fibers and the disposition of asbestos waste. See NESHAP laws for more information. Most companies removed asbestos voluntarily from products wherever possible by 1982. The U.S. still imports asbestos by the ton for use in certain non-friable products.
> 
> can the city say what areas might be more ikely to have asbestos
> 
> or just anything built before the eighty's suspect There is no registry for asbestos. It can show up almost anywhere, but is more likely in certain products. Boiler and high temperature pipe insulation, breeching=very likely, Floor coverings and mastics manufactured before 1982= hit or miss, more likely in 9x9 floor tiles, but I've seen it in 12x12 tiles. Acoustical tiles= hit or miss, Plaster and drywall = less likely but still seen in places. I abated 160 apartments built in the late 1960s with asbestos in the drywall. Vermiculite insulation=very likely. Cast siding, transite sheet and pipe=almost always, but not considered friable unless damaged. Caulking and glazing putty=very often found. The list goes on.
> 
> and can a diy'fer safely remove asbestos....if so where can one get the supplies needed...and at what cost


 There are no laws preventing a homeowner from removing his own asbestos. Properly trained and equipped, anybody could remove asbestos properly. But to keep from contaminating your home, you'd better know what you are dealing with. Done improperly, asbestos fibers can continue to be reintoduced into the air where occupants will continue to inhale them. (Talk about your long term exposure... there it is). Fibers are known to stay airborne for hours, only to settle out and be reintroduced by just walking through the space. And even if you have properly removed the stuff and packaged it, there is still the problem of getting rid of it. This stuff is considered hazardous waste, so you can't just bag it and put it in the garbage. Think about it. The garbage man throws it in the truck and the unlabelled bag breaks open? It won't take but a split second to figure out that you've knowingly removed it and put it the municipal trash. And to make matters worse, you are now on the hook for a truck load of contaminated trash and a stranger whom you've now exposed. There are plenty of laws governing the transportation and disposal of asbestos. In some cases fines in the 5 digit range and prison time are not unheard of, and this scenario is exactly why.


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## JamesT79

Be especially careful if you have asthma!


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## gregzoll

JamesT79 said:


> Be especially careful if you have asthma!


I would be more worried about other stuff affecting people with asthma during their daily lives, then demo of some walls. My wife left the house the days that we did the demo on the bath & Kitchen/Dining wall, so that she would not be around the dust that did get through between the plastic curtain & ceiling/walls.


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## RWolff

gregzoll said:


> RWolff, if you notice, the person that hired the other person got in trouble for not paying fair wages, which in turn brought to light the other activities.
> 
> As a homeowner, there is really going to be very little material is most modern homes, unless it is one of those with asbestos siding or shingles, or even has a boiler with the old asbestost wrap. Then you need to call in the professionals.
> 
> As for getting back on topic, doubtful there is any matter in that gyprock that contains even a microfram of asbestos.



That may be, but the cat was let out of the bag regardless of how it was let out, and this is the headline that we in this thread should be concerned with:



> *for his role at the head of a conspiracy to ignore federal asbestos regulations during a three-year renovation project *


I don't know what exactly the regulations consist of, but I am unaware of a minimum quantity exemption, unless you can cite the actual regulation where it states something like 

"home owners are exempt from regulation"
"small DIY projects are exempt from regulation"
"quantities of less than ___pounds are exempt from regulation"

Then the possibility of fines and more should be of concern to anyone handling this stuff, it doesn't matter if it's 2 teaspoons or 50,000 tons and I believe the regulations don't make any written distinction between the two.
The fact is too, once a person posts something on a public forum like this, it's archived, no one knows who may be reading forums like this just looking for such violations so they can justify their jobs at the EPA and whatnot.
Yes, it's unlikely the person will be caught, but like speeding with a radar detector on you take your chances an officer doesn't flip his radar on just as you come around that blind corner.




Maintenance 6 said:


> There are no laws preventing a homeowner from removing his own asbestos.
> 
> And even if you have properly removed the stuff and packaged it, there is still the problem of getting rid of it. This stuff is considered hazardous waste, so you can't just bag it and put it in the garbage. Think about it. The garbage man throws it in the truck and the unlabelled bag breaks open? It won't take but a split second to figure out that you've knowingly removed it and put it the municipal trash. And to make matters worse, you are now on the hook for a truck load of contaminated trash and a stranger whom you've now exposed. There are plenty of laws governing the transportation and disposal of asbestos. In some cases fines in the 5 digit range and prison time are not unheard of, and this scenario is exactly why.


Perfect comments, thank you for outlining that so well!
That is exactly where the problem is, sure, anyone can remove asbestos, there's no law you can't tear a wall down in your own home, but the DISPOSAL is the big problem, and there's where they can track down the garbage truck load's origins and figure out who dumped the stuff in that load.
When they dump the load you have people looking for scrap metal, recyclables, things thrown out that are not allowed in the landfill like computers, car batteries etc. now you expose these people too.


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## Jim Ignatowski

FYI... This particular plaster board did not contain asbestos... Sorry for not updating the thread sooner. Someone recently asked me a question about the results.


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