# Asbestos popcorn ceiling in home built in 1996?



## benttwig19 (Sep 16, 2019)

Hello all, we have lived in a house built in 96 for the last 12 years and have removed some popcorn ceiling in two bathrooms and the kitchen so far. We are about to remove more so I decided to use one of those mail in services to test a small amount of material. To my surprise it came back showing <1% chrysotile asbestos. 

I have reached out to an inspector to inquire about the more detailed test that could show this to be a non-issue. I am in Upstate NY and would really appreciate any insight into this. I’ve read that some of these mail in tests can come back as false positives as well. I also understand that low levels can occur in joint compound and I noticed I did include some in the sample I had tested. 

Thank you!

Ryan


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## Nealtw (Jun 22, 2017)

I would test it again with a local commercial lab. It shouldn't have been there in a house built after 91. 

When I removed it I taped a wide knife to the dustpan and spritzed the ceiling and scraped it while it was wet and caught the scrapings in the dustpan and never dealt with much dust at all.


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## benttwig19 (Sep 16, 2019)

Thank you. That is exactly how we removed it as well. Taped plastic around the entire room, covered vents, etc. The hard thing for me is I never took precautions when working with the ceiling in other ways and in the closets where my clothes would routinely knock the ceiling off and get all over.


I never gave it a second thought based on the year it was built, but I have placed a call with a few local testers and am waiting to hear back.


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## mark sr (Jun 13, 2017)

While existing stock of asbestos texture was allowed to be used I'd be shocked to find any in a house built in 1996. I'd probably retest - maybe with a different company.


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## Nealtw (Jun 22, 2017)

Most of the people that got sick from asbestos worked in a cloud of it for 20 or 30 years.
Even with your test it is a miner amount.


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## benttwig19 (Sep 16, 2019)

It was a mail in test from amazon that didn't require much for the testing. I understand that less than 1% is not a large amount of potential exposure. My wife was a few blocks from the WTC on 9/11 so I am a little more vigilant because I would like to minimize her continued exposure if possible. 



I am just hoping that it was from the joint compound that I included in the test and that is a fraction of 1%. I am having someone come out and test a large sample from one of our closets to get a better understanding of the actual amount in the next week or so. 



Thank you for all of your replies!


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## benttwig19 (Sep 16, 2019)

Just wanted to give a quick update. We had a bulk sample tested with NY's ELAP 198.1 method and it came back none detected. It's my understanding that this test is a point test and should have been able to detect trace amounts. 



Looks like we can continue with the removal!! Thanks again!


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## ron45 (Feb 25, 2014)

This is one subject that needs to go away.


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