My mom is doing some renovations with her house and asked me to help. She'd like to tear down a wall to make her living room bigger and scrape off the popcorn ceiling. The house is pretty old, I'd say 1930's *ish* (maybe 40's). I know alot of asbestos products were used in insulation and to cover around heating ducts. There is no plan on going into the ceiling and I don't believe the wall has insulation as it's an indoor wall. The house doesn't have central air/heat and only has a wall heater so there is no ducting. How concerned should I be with asbestos?
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-Paul -
Probably little with asbestos but lead-based paint could be an issue. Have her leave the house during demolition, get good cross ventilation going and wear a tight fitting filter.Blessings,
Chiz
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If you have lead paint or asbestos issues it is by far better to do it yourself. Lead abatement and asbestos mitigation are very, very, very expensive. Remember lead and asbestos only becomes a problem when you remove it.Comment
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Get a respirator, and I would also wear a paper suit that can be thrown away. Plaster can contain asbestos fiber, but locally, most houses were horsehair plaster. Back when I was in school however, they brought in the professionals, and they did any breaking into the plaster (it was an unknown).
Lead WILL be more of the problem.She couldn't tell the difference between the escape pod, and the bathroom. We had to go back for her.........................Twice.Comment
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asbestos
I would think that is little or nothing to worry about concerning asbestos in that house for sure. eezlockComment
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I'd be concerned about the popcorn ceiling. Many of these contain asbestos, and removal is quite a chore.Comment
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Thanks for the advice guys. The popcorn itself is relatively new. Early 90's I believe. I was concerned about perhaps the paint under it. I'll definitely have her stay with my sister during the construction process. I've heard and read about the costs of asbestos removal which why I was a little concerned. I'll of course confirm this with the contractor when I talk to him again, but thought I'd get some info before doing so.-PaulComment
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Older popcorn ceilings contained asbestos...
Someone asked the question on here before about this type of ceiling. Do a search for asbestos on the home improvement forum.Comment
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I'm replacing the ceiling material in our 60 yr old home. It's the 12" square tiles, some have the tiny holes. It's basically used on the portion of our house that has a flat deck roof. On most of the rooms a sheet of plasterboard is mounted to the rafters, and then furring strips, and then the tile. On other portions, the tile was just on furring strips to the rafters. Upon removal of the tile, all kinds of powdery stuff, looking like blown insulation, tiny pebble like stuff, probably from a previous re-roof, and a bunch of unidentifiable matter. I took it all to a lab for analysis. Cost was about $125, and all was negative for asbestos and lead. Well worth the expense just for the peace of mind.
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Asbestos was discontinued in the mid-70s for this application. You shouldn't have to worry about the popcorn ceiling.
OTOH, I echo the comments by others to worry about lead. With all the scare lately about Chinese mfg. toys, you should be able to pick up a lead detecting kit pretty easily. I dunno, Toys 'R Us?
JRJRComment
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Unless you live in the State of California, opps you do! Everyting seems to be more toxic in the State of Ca. Lead is most hazardous when ingested. Use smart personal hygene habits while dealing with lead based paint removal, no eating or drinking and prompt hand washing, showering, and laundring of clothing and you will likely not have any ill effects. Keep in mind that children are more in danger of lead poisoning than adults.Donate to my Tour de Cure
marK in WA and Ryobi Fanatic Association State President ©
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We recently had our house remodeled, including the removal of a popcorn ceiling with faux beams. The ceiling would have to be scraped and re-mudded.
The contractor removed the faux beams and covered the popcorn ceiling with new drywall and then finished as a new ceiling. Looks great, adds a little insulation to the ceiling, no removal issues, and was less expensive than removing the old popcorn.
Regards, SteveComment
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I don't knowif gerti is speaking of old popcorn being hard to remove or not but the home improvement shows that I have seen only required a water spray (containg a small amount of dishwashing liquid to improve saturation), a brief wait of a couple of minutes and then scraping. It looked messy but not difficult.Blessings,
Chiz
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Black wallnut :
Yes unfortunately I do live in Southern California. Great points on hygene. No kids live with her but she does have the grand kids visit from time to time so I'll make sure to let her know as well their parents.
JR:
I was just thinking about getting a test kit. I seem to remember one being sold at Borg. And from a little reading on the net it seems like the same company also sells an asbestos test kit.
steve-norrell:
That's a creative idea I hadn't thought of. I'll ask the contractor about it.-PaulComment
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Lot of info regarding this is this post from a few months back:
http://www.bt3central.com/showthread...light=asbestos
I'd go ahead and get a sample of your ceiling texture checked for asbestos...it was still present in work done years after the ban. If your sure the ceiling was done in the 90's, you're probably fine, though.
I scraped popcorn texture off my ceiling. Worst part was the prep work. Here's a good how-to link:
http://www.naturalhandyman.com/iip/i...opcornoff.htmlMike
Drywall screws are not wood screwsComment
Black wallnut
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