Frequently Asked Questions

You cannot tell by looking. Asbestos was used in hundreds of building products, so the only way to confirm it is to have samples collected and analyzed by a laboratory. Older buildings are more likely to contain it, but age alone does not rule it in or out. Tri Span collects samples under controlled conditions and sends them to an accredited laboratory.

Floor tile and the mastic under it, sheet flooring, ceiling tiles, acoustic ceiling texture, drywall joint compound, pipe and boiler insulation, duct wrap, roofing felt and shingles, exterior siding, stucco and plaster, window glazing, fireproofing and some cement products. Federal rules sort these into friable materials and two categories of non friable material.

No. The fibers are microscopic and bound into other materials, so a visual inspection can only tell an inspector which materials are suspect. Confirmation requires laboratory analysis of a physical sample. Until that testing is done, suspect material is treated as though it contains asbestos.

Almost always. The federal asbestos NESHAP requires a thorough inspection for asbestos before demolition or renovation of a regulated building, and South Coast AQMD Rule 1403 requires a survey report signed by a certified asbestos consultant before any demolition or renovation in its area. The narrow exception is a single unit home where less than 100 square feet of intact material is disturbed. Copies of the survey and the notification have to stay at the job site while work is going on.

Work in that area stops and the material is left alone. The area is secured, the material is sampled and tested, and if it is asbestos the removal is scheduled as regulated work with the required notification before crews restart. Cutting, sanding or breaking the material is what releases fibers and turns a delay into a violation.

It depends on the size and location of the work. Abatement areas are sealed with plastic containment held under negative air pressure with HEPA filtration, and nobody but the crew enters that space. Commercial buildings often stay open while work is confined to one area or done after hours. In a house where the work runs through the living space, it is usually easier to stay elsewhere until clearance testing passes. We tell you which applies once we have seen the scope.

It depends on how much material there is, where it sits and how the building is used. Small contained jobs are often finished in a day or two, while full abatement ahead of a building demolition can run for weeks. The schedule also has to allow for the air district notification period before work can start and for clearance testing at the end. Your estimate comes with a schedule.

The work area is isolated with sealed plastic, put under negative pressure with HEPA filtered air units and entered through a decontamination unit. Crews in respirators and protective suits wet the material, remove it and bag it as it comes down. The area is then cleaned with HEPA vacuums and wet methods, inspected visually and tested by air sampling before the containment comes down.

Asbestos is hazardous when fibers are released into the air and breathed in. Material that is intact, in good condition and will not be disturbed can often be left in place and managed where it is. The risk comes when it is damaged, deteriorating, or about to be cut, drilled, sanded or demolished.

Friable asbestos can be crumbled or reduced to powder by hand pressure when dry, so it releases fibers easily. Pipe insulation, sprayed fireproofing and old acoustic texture are typical examples. Non friable material holds the fibers in a binder and is split into Category I, such as floor tile, packings, gaskets and asphalt roofing, and Category II, such as asbestos cement products. Non friable material is regulated like friable material once it has been broken, ground or badly weathered, which is exactly what demolition does to it.

Clearance is a two step check. A consultant runs a visual inspection for remaining dust or debris, and only once that passes is clearance air sampling done inside the containment. The common clearance standard is below 0.01 fibers per cubic centimeter by phase contrast microscopy, with electron microscopy used where the stricter standard applies. The containment stays up and the area stays closed until the results pass.

It is kept wet, sealed in leak tight containers or double bagged in six mil bags and labeled before it leaves the work area. It then goes to a landfill permitted to accept asbestos waste. It cannot go in a regular dumpster or into ordinary construction debris.

In California, asbestos waste over 50 pounds must be hauled by a registered hazardous waste transporter to an approved disposal facility. The shipment travels with paperwork identifying the generator, the hauler and the receiving site, and those records are kept on file. You get copies for your project records.

Yes. We work on houses and apartment buildings as well as commercial, industrial, retail, school, government and utility properties, including public works and federal projects.

Lead based paint was banned for residential use in 1978, so buildings built before then are the ones to check. It turns up on window sashes and sills, doors and frames, stair rails, porches, siding and trim, and in the soil next to painted exteriors. Friction surfaces such as windows and doors are the usual problem because they grind out lead dust every time they are used.

If the building predates 1978, assume lead paint is present until testing shows otherwise. Federal rules require firms doing renovation, repair or painting that disturbs paint in pre 1978 housing and child occupied facilities to be certified and to use lead safe work practices. Testing tells you what you are dealing with before the work starts rather than after.

Abatement is work whose purpose is to permanently eliminate lead based paint hazards, and it is regulated separately, often triggered by a health department order. Lead safe work practices apply when the job is a renovation or repair and the lead paint simply happens to be in the way. In California, anyone doing work designed to reduce or eliminate lead hazards in residential or public buildings must be certified by the Department of Public Health.

Do not scrape, sand or power wash it. Keep people away from the area and the dust, children especially, and have the paint and dust tested. Deteriorating paint on a pre 1978 building is the condition most likely to create a lead hazard, and it needs to be stabilized or removed under controlled conditions.

Not always. A small patch of surface mold on a hard material can often be cleaned by the property owner. Professional remediation makes sense when the area is large, when mold is inside wall cavities or building materials, when it follows sewage or long standing water damage, or when occupants have health concerns. In every case the water source has to be found and fixed first.

A moisture problem that was never solved. Mold grows back when the leak, condensation, drainage or humidity problem that fed it is still there, or when wet materials were dried too slowly or left in place. Removing the growth without correcting the water source buys time, not a fix.

The work area is contained and held under negative pressure so spores are not pushed into clean space, HVAC serving the area is shut down and sealed, materials are wetted or sealed before removal, waste is bagged inside the containment, and the area is HEPA vacuumed and wiped down afterward.

Often not, since the work area is sealed off from the rest of the building. People who are elderly or pregnant, who have asthma or allergies, or whose immune systems are compromised are usually advised to stay out of the property while the work is underway. California has not set numeric exposure limits for indoor mold, so the decision comes down to how extensive the growth is and the health of the people in the building.