Asbestos testing before a renovation in Ontario

Why test first

Asbestos was used in thousands of building products. It is harmless to look at and dangerous to turn into dust, which is exactly what renovation does. Testing first:

• Protects your household and the people doing the work
• Tells you whether you need abatement before the trades start
• Prevents a stop-work in the middle of the job
• Avoids contaminating the house, which costs far more than a survey
• Gives you a firm scope and price for any removal

What Ontario’s rules say

Ontario Regulation 278/05, made under the Occupational Health and Safety Act, covers asbestos on construction projects and in buildings.

• Before tendering or arranging demolition, alteration or repair work, the owner must have an examination done to establish whether asbestos-containing material is present and likely to be disturbed, and must give the resulting report to the contractors.
• An owner-occupied private residence is exempt from the owner’s duties. But the contractors working in it are employers, and they must still protect their workers. Many will not start demolition in an older house without test results.
• Rental houses, apartment buildings, condominium common elements, shops, offices and workplaces are covered.
• Material can be treated as asbestos-containing without testing, in which case all the precautions apply.

Municipal demolition and building permits may ask for a designated substances report as well. Check with your building department.

Which houses

There is no single cut-off year. Asbestos use fell through the 1970s and 1980s, and products in stock went on being installed. A reasonable approach:

• Built or renovated before 1990: test before disturbing suspect materials
• Built in the 1990s: fewer suspect materials, but some, such as certain flooring and cement products, are still worth checking
• Any age: vermiculite attic insulation should be treated as suspect

Materials to think about

• Vermiculite attic insulation
• Pipe, boiler and duct insulation
• Sprayed or textured ceilings and walls
• Drywall joint compound and plaster
• Vinyl floor tiles, sheet flooring backing and the adhesive under them
• Ceiling tiles
• Cement board, siding, soffits and old roofing products
• Furnace gaskets, duct tape and heat shields behind stoves
• Window putty and caulking
• Stucco

How a survey works

1. Scope. Tell the surveyor exactly what the renovation involves. A survey for a kitchen remodel samples that kitchen. A pre-demolition survey covers the whole building, including hidden layers.
2. Inspection. The surveyor identifies suspect materials in the work area, including what lies beneath: older flooring under newer, or plaster behind panelling.
3. Sampling. Small pieces are taken with precautions to limit dust. The number of samples per material follows the regulation, which requires more than one for many materials.
4. Analysis. An accredited laboratory examines the samples, commonly by polarized light microscopy.
5. Report. It lists each material sampled, where it is, whether it contains asbestos, its type and condition, and usually whether it is friable.

In Ontario a material is asbestos-containing if it has 0.5 percent or more asbestos by dry weight. Vermiculite is handled differently because the asbestos in it is unevenly spread: it is generally treated as containing asbestos whatever one sample shows.

Who does it

Environmental consultants, occupational hygienists and some home inspectors and abatement contractors take samples. For a large job, or where clearance testing will be needed afterwards, an independent consultant who does not also do the removal avoids a conflict of interest.

What happens with the results

• Nothing found in the work area. Keep the report and carry on. Remember that it covers only what was sampled.
• Asbestos found, and the work will disturb it. It is removed, or the work is redesigned to avoid it, before the renovation starts. The report lets abatement contractors classify the work as Type 1, 2 or 3 and quote for it.
• Asbestos found, but outside the work area. It can usually stay. Record where it is.

Timing and cost

Arrange the survey early, at the design stage, not the week before demolition. Standard laboratory turnaround is a few days, and rush service is available. The cost depends on the number of samples. It is small beside the cost of a renovation, and very small beside the cost of decontaminating a house.

What a survey cannot do

Sampling is limited to what can be reached. Materials inside closed walls and ceilings may only appear once demolition starts. A good contractor stops when something unexpected turns up, such as pipe insulation in a wall or old tile under a subfloor, and has it tested before carrying on.

Selling and buying

A seller is not generally required to test, but known hazards should not be concealed. Ask your real estate lawyer or agent about disclosure. Buyers of older houses who plan to renovate can ask for sampling as part of their due diligence, with the seller’s permission.

More: asbestos removal and abatement.