A few years ago, asbestos was discovered in a local public building (state agency) during a renovation. I recall a notice that the building would be closed while it was cleaned out.
Why might the county or the applicable state or county agency not know about this beforehand? Do construction materials records get lost frequently, or might it be a case where the contractor was told “just build a building”, and the assigned manager selected asbestos but never documented it anywhere, or did document it but did not turn over the final plans to the government?
For years, asbestos was just another building material. There was no more need to document using it than there was to document the use of concrete or wood or nails or anything else.
The building was built prior to asbestos being recognized as a bio-hazard. Otherwise OSHA compliance may have not been taken into consideration due to being a ‘government’ building/contract.
In the UK it is a requirement that all public buildings have an asbestos survey, this does not mean it has to be removed in every case, a log has to be kept and the condition assessed.If its not fraying or otherwise coming apart, then it may be ok to leave it alone, but regular inspections then have to be scheduled.
Asbestos-containing building materials can be obvious, like spray-on ceilings, pipe insulation, and shingled siding. Asbestos was also a common component of floor tiles, mastic, wallboard, joint compounds, and other ubiquitous building materials. You’d never know it was there unless you tested for it.
Bingo! So you test before you cut. Oh, and if you’re removing old florescent light fixtures, the ballasts may contain mercury, as may the tubes. You also usually check for lead paint, but that can be done with a hand-held sensor. There won’t be any records about those either.
For asbestos you hire a consultant to take samples, send them to a lab, and then write a nice little report for you. They can also write up a procedures list that can be added to the renovation contract when it goes out to bid. That way everyone knows up front what’s where and there are no change orders for discovered hazardous material.
asbestos was used in many applications where it is hard to tell it is there by naked eye visual inspect. many products look identical with and without asbestos. lots of insulation and fire barrier material might not contain asbestos. to be certain you need methods like phase contrast microscopy and electron microscopy to tell for certain. if the asbestos will stay in place it is not a danger. it is a potential danger if it becomes airborne, there are a number of types of asbestos, some are not very dangerous and some have a high hazard level.
As far as I know, in the US, there is no universal required check of older buildings for asbestos. It’s assumed, if the building was put together before asbestos was outlawed, there will probably be some present - insulation, window caulking, and fire proofing.
It isn’t until renovations are made that the building owners are required to check for asbestos, and if the building is over a certain age, it’s pretty much guaranteed to have asbestos. So, no one’s surprised when the announcement is made, and I would be astonished if they hadn’t worked asbestos abatement costs into the renovation budget to begin with.
When we remodeled our bathroom a few years ago, the contractor required us to test our old flooring for asbestos before they would remove it. Fortunately, there was none.
But there had been some, there would have been no way we would have known until we got the results of the test back.