What Did You Do About the Asbestos?

What Did You Do About the Asbestos?

Published by Remtech Environmental Team · Last updated April 2025

We recently met a woman in Raleigh who purchased an older home to renovate and remodel. After the remodeling project was complete, one of her neighbors came by the house to admire the work and innocently asked, “So what did you do about the asbestos?” She did not realize her home was built with asbestos-laden products. Once disturbed, asbestos poses very dangerous health threats to occupants.

Fortunately, she learned about the asbestos before she began living the home. Unfortunately, the asbestos abatement project becomes much more extensive when the product is agitated.

What is Asbestos?

A naturally occurring mineral, asbestos is very resistant to fire and heat and was used widely in home construction from the late 1800s through the early 1980s. By the 1970s it became clear that prolonged exposure to asbestos had adverse health effects; therefore, most builders stopped using it by 1980. However, in the Raleigh area, a fifth of the homes currently on the market were built in the 1980s or earlier.

Health Concerns and Asbestos

Specifically, health concerns linked to asbestos exposure include:

• Asbestosis: an incurable chronic lung disease that leads to prolonged breathing issues.
• Mesothelioma: a rare cancer that develops on the lining that protects the lungs or abdomen.
• Lung Cancer: though most commonly associated with smoking, asbestos exposure can increase the risk of lung cancer.

When Asbestos Becomes Dangerous

Asbestos is generally safe as long as the product containing it remains intact. However, when a home is remodeled or damaged by a natural disaster, asbestos abatement will be necessary to prevent exposure. Removing popcorn ceiling is a tempting do-it-yourself project; however, with homes built in the 1980s or earlier, it is dangerous and can ultimately become very expensive to perform renovations or repairs without first calling asbestos removal professionals.

When asbestos abatement contractors like Remtech become involved in a project, by law we are required to send suspicious products to a certified lab for assessment. After we have corrected the issue, a certified inspector is required to clear it before the owners can return.

Asbestos removal is not a DIY project. To learn more about asbestos and asbestos abatement, contact us.

A few summers ago a homeowner in North Raleigh closed on a charming 1972 split-level near Six Forks Road, hired a general contractor, and spent four months gutting kitchens, knocking down walls, and refinishing every floor in the house. The day before move-in a longtime neighbor strolled across the yard, admired the work, and asked the question that froze her in place: so what did you do about the asbestos? She had no idea her home was built with asbestos flooring, popcorn ceilings, and pipe insulation. The renovation had already disturbed every one of those materials. Her story is not unusual. Roughly one in five homes currently for sale in the Raleigh metro was built before 1985, and the people buying them rarely understand the legal, financial, and health stakes of renovating a pre-regulation house. This post walks through her decision points and the questions every NC homeowner should be asking before they pick up a hammer.

The Decision Points That Determine Your Asbestos Risk

Looking back at the Raleigh project with the benefit of hindsight, our team identified a series of moments where a different choice would have changed the outcome dramatically. Each of these decision points is something a buyer or renovator can control if they know to look for it. The five that follow are the ones we see most often in homes built between 1945 and 1985 across Wake, Durham, Orange, and Johnston counties.

Pre-Purchase Inspection Scope

Standard home inspections in North Carolina, performed under NC Home Inspector Licensure Board rules, explicitly do not include hazardous material assessment. The inspector will note that a building is old enough to potentially contain asbestos and recommend testing, but will not sample. Buyers who skip the optional environmental assessment typically discover the problem only after closing. In our Raleigh case, the buyer's agent recommended skipping the pre-purchase asbestos inspection to keep the offer competitive in a fast market. A 600 to 1,200 dollar inspection would have flagged at least three asbestos-containing materials and given her leverage to renegotiate, ask for a credit, or walk away from a property whose true renovation cost was tens of thousands of dollars higher than the listing implied. In a competitive market the temptation to waive contingencies is real, but the asbestos contingency is the one buyers regret skipping more than any other.

Choosing a General Contractor Without Asbestos Awareness

Not every licensed general contractor in North Carolina is trained in asbestos recognition. The NC Licensing Board for General Contractors does not require asbestos coursework as part of the standard license, although larger commercial firms typically carry separate AHERA accreditation. When the Raleigh homeowner interviewed three GCs, none of them raised the age of the home as a flag, none asked whether testing had been done, and the winning bid included demolition pricing that assumed conventional materials. A simple question - what is your protocol when you encounter pre-1985 flooring or insulation - would have separated the qualified bidders from the unqualified ones. The qualified ones answer with specific procedures, lab partners, and a willingness to subcontract abatement to a licensed firm. The unqualified ones say they have done it before and it was no big deal.

What to Ask Before Renovating

Before any pre-1985 renovation begins, homeowners should walk through a short checklist with their contractor. Has the home had a pre-renovation asbestos inspection by an NC HHCU accredited inspector? Have all suspect materials been bulk sampled and analyzed by an NVLAP accredited lab? If asbestos is present, is the abatement contractor separately licensed, bonded, and carrying pollution liability insurance? Has the abatement scope been filed with the NC HHCU per the ten-day notification rule? Will third-party clearance air sampling be performed before re-occupancy? Skipping any one of these steps is how people end up living in contaminated homes, paying double for emergency abatement, or facing fines from local building officials. Wake County permit reviewers increasingly ask for documentation of inspection on pre-1985 properties before issuing demolition permits.

North Carolina Disclosure Law and Your Legal Exposure

North Carolina General Statute 47E, the Residential Property Disclosure Act, requires sellers to disclose known material defects including the presence of asbestos. The keyword is known. A seller who genuinely had no knowledge has limited disclosure obligation, but a seller who has lived in the home and ignored visible 9x9 tiles, popcorn ceilings, or pipe wrap may face liability for nondisclosure. After renovation, the homeowner herself becomes the seller for the next transaction, and her knowledge of any disturbed asbestos must be disclosed in writing. If she had moved in and later sold the property without remediation, she would have inherited those disclosure obligations and potential negligence exposure under common-law fraud claims. Documenting professional abatement and retaining clearance letters in a permanent file protects both health and future resale value.

Professional Testing Versus DIY Test Kits

Hardware stores in Raleigh sell mail-in asbestos test kits for around 30 to 50 dollars. They work in a narrow sense - the lab does perform PLM analysis - but the chain of custody is broken, the sampling technique is rarely correct, and the results are not legally defensible if a dispute arises. A professional inspection from a licensed NC firm provides documented sampling locations, photographs, lab reports referenced to specific homogeneous areas, and a written assessment that satisfies real estate, insurance, and permit requirements. For a renovation budget over a few thousand dollars, the professional inspection is cheap insurance. DIY kits also tend to encourage exactly the wrong behavior - homeowners cutting suspect materials with utility knives and bagging samples in their kitchen, which can release fibers throughout the home before the test results even arrive.

What Happened After She Found Out

When the Raleigh homeowner called Remtech Environmental, our first step was a comprehensive post-disturbance assessment. Crews collected bulk samples of the flooring residue still on the subfloor, the popcorn ceiling debris in the attic and HVAC returns, dust wipes on horizontal surfaces throughout the house, and air samples in three rooms while the HVAC ran. Lab results confirmed chrysotile asbestos in the original 9x9 vinyl tile, the popcorn ceiling, and the boiler pipe wrap in the basement. Settled-dust analysis found elevated fiber counts in the kitchen, master bedroom, and the supply ducts. Because the renovation had run the central HVAC for sixteen weeks during demolition, fibers had cross-contaminated nearly every surface in the home. The abatement plan that resulted was substantially larger than anything that would have been required if testing had been done before demolition. We built negative-pressure containment over the entire main floor, removed and replaced contaminated drywall and insulation in two rooms, professionally cleaned the HVAC system including coil and blower replacement, performed multiple HEPA vacuum and wet-wipe cycles on every surface, and brought in an independent third party for clearance air sampling. The total cost was roughly four times what proactive abatement would have run, and move-in was delayed by nine weeks. Insurance covered a portion only because the policy had pollution liability coverage that most homeowner policies exclude. The episode is a textbook case of why testing first is always cheaper than testing after.

How to Protect Yourself Before You Buy or Renovate

If you are shopping for a home in the Triangle and you find one built before 1985, build the asbestos question into your offer from day one. Add a contingency for environmental inspection, hire an NC HHCU accredited inspector independently of the home inspector, and budget 800 to 1,500 dollars for a thorough pre-purchase assessment of flooring, ceilings, pipe insulation, attic insulation, and exterior siding. If you already own such a home and are planning a renovation, schedule the inspection before signing any general contractor agreement so the bid reflects accurate scope. If asbestos is found, do not panic. Intact undisturbed materials pose minimal risk, and many homeowners choose encapsulation or simple non-disturbance rather than full abatement. Where abatement is needed, hire only contractors licensed by the NC HHCU and verify the license number on the public state registry. Insist on written notification filed with the state ten working days before work begins, negative-pressure containment for any project disturbing more than de minimis quantities, and third-party clearance air sampling before re-occupancy. Keep every report, lab result, and clearance letter in a permanent file. They protect your family, property value, and future resale obligations under NCGS 47E.

Continue Learning About Asbestos Risk

If this story raised questions about your own home, our blog has practical follow-up reading. Understanding the basics of asbestos flooring covers identification of vinyl-asbestos tile, sheet vinyl, and asbestos linoleum in detail, including the 9x9 visual tell and the role of black mastic. What makes asbestos bad for you walks through the underlying health science, fiber types, and disease latency periods that explain why pre-renovation testing matters. Our service pages cover full-service asbestos abatement, mold remediation, and water damage restoration in Raleigh and across the Triangle. For homeowners actively renovating a pre-1985 property anywhere in Wake or Durham county, request a free pre-renovation consultation today.

Key Takeaways

• Standard NC home inspections do not include asbestos testing - a separate environmental assessment is essential for pre-1985 homes.
• Most Raleigh general contractors are not trained in asbestos recognition, so vet them with specific pre-renovation questions.
• NCGS 47E disclosure obligations follow renovated homes, so professional abatement documentation protects future resale value.
• DIY mail-in test kits provide data but lack legally defensible chain of custody, sampling technique, and inspector credentials.
• Post-disturbance abatement typically costs three to five times more than proactive pre-renovation abatement and delays projects by months.