Asbestos disturbed during reno

Hi,
I'm was a regular poster on SS, and somewhat less regular here, but created a new account to remain somewhat anonymous with this question.

We have just started our reno on a recently purchased late-60's , early 70's house. Guy picked up the skip this morning, and a couple of hours later rang me to say that he'd found asbestos in the bin. Turns out the shower lining walls were an asbestos product. So I had to pay him an extra $200 to handle this stuff.

The sheets are well and truly removed, but they split in half when I pulled them out of the bathroom, so they were well and truly "disturbed". This was nearly 2 weeks ago, and in that time, we've been working in the place, and swept and vacuumed, pulled out walls, etc, so although I know there are no "chunks" of the board anywhere, I guess there's a good chance that there are still loose fibres around.

So the bin's been handled OK, but what should I do with the house? Anything? Nothing? Are there future or current liability concerns?

 

wrap the entire house with 20 micron pvc sheeting. Don a spacesuit with breathing apparatus, spray all surfaces including the plastic with pva to bond the fibres to the walls/floor/ceiling.
Throw the plastic in a ACM waste bag and dispose at the appropriate asbestos tip.

 

THIS SOUNDS LIKE A JOB FOR ASBESTOS MAN! ....oh wait... We're all doomed!

 

What are you worried about the house for ? It is your and whomever s lungs that was there that is venerable.

If it makes you feel any better, everyone used to cut, drill, break etc fibro sheets and be breathing it all in, not saying it is good for you, but your not doing it all day every day, so you would probably have to be unlucky.

I am not aware of anything you can do after the fact. If you worried about left over fibres, wet the area and wipe/clean up would be my guess.

 

I agree with dabs. Just let it settle and mop vacuum regularly

 

Was I a little OTT?

 

I'd probably do what you said OTT.

 

It sounded to hard i was just reading "fire, fire, fire"

 

You need to take off and nuke it from orbit... it's the only way to be sure

 

But then the dust will be spread throughout the cosmos

 

yeah the guys getting cancer are guys who were working with it day and night and regularly inhaling the stuff and shaving/cutting/breaking it

admittedly, ive handled asbestos without gloves during a reno when its turned up. all Idid was simply move it (probably not the best idea)

 

The gloves are not the issue. If a few fibres get on your hands, it's really no different from getting on your gloves - as long as you don't sniff your hands or wipe them on your jeans then shake the jeans.

It's breathing asbestos in that is the issue!

Possibly too late now, but to,be really sure, wipe surfaces with a damp cloth. Use each side of the cloth once only and only wipe once per side. You can fold cloth into squares, or use small squares of cloth. These should be double bagged and disposed off correctly.

Don't vacuum. Instead just use damp wiping and mopping.

I am very surprised you didn't know about the possibility of asbestos in shower linings or recognise it?

The Rennovate Forums website has a great asbestos sub forum which I recommend to anyone doing a Reno.

 

Fibro with asbestos is everywhere.....nothing to be scared of or worried about really, if removing it some precaution is reqd, not a huge deal, it is blown out of proportion.

I also think the vacuum is the worst thing you have done, it would have guaranteed that the dust was floating around everywhere.

@Scott No Mates lol ... one day they may say you have to do something similar to what you say !

 

Thanks for the responses. I was expecting that Scott was a little OTT! I have since done some more research, and understand that some incidental exposure, while it carries some small risk, is not a death sentence. And we haven't actually vacuumed (no idea why I said that), but I guess sweeping is just as bad - and this wasn't in an attempt to move the asbestos, but just clean up a little.

@Joynz - great suggestion about the damp cloth. I will go over the bathroom in the method you suggest.

 

You will be ok now Asbestosman -just rememeber for next time .
If i encounter any i make sure whoever is handling it wets it down fully first and is covered up fully ,then wrap it in a thick plastic bag and tape it up then sent to asbestos tip

 

Buy a pro wet and dry Vacumn cleaner. Switch of the electricity, bring a electric cord in from the neighbours and water proof it. Spray down the entire walls and floor and ceilings with hot water and a scrubbing brush and give it a good broom brushing with soap. Suck everything up into a professional grade Vacumn cleaner. Take a big plastic bucket or a el cheapo blow up kids vinyl swimming pool line it with newspaper and gently Pour the waste water in there and let everything settle to the bottom for a few days Un-disturbed. Then evaporate the water by first draining from the water level so as not to disturb the dust. Once it's evaporated and it's just damp spray a thick layer of wood glue water mix onto the damp dust and newspaper and let it dry. Wrap the newspaper up in a tough plastic bag, take the vinyl pool or bucket and puncture it and dump it at an approved asbestos waste site.

 

Just in case anyone new to the subject of dealing with asbestos reads the post above - and gets the mistaken impression that this 'flight of fancy' is a good way to deal with asbestos - it is not.

 

the only way you know if it is asbestos, is to have it tested

 

We used to break it over each other's heads when we were kids wwf style.

 

No longer recommended. WWF caused kids to enact dangerous behaviour.