What is the Cost of Asbestos Removal?
The cost of asbestos removal in a home can vary greatly depending on which asbestos abatement contractor you hire. To limit your cost of asbestos removal it is important to find an experienced abatement contractor using a few time-tested guidelines. By following these conventional rules your total cost of asbestos removal may be less, and you will also sleep better at night knowing you hired a company that will do a safe job.
The Cost of Asbestos Removal Involves Many Components
The first thing you need to do is determine if you have asbestos-containing products in your home. If you don’t have any, your cost of asbestos removal will be only the price for asbestos testing. Asbestos is found in many building materials such as floor tiles and linoleum, acoustic and decorative wall and ceiling plaster, ceiling tiles, pipe insulation, and many other things. The only way to tell for sure if any of these products contain asbestos is to have them sampled and examined by a professional. Occasionally there will be clear markings on a product that will state the presence of toxic asbestos in that product, but most often the suspected materials will need to be tested to verify the existence or absence of this hazardous mineral.
When asbestos is found in your home it is important to make sure it is either removed or encapsulated properly. If the asbestos-containing product is in good condition it will usually pose no health threat if it is simply left alone and undisturbed. This means your cost of asbestos removal will be nothing. However, if it has been damaged or disturbed it’s possible that microscopic asbestos fibers are being released into the air. This can lead to asbestos exposure and eventually asbestos exposure symptoms and asbestos cancer. If this is the case you must either remove or seal it to prevent the fibers from becoming airborne. Airborne fibers can be inhaled and cause asbestos lung cancer, asbestosis, and mesothelioma, a deadly form of cancer. Your cost of asbestos removal will depend on on much contaminated materials there are, whether they will be removed or simply sealed, whether or not you do the job yourself, and other factors.
The Cost of Asbestos Removal Depends on Whether Removal is Actually Done
If you have determined that asbestos products are in your home you will have three choices: leave them alone, remove them, or encapsulate them. If you leave them alone, the only expense will be having them tested. Other than that, there will be no cost of asbestos removal. If you encapsulate or remove them there will be additional expenses. You cost of asbestos removal will vary greatly depending on whether or not you are sealing or completely removing the offending materials and also based on the amount of product that needs to be attended to. You should be aware that sometimes the cost of encapsulation may be greater than the cost of asbestos removal, so this should be taken into consideration as well.
It is important to get several estimates from top asbestos removal contractors in your area because the difference in their cost of asbestos removal can be huge. One company may have a minimum fee of $2,000 while another may be only $500. Hiring the more expensive company for a minor removal job can increase your cost of asbestos removal greatly. Many times prices are figured on square footage of the contaminated area while other times prices are based on the job as a whole. Again, different abatement companies will charge different amounts. One company may charge $500 to remove asbestos insulation surrounding a short piece of pipe while another may charge $250 for the same job. The only way you will get the best price is to do a little shopping around.
An average-size house, maybe 1,500 square feet to 2,000 square feet, will usually mean that your cost of asbestos removal will be about $500 to $1,000 under normal circumstances. Most homes will contain asbestos products here and there, but not everywhere, and hence your cost of asbestos removal will surely end up being a reasonable amount. However, if asbestos is found in your popcorn ceiling, linoleum flooring, and pipes, the cost of asbestos removal could be as much as $20,000 or more. The job price will vary depending on the amount of asbestos products in the home, how damaged the products are, and how hard they are to get to. If you are removing asbestos pipe insulation where the pipes are inside walls, your cost of asbestos removal will be more. However, if the pipes are inside the walls the insulation may not need to be removed unless you are remodeling. As you can see, there are many factors that will determine the total cost of asbestos removal.
The total cost of asbestos removal should be split between two top asbestos removal contractors. One contractor should do the initial testing of the materials in your home to verify the presence of the toxic mineral. This inspector will also do periodic testing before, during, and after the removal process to monitor the second company, which will be doing the actual asbestos removal. Hiring two different contractors will help ensure that a safe job is done. If one abatement service does both jobs there will be a conflict of interest. In this case, if the company does an unsafe job you may never know about it until it’s too late, which can put you and your family at risk.
If you decide to tackle the removal job on your own you should be aware of a few other things. It may be hard to believe, but hiring a contractor can sometimes be cheaper than doing it yourself. You will have to rent and buy specific pieces of safety equipment and tools to perform the job, which can be rather expensive. Once you pay for permits, hazardous disposal fees, breathing respirators, multiple disposable coveralls, non-fog goggles, gloves, boots, plastic sheeting, duct tape, and other protective clothing and tools, you may find the price higher than if you had just hired a professional in the first place. Most often, it is better to let the experienced and licensed professionals do the job as it will be safer, easier, and sometimes the cost of asbestos removal can even be less than if you did the job yourself.