Why water mitigation companies, remodelers, builders, restoration companies, and contractors should address asbestos before disturbing building materials
Earlier this week, EnviroPro 360 received a call about a residential remodeling project near Columbia, South Carolina.
Based on the information provided when the project was scheduled, our understanding was straightforward: the contractor needed an asbestos inspection associated with an interior renovation.
When our inspector arrived at the property, however, it immediately became apparent that the project was much further along than we had expected.
Kitchen cabinets had already been removed. Flooring had been taken up. Bathroom materials had been demolished. Much of the interior removal associated with the renovation was complete.
Our inspector asked the contractor what additional building materials were going to be disturbed.
The answer was essentially none.
The demolition phase was finished. The contractor was preparing to begin installing the new materials.
At that point, our inspector had an obvious question:
What exactly were we being asked to inspect?
A pre-renovation asbestos inspection is intended to evaluate the materials that will be affected by the work before those materials are disturbed. If the demolition has already occurred and those materials have already been removed, the situation has fundamentally changed.
That is when we learned why we had actually been called.
SCDES Had Already Visited the Project
The contractor explained that an inspector with the South Carolina Department of Environmental Services had observed remodeling activity at the property and stopped to investigate.
The contractor understood that the Department wanted asbestos-related documentation or corrective action, but he was not entirely certain what was being requested.
Our inspector contacted the SCDES inspector directly.
The answer changed the entire scope of our involvement.
We had arrived expecting to conduct an asbestos inspection.
According to the direction provided by SCDES for this particular project, the disturbance that had already occurred required the contractor to move into corrective action. An asbestos abatement design plan was needed, and an asbestos abatement contractor would need to perform corrective cleaning of the affected property.
The contractor was fortunate that the situation did not immediately result in a significant monetary penalty.
But avoiding a fine does not mean the mistake was inexpensive.
The contractor was now facing environmental consulting expenses, an abatement contractor, corrective cleaning, potential scheduling delays, and other costs that were never included in the original remodeling contract.
What could have been a relatively inexpensive question before demolition had become a potentially expensive problem afterward.
The Cost of Not Knowing Before You Start
Consider how differently this project could have progressed if the asbestos question had been addressed before demolition.
If the materials scheduled for disturbance had been properly inspected and determined not to contain asbestos, the contractor could have proceeded with documentation supporting that determination.
If asbestos had been identified, the necessary abatement could have been priced before the renovation began.
The contractor could have presented that cost to the property owner.
The owner could have made an informed decision.
The environmental work could have been incorporated into the construction schedule.
And, most importantly from a business standpoint, the contractor could have protected the financial assumptions on which the job had been sold.
Instead, the environmental cost surfaced after the contract had been written and after demolition had occurred.
That can be devastating to the profitability of a project.
A contractor may believe that skipping an environmental inspection is saving a few hundred dollars or saving a day in the schedule.
But if suspect materials are disturbed and corrective asbestos work becomes necessary, those savings can disappear very quickly.
On the wrong project, the corrective work can consume the contractor’s entire expected profit margin.
The Laboratory Analyzes the Sample. The Laboratory Does Not Inspect the Building.
This is one of the most important distinctions for contractors to understand.
A laboratory result is not automatically the same thing as an asbestos building inspection.
A laboratory performs an extremely important function: it analyzes the material submitted for testing and reports what was detected in that particular sample.
But the laboratory was not at the building.
It did not walk through the work area.
It did not identify all of the suspect building materials that could be affected by the project.
It did not determine which materials represented separate homogeneous areas.
It did not decide where representative samples should be collected.
It did not evaluate the condition, location, or quantity of each suspect material.
And it did not determine whether the material submitted by a contractor was actually representative of the materials throughout the work area.
That is the role of the qualified asbestos inspector.
Why a Random Sample Is Not the Same as an Inspection
Suppose a contractor removes a piece of flooring and sends it to a laboratory.
The laboratory reports that the sample does not contain asbestos.
That result answers a very specific question:
Did the particular sample submitted to the laboratory contain detectable asbestos under the analytical method used?
It does not necessarily answer the much broader question:
Have all of the suspect materials that will be disturbed during this renovation been properly evaluated?
There may be multiple flooring materials.
There may be adhesive beneath the flooring.
There may be underlayment.
There may be different wall systems in different portions of the building.
Joint compound, texture, ceiling material, mastics, resilient flooring, insulation, or other suspect materials may also be present.
The laboratory cannot identify materials that were never submitted to it.
That is why the inspection process matters.
OSHA, EPA and the Qualified Inspector
OSHA’s asbestos construction standard, 29 CFR 1926.1101, applies to construction activities involving asbestos, including demolition, alteration, repair, maintenance, renovation, removal, cleanup, and related activities.
The standard also establishes responsibilities for determining and communicating the presence of asbestos-containing material and presumed asbestos-containing material before affected work occurs.
OSHA specifically provides a process for demonstrating that presumed asbestos-containing material does not contain more than one percent asbestos.
One method is a completed inspection conducted pursuant to AHERA requirements.
Another is testing the material. But when that route is used, OSHA states that the testing, evaluation, and sample collection must be conducted by an accredited inspector or a Certified
Industrial Hygienist, and the bulk samples must be collected using the sampling procedures referenced in 40 CFR 763.86.
That is an important distinction.
It means the asbestos determination is not merely a laboratory function.
The qualifications of the person evaluating and collecting the materials matter as well.
EPA Requires Separate Inspector Accreditation
EPA’s guidance reinforces that distinction.
EPA specifically addresses whether someone accredited as an asbestos worker or contractor/supervisor can collect bulk samples for an asbestos inspection without having separate inspector accreditation.
EPA’s answer is no.
Workers and contractor/supervisors are not automatically accredited to perform asbestos inspections. They must obtain separate inspector accreditation before collecting bulk samples for the purpose of determining the presence or location of asbestos-containing building materials.
EPA further states that even someone who collects asbestos samples only occasionally is subject to inspector accreditation requirements when those samples are being used to determine the presence, location, or condition of asbestos-containing building material.
EPA’s AHERA sampling procedures also place responsibility on the accredited inspector to collect samples from homogeneous areas in a manner sufficient to determine whether the material is or is not asbestos-containing.
Again, this is why dropping a piece of material at a laboratory is not the same as having the project properly inspected.
South Carolina Requires State-Licensed Asbestos Inspectors
For South Carolina projects subject to the state’s asbestos building-inspection requirements, SCDES requires the affected facility or portion of the facility to be thoroughly inspected before renovation or demolition.
SCDES states that the inspection must be conducted by someone trained and licensed as an Asbestos Building Inspector or Management Planner under South Carolina’s training and licensing requirements.
The inspector is responsible for identifying, quantifying, and assessing the condition of suspect asbestos-containing materials and preparing a written inspection report documenting the findings.
That makes the sequence important.
The proper question is not:
“Can somebody grab me a sample?”
The better question is:
“Has a qualified asbestos inspector evaluated the materials this project is going to disturb?”
Those are two very different things.
Why Water Mitigation Companies Should Pay Particular Attention
Water mitigation creates a unique challenge because the response is often urgent.
When a building experiences a significant water loss, crews understandably want to begin controlling the damage immediately.
Wet drywall may need to be removed.
Flooring may need to come up.
Baseboards may be removed.
Cabinets may be affected.
Ceiling assemblies may need to be opened.
Wall cavities may need to be exposed.
That urgency does not eliminate asbestos considerations.
OSHA’s asbestos construction standard expressly covers activities such as renovation, repair, removal, maintenance, and cleanup involving asbestos.
For mitigation companies, that means the asbestos decision needs to be integrated into the initial project workflow rather than treated as something to think about after demolition has begun.
Before employees begin disturbing suspect building materials, the company should know what those materials are and whether the asbestos question has been properly addressed.
Waiting until after the drywall has been cut, flooring has been removed, or debris has been spread throughout the work area can dramatically change the scope of the problem.
Building Permits and Asbestos Compliance Are Different Questions
The Columbia-area project also highlights another common misconception.
The contractor was performing what many people would consider a fairly routine interior renovation.
There were no major structural modifications. There was not significant electrical work. This was primarily a kitchen, bathroom, flooring, and finish remodel.
It would be easy for someone to think:
“This isn’t a major permitted renovation, so environmental regulations probably aren’t an issue.”
That is not a sound compliance strategy.
Building-code requirements and occupational/environmental requirements address different issues.
Whether a particular scope requires a traditional construction permit does not answer the question of whether employees may be disturbing asbestos-containing or presumed asbestos-containing materials.
OSHA independently regulates asbestos exposure during construction work.
South Carolina’s asbestos program also addresses renovation and demolition activities and requires qualified, licensed personnel to conduct regulated asbestos building inspections.
The environmental question needs to be evaluated on its own.
Do Not Base Your Business Model on the Assumption That Nobody Will Inspect the Project
There is another lesson from this project that South Carolina contractors should take seriously.
This project did not come to SCDES’s attention because the contractor called the Department and asked someone to visit.
An inspector observed remodeling activity and stopped.
That matters.
We continue to hear variations of the same assumptions in the construction industry:
“Nobody checks residential jobs.”
“They only look at major commercial projects.”
“If there isn’t a permit, nobody will know.”
Those are dangerous assumptions to make when the financial consequences ultimately belong to the contractor.
From what we are seeing in the field, SCDES personnel are actively visiting projects and environmental compliance is something contractors should expect to encounter.
Whether inspection activity increases or decreases over time does not change the contractor’s underlying responsibility.
The safest strategy is compliance before the project begins—not hoping the project will never receive regulatory attention.
The Better Business Model: Address It During Estimating
There is an opportunity here for professional contractors.
Environmental due diligence does not have to be viewed simply as another expense or obstacle.
It can become part of a better estimating and project-management process.
A remodeler preparing a proposal can identify environmental testing as a preconstruction requirement when appropriate.
A mitigation company can establish procedures for identifying materials that require evaluation before destructive removal.
A restoration company can explain to an insurance professional why environmental testing may be necessary before demolition proceeds.
A general contractor can require appropriate documentation from subcontractors before potentially suspect building materials are disturbed.
That allows environmental costs to be identified and communicated before they become change orders, corrective actions, or unbudgeted losses.
Negative Results Still Have Value
Contractors sometimes become frustrated when an asbestos inspection is completed and everything comes back negative.
It can feel as though money was spent to discover that there was no problem.
But that misses the value of the inspection.
A properly performed inspection that produces negative results provides information that allows the contractor to move forward with greater confidence.
You are not simply paying to “find asbestos.”
You are paying to answer the asbestos question before your employees disturb the building.
Sometimes the most valuable result is documentation showing that the materials being removed are not asbestos-containing.
That documentation can protect the schedule, the property owner, the workers, and the contractor.
If It Is Positive, You Want to Know Before Demolition
The same principle applies when asbestos is identified.
Finding asbestos before work begins is not what creates the problem.
The asbestos was already there.
The inspection simply identifies it while the contractor still has options.
The contractor can obtain abatement pricing.
The owner can decide whether to proceed.
The work can be scheduled appropriately.
The project contract can account for the additional expense.
And trained asbestos personnel can address the material before other trades disturb it.
Compare that with discovering the regulatory problem after demolition.
At that point, the issue may no longer be limited to removing an asbestos-containing material.
Now there may be dust, debris, surfaces, contents, adjacent rooms, HVAC systems, or other portions of the work area that need to be evaluated as part of the corrective response.
That is how a relatively simple environmental question can become a much larger financial problem.
The Lesson From This South Carolina Project
The contractor we encountered near Columbia did not set out to create an asbestos problem.
He was remodeling a house.
But the asbestos question was not properly resolved before the demolition phase of the project.
By the time EnviroPro 360 became involved, the materials had already been disturbed and the project had moved beyond the point where a normal pre-renovation inspection could solve the original problem.
Now an abatement design and corrective cleaning are being required for that specific project.
That is significantly more expensive than determining what was present before demolition began.
And that is the point I hope contractors take away from this situation.
Do not make asbestos testing an afterthought.
Before disturbing suspect building materials, know what you are working with.
Use properly qualified personnel.
In South Carolina, make sure the asbestos building inspector holds the appropriate state license when the inspection is subject to those requirements.
Document the findings.
If the materials are negative, proceed with that information.
If asbestos is identified, budget and plan for it before demolition.
Because the asbestos inspection you think is delaying your project may actually be the step that protects your employees, your customer, your syour employees, your customer, your
n overlooked:
The laboratory analyzes the sample. The laboratory does not inspect the building.
For contractors, mitigation companies, remodelers, builders, restoration companies, and property professionals, understanding that difference before demolition starts can prevent a much more expensive lesson afterward.
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