What about Asbestos?

For many years asbestos, a natural mineral, was routinely added to other materials to provide insulation or fire resistance. Most com­monly, it is found in a cement-like coating on heating pipes.

Breathing in asbestos fibers causes emphysema, lung cancer, and other problems. However, as long as asbestos is “static,” meaning that it is not shredding or flaking off, it generally poses no immedi­ate threat.

What is essential, however, is to avoid prodding or touching the fibers on your own. You need a professional environmental test­ing firm to test suspicious-looking insulation and if it is asbestos, to remove it according to procedures that conform to the require­ments of federal and state laws.

In some states, it is permissible to encapsulate asbestos (wrap it in a plastic-like compound) so that it will not escape. In addition to federal and state laws, you may also encounter asbestos-abatement laws that are in effect on the local level. If your community requires a C of A (certificate of occupancy) to be issued after inspection by a city official, it may well be that a building can fail that inspection if asbestos is present.

If you suspect there is asbestos in a building you are considering, be sure to have a qualified inspector inspect the property before you move along too far into the buying negotiations. Removing asbes­tos in accordance with environmental guidelines is very expensive; removing it from the heating system of just one heating system in a small home can cost thousands of dollars.