After we put in the offer for our house, two of the ceilings in the home tested positive for containing asbestos in the “decorative plaster finish.”
Fun!
We decided not to let this put us off because we knew that asbestos in only a problem if it’s disturbed and broken up. We were also planning on putting in new lower ceilings over the top of the skillion ceilings anyway in order to put some insulation in, so we figured we could just cover them straight over.
But after some more thought and since getting the keys, we’ve decided not to go ahead with lowering the ceilings at this stage after all… Given the high expense of doing that, even though it will be much nicer to have insulation in, we felt we needed to slow down and spend some more time to make sure we came up with the best solution for our money.
So we opted to go with the much less expensive option of getting the asbestos removed.
We could have left it alone and I’m sure it would have been fine, but so typically it is in the rooms that will belong to my girls and I just did not like the idea of it being in their flaky style ceilings! Especially if we decide to ever get bunks! (Not to mention that stuff is butt ugly)
This is the before-we-owned-it shot of what will be Abbie’s room…
Unfortunately you can’t really make out the detail on the ceiling and I stupidly forgot to take a close up photo. You’ll just have to trust me that it was ugly.
Yesterday morning bright and early the men in the special space-like suits came and made our house into a little bubble…
After 2 days of it being out of bounds, an air test was done on it today to confirm the asbestos was indeed all gone, and we were allowed back in.
Now the asbestos (and the retro style curtains and light fitting!) and gone, we have a nice blank canvas to work with…
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Much much better!
Today I paid the deposit for new curtains and tomorrow I’m hoping to get a start on the painting. Hopefully I’ll have some lovely after photos for you in the next couple of weeks and this room will be completely transformed.
But the asbestos news doesn’t stop there…
While the asbestos man was there he caught sight of the lino in our downstairs rumpus. He asked what our plans were for that area because he recognised the pattern (well I admit it is quite a memorable pattern)…
and after checking underneath it he is 95% certain that it is asbestos backed lino down there. He strongly advised me not to ever just go ripping it up without getting it tested first.
Oh my, do you know that was one of our first planned jobs! It is lifting and disintegrating in several parts, and is not really my “cup of tea” so we had been planning on just ripping it up and instead living with the plain concrete floor for now.
So.glad.we.didn’t!!
He quoted me $8000 to get it properly and safely removed…
Say what….???!!!!!
Waaaaaaaa….!!!!!!
Not happy!
I’m so glad his next sentence was
“If I was you I wouldn’t bother getting it removed. It is such a huge area and there really is no need to go to that big expense. You can just leave it down and put your next floor straight over the top.”
Phew! Major crisis averted!
However, even though we don’t have to go to that expense to remove it, since it’s in poor repair and is disintegrating I’d say that a new floor for downstairs just moved up our priority list somewhat. And at nearly 50m2 that is not going to be cheap either. Doh.
At least since that’s my new sewing room I’ll be able to “justify” the do up moving up the priority list hey 😉
I suppose that can be considered good news in itself heheh.
The next stage is that the builder starts on Friday.
He will be making the deck ballustrades safe and framing out and property finishing downstairs.
Eeek so excited!!
Hellooooo! I am finally catching up with all your exciting news! I can’t believe how quickly it has all happened but woohoo, so happy for you all! I remember us talking about looking for signs that you are making the right decisions and I think you will agree, you have certainly been blessed in more ways than one with your move back home 🙂
Anyway, looking forward to seeing more of your pics as you renovate (yep, that flooring downstairs definitely needs covering 😉 ) and I will email properly soon(ish!) Love to you all and big hugs for the girls xx
Oh Artex ( one of those textured ceiling things) has always had asbestos in, but I think it is the type NOT implicated in asbestosis. Though, I think I would be happier without any of it, too!
I didn’t know lino could have it in the backing!
I am with you- I think I would prefer it GONE… when you can..
Oh the joys of house keeping!
xx
Glad to hear the ceiling asbestos is gone, gone, GONE!
It’s too bad my BIL doesn’t live over there – I know he would give you the “family” discount for putting down a new floor…! Oh well. I’m sure it will be smashing in no time.
So much to do in a new home! My mother worked in a town called Asbestos in Quebec when she was in her twenties and there was an asbestos mine there. All through the years I was growing up there was a piece of raw asbestos which resided in front of the books in one of the bookcases. It was really cool looking and we used to pick it up and look at it all the time. Times change eh!?
We had asbestos floors too. We put hardwood right over the top. Now, the ceilings are all ” popcorn” ceilings. We.ll let the next owner worry about tackling those ceilings. We have painted all of them. Good luck!
Asbestos is evil. John lost his Dad, three uncles and his grandfather to asbestosis. They had all done pipe fitting and such where it was used a lot.
Whew, glad yer man spotted the lino problem!