Buying a house with asbestos covered pipes?
Posted on October 1st, 2009 by admin
Asbestos
My wife and I are looking to purchase a house that has asbestos wrapped pipes in the finished basement. Didnt know if it would be best to replace the pipes with a different type of insulation or if it would be ok to simply recover or re-wrap them. What would be the cost difference between these two options? If we simply re-wrap the pipes instead of removing them, what will this do to the resale value of the house? I understand that anything with asbestos is not good to have in a house. But I have also heard that simply painting over a surface that has lead-based paint with new, non-lead paint is sufficient. That is basically what I want to potentially do with these pipes if we buy this house. At the extreme, would having these pipes with asbestos be enough to cause you not to buy this house? Thanks.
My wife and I are looking to purchase a house that has asbestos wrapped pipes in the finished basement. Didnt know if it would be best to replace the pipes with a different type of insulation or if it would be ok to simply recover or re-wrap them. What would be the cost difference between these two options? If we simply re-wrap the pipes instead of removing them, what will this do to the resale value of the house? I understand that anything with asbestos is not good to have in a house. But I have also heard that simply painting over a surface that has lead-based paint with new, non-lead paint is sufficient. That is basically what I want to potentially do with these pipes if we buy this house. At the extreme, would having these pipes with asbestos be enough to cause you not to buy this house? Thanks.
Filed under: Maintenance & Repairs
MateMediaSoft
The best solution is also the most expensive. Have a licensed abatement contractor remove the asbestos! Negotiate with the seller of the house so that you can recover the cost of the removal. Best to you!
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the best solution is to remove the asbestos and re-wrap the pipes but its the costliest it would not stop me from buying the house but i know that i am in the minority
The Mexican Flu – Swine Flu
I wouldn’t buy the house unless you can get the seller to abate the asbestos. You are going to get stuck with an expensive problem.
You need a licensed asbestos contractor to do the removal. They have to monitor air quality during the process then dispose of it in a proper manner. Once you take possession of the property it will become your problem and you’ll never be able to sell it with the asbestos in it.
The Mexican Flu – Swine Flu
It is possible to wrap the asbestos and encapsulate it however, it is much better to have it removed. Make sure that if this is your request that the seller, provides you with a receipt from a LICENSED (E.P.A) ASBESTOS REMOVAL COMPANY, rather than it just being removed. Removing asbestos improperly makes the condition 100x’s worse (because its now airborne with millions of particles in your air) than the asbestos laying on a pipe/wall in a stationary position.
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If they aren’t disturbed then they will be okay as is. Only when you disturb the wrapping will you get problems. If it is the case that you need or want to do something about them, then you do need to call in a specialist. You can also re-wrap them with more insulation, this will not hurt anything. Call a person in the business if you are still worried, but if you don’t disturb them, then you will be alright.
MateMediaSoft
It is not legal for you to remove asbestos and dispose of it without permits. Since you haven’t closed on this property, I would call a professional company and get a quote to remove it. I don’t know about painting over it, but having asbestos in my house would keep me up at night ! Also, you must think about resale value. If the laws regarding asbestos were to change while you own this property, you may not be able to sell it without complete remediation, which is very expensive indeed !