A year-and-a-half ago we had our 1974 popcorn ceilings containing asbestos professionally scraped off. Unfortunately, although the company was licensed with the state, they left a lot of material inside our home. One of the rooms scraped was our garage. They definitely skimped the most on the garage. There are still patches of popcorn on the drywall. The problem is, we want to replace all of the drywall in our garage as it was damaged when we bought the hhouse.The company we got a quote from says they will need to demo all of the existing drywall since it is in poor condition. Being that this is in the garage, if I seal off the door to the house will that be enough to keep any potential asbestos fibers from entering our home? Is there a risk of that fibers could somehow get through the attic and into our rooms? Is there another option here? There is also still material on the lights and garage door that we are going to wet down and take care of before this begins. I just want all of this asbestos nightmare to be over.

 

Welcome to the forums!
The asbestos would only be in the texture. If you keep it damp while scraping it off and contain/dispose of the debris while wet there shouldn't be any health concerns.

 

Thanks! The issue is that the popcorn has already been scraped, but a few residual patches remain. The demo company is going to be removing the sheet rock with the residual on it, so I guess I'm just worried about any residual texture coming off in the process of removing the drywall. I'm a worrier, but after cleaning up ACM for several months last year with a baby in the house, I'm done taking chances.

 

I am not dismissing your concerns but I consider the asbestos fear to be largely unfounded and over-hyped. It is true that being careful is wise but it's not a chemical warfare agent. It's something that was used for many decades relatively safely and those injured had extreme exposure levels and often combined with smoking. I credit lawyers with a large reason for the extreme fear of asbestos.

That said, your risk was low when the popcorn ceiling was in the home. The risk was further reduced when 98-99.99% of it was removed. So, now you are left with a very, very small risk. Then any precaution taken during removal of your drywall takes the risk down to winning the Powerball range.

 

You're probably right. In college we handled chunks of asbestos in geology labs and I didn't think twice about it. I grew up in a home where we threw balls at the ceiling and watched the clumps fall to the ground. I suppose Ionly starting worrying when I had a kid - it's that need to protect and the worry that something could happen to them, no matter how small the chance. I'll try to relax about it!

 

Is the firm that removed the asbestos initially the same firm that will remove the ceiling? Are they a certified asbestos abatement firm? There is an established procedure for doing it. If done right they protect themselves and anyone in the structure. It sounds to me like they either cheated or did not know the right way to do it. You should not have had to clean up any materials. It should have been pristine when the removal was complete.
If you are really worried about health and safety spend the money to have it done properly.

 

I agree with Pilot Dane. I worked in power plants for over thirty years and I have no asbestos-related diseases. Truth is, of all the people that I have met that had a significant exposure to asbestos the ONLY ones that developed such problems were also heavy smokers.

That said, I do NOT think that asbestos is benign, it IS a hazardous substance and should be treated according to the appropriate haz-mat rules. But don't go nuts thinking you are going to die from just from having seen it.

 

Thanks for your input Furd. Stories like yours make me feel a lot more at ease. Honestly I don't fear getting a disease at all. Even if I did, I will have lived a full life by that time. My only worries are for my son and unborn child.

tightcoat, the company that originally removed the ceiling texture was a licensed abatement contractor. In Texas, there are no regulations of residential removal, but we wanted to play it safe. My husband and I actually work in the asbestos field and this company came highly recommended. We only decided to remove the ceilings because they were deteriorating. Upon arriving home after the abatement, there was debris all over our counters, appliances, ceiling fixtures, door frames, fireplace, and etc. There was an opening on top of a cabinet beside our fireplace that was full of popcorn material, that we didn't find until two weeks later. I kept out child out of the house until we cleaned up debris (most while it was still moist) and got a clear air test. We should have taken legal action, but it was a battle we didn't want to fight at that time. We did keep most of our belongings since the air test came back good.

The company removing the drywall is not licensed, it is a general contracting company. The drywall should not contain asbestos, so the issue is only the residual ceiling, which isn't a lot, but I've had enough stress over the last year and a half that I don't want to deal with any more asbestos. The company knows about the texture and doesn't seem concerned. I just want to make sure that the demo process doesn't cause anything to enter the house from the garage via the attic.

 

Long ago my father worked in a factory that made asbestos filter pads. They used the most hazardous kind of hammered asbestos. As a child I can remember playing in the factory and the clouds of dust as they cut the material. For 30 years we got thorough exams each year. They were concerned about my father because of his very high level of exposure and me because of the high exposure at such a young age, not just from my time in the plant but also the fibers brought home on my fathers clothes. All the doctors over the years have largely agreed that the risks are nowhere near what the lawyers' TV commercials make out. They all were unanimous believing that smoking was a huge trigger. Even with our high exposure the risk of mesothelioma was rather low as long as we didn't smoke. Now I'm over 50 and still no meso. My doctors are more concerned that I wear sunscreen and don't drink too much.