Asbestos inspection recommendation and pricing?

We are doing an asbestos inspection for our 3 story brownstone, and we’re looking for information on what we should expect in terms of pricing. Our initial building inspector said there was no evidence of asbestos, but since we’ll be doing a gut once we close, we’ll need a certificate for the city.  We’ve received a quote where they were planning to take between 30 and 60 samples, and their pricing for everything ranges between $1700 and $3000.  Is that within the expected range?  It just seems a lot higher than we expected.  Any recommendations for a second quote?  Thanks in advance for any advice.

theoperadiva

in Dept. of Buildings (DOB) 12 years and 11 months ago

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brucef | 12 years and 11 months ago

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OperaDIva, The ACP-5 certificatiuon you are referring to is directly triggered by the demolition sheets your architect submits to DOB inconjuntion with your new plans. Ours usually shows the walls to be removed with dotted lines. The asbestos inspector needs to know what to test, and the demo sheets tell him. I sold a commercial building to Asbestway, and I would recommend them for actual abatement. Should it come to that, talk to Mendy. You can use my name, Bruce. For an inspector talk to Yosef at 917 669 4846\. As with many of our neighbors, his accent is a little thick, but he is reasonable and experienced. He just did two buildings for us, $1170.00.

m926bk | 12 years and 11 months ago

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Joebushwick is correct.  The form you are referring to is an ACP.  The DOB will require it when you file for permits.  Do you have an architect or contractor on board?  He/she can explain the process to you.  It doesn’t make sense to go through this process (from getting proposals/estimates to doing the actual testing) until you have a clear scope of work and they know exactly how many samples they will need to take.  This form is 100% related to the permits your architect/contractor will be filing for, and the testing should be based on the filing drawings.

JoeBushwick | 12 years and 11 months ago

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Just to clarify, the DOB requires and inspection to determine that your renovation will not be disturbing any more than 10 sq. ft. of asbestos containing material.  This means that the inspector must test anything suspicious in areas where you will be having work done.  This is not the same as an air sampling test.  The inspector will actually remove small samples of the materials that will be disturbed and send the samples to a testing lab to determine if they contain asbestos.  You should have a clear scope of work from your architect or contractor so that the inspector knows where he should be looking for asbestos containing material.  The DOB does not require that your property be asbestos free, just that you do not disturb asbestos containing materials during construction unless you take required precautions.

geek | 12 years and 11 months ago

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I just had an asebestos abatement done on the exposed steam pipes in my basement so here’s what I learned that may be helpful with your issue: -It cost me $2250 to remove asbestos around the steam pipes in about a 2000 sq ft basement.  Pricing seemed to based on the space because keeping the space covered with plastic is required, in addition to air filtration.  They didn’t seem to measure the actual piping when calculating the quote. -It cost $400 to have an “independent” lab take air samples.  The lab was brought in by the abatement company.  I believe this is required to make sure the abatement is done properly. -They were only able to quote/remove what they could see.  From what I was told (consistant with my research) if it is encased in a wall, it shoud not be a problem.  If I were to do further demolition, we would need to find it and then abate it at that point, so it would make sense to gently open what ever cavities you plan on demoing to see if you see any asbestos.  Based on my recent abatement experience, I believe asbestos professionals should be able to identify potential problem areas prior to demolition.  They should work with your contractor to expose enough of the space to identify the asbestos locations.  If there isn’t any exposed asbestos and you’re concerned about it, I think you can contact a testing company and have them take an air sample (as I said the required one with my abatement on 2000 sq ft cost $400), but I don’t think there’s any requirement to test for asbestos if there is no evidence.  I think a licensed contractor would most likely not want to expose themselves to any risk so I would think that they would stop work if they saw any evidence at which point you could test. BTW, I am super concerned about home indoor air quality myself, so is that why your testing or is there somebody/something that leads you to think you need to test? Hope that helps.

slvillager | 12 years and 11 months ago

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we paid 500 just for our cellar, so 1700-3000 for a whole house sounds about right. i guess it makes sense to be really thorough, you don’t want an “asbestos surprise”.