Asbestos Removal on Staten Island

A removal job should start with a lab report, not a hunch. Once the samples are back, the scope is simple to write: these materials, in these locations, come out. That might be the wrapped pipes and boiler jacket in a basement before a heating system replacement. It might be old vinyl floor tile and black mastic under a kitchen that is about to be gutted. Popcorn ceilings before a remodel, joint compound in walls that are coming down, cement siding shingles before new cladding goes on, duct wrap in a mechanical room. Each one has its own removal method, but the controls never change. The area is sealed with plastic and kept under HEPA negative air. The material is wetted so it does not shed fibers. It is bagged or wrapped, labeled and sealed. Surfaces get HEPA vacuumed and damp wiped, and nobody reoccupies the room until an outside air sample passes. On Staten Island, where many homes and garden apartments date from the decades when asbestos products were common, that sequence covers single rooms, whole basements and pre-sale or pre-demolition work alike. Because the borough is inside New York City, the job also follows DEP's asbestos rules on top of New York State's Industrial Code Rule 56.