Asbestos Testing on Staten Island

Old floor tile looks like old floor tile. Pipe insulation looks like pipe insulation. Whether either one contains asbestos is invisible to the eye, and that is why the whole job starts here. A certified inspector walks the area you plan to work on and identifies every suspect material: tile and the mastic underneath, textured ceilings, joint compound, pipe and boiler wrap, duct wrap, siding and roofing. Each material is sampled separately, carefully and in a way that keeps disturbance to a minimum. Each sample is sealed, labeled with its exact location and shipped to an accredited laboratory. Results arrive, and you get them one by one. Sample one, kitchen floor tile: positive. Sample two, the mastic under it: positive. Sample three, the hallway ceiling: negative. That level of detail tells you exactly what a contractor can touch, what needs abatement and what can be ignored. Staten Island homeowners usually call before a renovation, a boiler replacement, a sale or a purchase. Contractors call before they open walls. Property managers call before work in a shared basement. On Staten Island the results can also feed directly into an ACP-5 or a removal scope, since the borough falls under New York City's DEP rules.