Wall removal - asbestos?

[whatever]

We use these during demo 3M Welding Respirator - 3M 7500 Series Respirators . It says welding, but when you get the mask and read the list, it covers everything. Everything, it's amazing and affordable.

Asbestos and Lead are your big things, but lets be realistic. This is a one time thing you are doing, you don't do this for a living. To be hurt by this stuff you have to be exposed to if repeatedly. Think of it like smoking a cigarette. If you smoked one you'd be fine. And really the new RRP laws are there for the safety of children, lead does not affect adults as much.

The other aspect of this is clean up. Lot's of plastic and tape so the dust does not get everywhere (and it wants to), then a hepa vacuum. You can where what ever mask you want and vacuum as much as you want, but unless you have a $500 hepa vacuum, you are not getting everything. Last, TSP that is found in cleaning products will neutralize the lead so you can wipe it up.

You mean like months of exposure from a large swath of the stuff with no Respirator, no dust control , no water down, no hepa vacuum on nearly an acre of the stuff being dug up, floating up into the sky and settling down over a house is going to be safe?

And forcing that neighbor out of the house in the middle of the night for emergency breathing treatments is not a concern for alarm? Plus the stomach pain that comes from asbestos hitting the stomach lining and weakening heart.

[Mr Morley]

Hello and Happy Friday,

The old plaster walls in early colonial days installation used straw, animal hair and any other thing the installers could find to bind the plaster together, however later built houses did use asbestos to bind the plaster together and a lot of the paint used on plaster walls in the old days contained lead so you want to be careful on two fronts.

I can attest to the fact that they were still using horse hair as a strengthening agent in plaster into the 1870s, so if you're allergic to horses, you'll need protect (we learned this with my little brother the hard way).

Also, if you're demoing old plaster, or drywall which doesn't have plaster behind it, you're also going to deal with decades of rodent droppings, which have become powdered and coat ceilings between joists and other spaces.

[Bystander]

I sample asbestos for my job, but I do not remove (abate) it, just to preface my advice. As far as I know, as a homeowner and not a commercial operation, you are exempt from many if not all regulations. However, it would be most wise to proceed accordingly to protect your family's health. Children are far more vulnerable to chemical and asbestos hazards because of their lower body weight, developing systems, and their metabolisms are comparatively higher to adults. Another poster was correct that a single exposure is unlikely to cause serious harm, but especially with children it would be stupid to knowingly and willingly cause them or yourself harm when the preventative measures are relatively easy. As an analogy, you do not blow cigarette smoke in an infant’s face. Other posters are correct to warn you to seal the area off with plastic and tape like a disaster movie. With children in the house while work is being done you do not want the dust from either asbestos or lead contaminating your house. If the dust gets on your carpet or sucked into a duct, good luck getting it clean again. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, or a hefty price tag at Lowe's. Bear in mind that dust will also spill behind the wall lathe, you will need to contain it here too lest it spread between the wall spaces. Honestly, though, prepping enclosures isn't my thing, so I'd ask others more knowledgeable than myself to weigh in. When you cut, keep the area well sprayed with a mix of water and a surfactant (soap). I believe the original AHERA regs specify using DAWN dishwashing liquid, you can Google to get the water/soap mix. You do not need something special. You want the spray misting through the air to knock the dust down onto the floor plastic, and with a sawzall that's going to be a lot of dust. Use the water/soap and paper towels to clean the sawzall by the way, it would defeat the purpose of everything if you kicked up dust everywhere the next time you use it. You want to use a respirator with P100 filters (HEPA means the same thing), not one of those N95 paper things. You can get a respirator with P100s at a hardware store worth its salt for under $30, maybe $15. Google how to do fit checks (not fit tests) to make sure you get a good seal every time you put it on. You may have to shave. Wear clothes you don’t care about and throw them away on site and wipe off outside your work area, ideally still inside an enclosed space, don't track through the house. Another poster was correct that to vacuum you really need to rent a HEPA vac, otherwise you will just spray contaminants back out of the vac exhaust. All this is going to generate a lot of trash, which you need to make sure you double bag and "goose-neck", especially the debris. On a work site you'd HEPA vacuum the outside of the work bags before taking them off, but residentially it's up to you. Likewise, non-commercially, I don't think you have to worry about labeling the waste as asbestos containing, especially if you don't have any documentation or test results. It goes to the same Class D landfill anyway. Just make sure everything is double bagged and sealed airtight so you don't expose your neighbors or the guys at the landfill. I know this all sounds like a lot, but in your posts you seemed rather concerned about contamination and health effects, and these precautions should minimize any problems. It'll be more time consuming and expensive this way, but if going all-out is going to help you sleep at night, I'd say go for it.