Is a 'Monster' in Your home? - Page 2

"It's everywhere. You can find it all over old houses," said Smollen, whose Marin-based company is Smollen the Builder. "It's amazing to me how many contractors don't know all the places it's hiding."

"There's asbestos taping they used to use [on duct work]…They used to use a kind of [asbestos] mud for pipe insulation," the contractor recalled. "You could buy asbestos tile at Montgomery Ward's…Armstrong, Sears, everybody sold it."

"They used to wrap wires in it," he continued, noting also that the adhesives used in flooring are also a hazard. "That often had more asbestos than the tile did."

Smollen himself does not do asbestos abatement, but there are numerous firms he relies on that do.

"I have asbestos in my mid-century modern house, and I haven't told my wife yet," he admitted sheepishly. "It's in the tiles in our downstairs."

"I don't like touching it myself," said the contractor. "I usually just encapsulate it and leave it, go about my business."

"Abatement is expensive," he explained, adding, "Sometimes [with my contracting company] we can just change the scope of our work and keep it where it is."

If it has to be removed, he said, "I get it tested by someone else. We want it to be officially recognized by someone who does it for a living."

"We use a multitude of labs" for said testing, according to one of those asbestos professionals, Charles James, president of Jakela Inc. Environmental Services, which operates a subsidiary in Novato called Asbestos Control Center.

"With the Eichlers, it's typically when they're doing floor work [that there's greatest concern]," said James, who estimated that his company has done abatement at about 300 Eichlers over the past three decades. If a house has drywall dating back more than 25 years, not typically an Eichler concern, "That more than likely can have asbestos in it too."

James said in past decades, reroofing could also involve abatement issues, but today, most asbestos roofing has long been removed.

The critical issue is that inhalation of asbestos dust has been shown to cause its own lung disease, asbestosis, as well as a variety of other diseases and cancers, including mesothelioma.

"We go through a lot of respirators on my jobs. I want to keep my workers safe," said Smollen of asbestos issues, adding that mold could be a similar problem. "There's any number of things in the dust that you have to be aware of."

"The floor tile and the mastic tend to be ‘hot' when you check them out," said Charles of the main asbestos hazards in a mid-century home. "There's no risk if the abatement is done properly."

If you're doing a remodel, it's important to keep the possibility of an asbestos problem in mind, though.

"More important is just to assume you have one [a potential asbestos issue] when you open up a wall," Smollen warned. If you choose, as he has thus far, not to remove it from the house, it's recommended to leave the materials in question undisturbed and "make sure there are lots of layers between you and it."

And if a homeowner does have to have asbestos materials removed, Charles said, "They should make sure they use a qualified contractor. Usually, the shoddy ones will show their true colors if you ask enough questions."