Asbestos Fallout

First of all, the asbestos abatement company botched the job, in the sense that they (a) did not actually clean off all of the popcorn material from the ceilings, and (b) ruined most of our walls by tearing gaping chunks out of the paint and even the plaster (exposing the sheetrock) and leaving streaky residue running from picture rail to floorboard. Oops.

The remaining asbestos is inexcusable. But the damage is apparently "normal," it's just that the company wasn't up front about it. The abatement process is to use a strong adhesive tape to put up very thick plastic sheeting to protect the wall surfaces from getting asbestos particles on them. Then they spray the hazardous material with an "encapsulant" to wet it, and scrape it off, while running a high-powered vacuum. Or something. Unfortunately the tape tends to tear off paint underneath when removed, and the wet encapsulant can soak through the tape and run down the walls. It's harmless, but unsightly.

As a result, usually clients repaint after such an abatement. We did not know this and were hoping to get through the first phase without a repaint. We obviously contacted the supervisor and he agreed to "make things right," and there were workmen at our place today supposedly doing just that. We'll probably end up repainting now, but hopefully we get a bit of a discount for our troubles.

Second, the removal of the popcorn ceilings revealed another fun surprise - there appears to be water damage from a leaky roof near the bay windows at the front of the house! The black spotting in the picture is from the wet tar running from the roofing and soaking through. But the roof was replaced last year (likely because the owners knew it was in bad shape), so this damage is probably fairly old.

Our contractor has informed us this should be no big deal to take care of; it's likely the wood above is still in fine condition and just the damaged piece of ceiling needs replacing.

Given the facts, we now have an interesting theory about the house: what if the popcorn ceilings were applied very recently (like, a year ago when the owners made various touch-ups to prepare the home for sale), specifically to cover up the condition of the old ceilings? If that were true, they would have contained no asbestos! We'll never know (because we didn't pay for the expensive extra-accurate testing), but at least we have the peace of mind our new home won't give us mesothelioma.