Asbestos Abatement Isn’t for Do-It-Yourselfers

We know how it is. Just about everybody’s a do-it-yourselfer at heart. It’s that old independent spirit that says you can stand on your own two feet and pack your own load.

But really, you wouldn’t try to perform surgery on your dad, and you probably wouldn’t let your kid give you a haircut.

Same goes for asbestos abatement.

The Risk Of Removing Asbestos Yourself

Handy as you are, it’s not something you should try on your own. And unless you want to end up paying jaw-dropping fines — and possibly putting people’s lives at risk — this is a job for a proven, reliable professional. It’s really more a matter of how much liability you’re willing to absorb.

Don’t believe us? Ask the American contractor in Massachusetts who just got sued by the state attorney general’s office for violating health and safety rules; he improperly removed asbestos-containing shingles from three different houses he was working on.

The state is asking the court to fine the guy $25,000 per day — and he and his crew were working on the houses between September of 2009 and April 2011, according to an article in South Coast Today.

Yeah. No kidding. That’ll add up.

The newspaper reports that the crew spread asbestos fibers into the air and onto the ground by blasting shingles with high-pressure water and by drilling through asbestos and trying to cover it up with vinyl siding. At another house, they removed asbestos-laden shingles, then hurled them off a roof and onto the ground, scattering asbestos everywhere.

Whether these guys knew what they were doing or not, the object lesson still stands:

Asbestos abatement is for people with proper training and credentials — not you, or the first contractor you find on the Internet. And you have to get it right the first time.

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