5 Hidden Dangers of Asbestos in Older Homes

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Is your home your most valuable asset? If you’re like many, the answer is yes. That’s one reason many people invest in maintenance, repairs, and upgrades that improve their dwellings.

While DIY home renovations and remodels can save money and increase the value of your residence, it’s essential to understand what you’re getting yourself into. That's especially true if working on older homes because there's the possible risk of asbestos exposure. Asbestos is a naturally occurring mineral found in products used when building residences. It’s now banned.

However, it was used for many decades, so older homes may still have materials with asbestos.
If your home may be at risk, you need to hire a professional asbestos removal business.

Handling these products or materials yourself could put you at risk of asbestos exposure. That can lead to serious problems, including a deadly type of cancer known as mesothelioma.

Here are five potential ways you could be exposed to asbestos in your home.

1. Aging Materials

Older homes can have materials containing asbestos fibers. And those products can be all over the place. Whether the siding, insulation, or roofing, these products might have asbestos in them. As these materials get older, they can deteriorate.

That can be a problem since the deterioration process may unsettle the asbestos, send it into the air, and end up in peoples' lungs, where it could eventually lead to severe forms of cancer and other health problems.

2. Hidden Behind the Walls

Asbestos could also be hiding behind the walls of your home. It might be behind wallpaper, in the drywall, and in the joint compounds. As you might imagine, it's hard to know asbestos is there since it's hidden. That means you must be careful if your home is old enough for there to be an asbestos risk and take proper precautions if the plan is to do renovations.

3. Old Flooring

You should be careful with the flooring. Older flooring can contain asbestos fibers. If unbroken, you likely don't have anything to worry about. But if you have old linoleum or vinyl tiles containing asbestos, you should be careful. Older flooring can start to deteriorate, and the process will accelerate if nothing's done about it. Meddling with it, like ripping out the old flooring, could subject you and anyone else in your home to asbestos exposure. Contact a professional service provider to test your flooring for asbestos and, if there is any, get it safely removed.

4. Pipe Insulation

If you thought that was the full extent of the asbestos problem, you would be incorrect. Residences constructed before 1980 may contain pipe insulation with asbestos fibers.

Unfortunately, over time, the asbestos pipe wrap can start to degrade. If this occurs, all it might take to release the deadline asbestos fibers is any physical interaction with the asbestos pipe wrap. You might not even know there's a danger.

5. Roofing Materials

Another part of your home that might present asbestos risks is the roof. It used to be fairly common to find roofing materials containing asbestos. So, if you have an older home and haven't changed the roofing system in ages, don't throw caution to the wind by climbing on the roof and making roof replacement a DIY affair. It’s best to hire a professional to do the work. Again, asbestos isn't something to take lightly.

Depending on how old your home is, there could be asbestos risks you need to be aware of. Asbestos is nothing to take lightly since it poses severe health risks. If your home could contain asbestos fibers, proceed with caution. That’s especially true if you want to do renovations that could increase the risk level.