Home Restoration – Contaminant Removal Is Not a “DIY” Job

We’re fortunate to live in a day and age where we are fully aware of the dangers of certain types of airborne particulates in older homes and office buildings. Asbestos and insulation containing vermiculite are serious health risks and asbestos removal or vermiculite removal is a must for any structure containing either of them within building materials. Black mould is another and one that receives significant attention, and mould remediation is not to be postponed if mould is present. Having only a trained and experienced removal professional address the problem is essential.

If you have any reason to suspect any of the contaminants or materials detailed below may be in your home, contact a home restoration company and remedy the situation without delay.

Asbestos – If we knew then what we know now

Up until the later part of the 20^th century, asbestos was incorporated into building materials due to the fact it was a fire inhibitor that would slow the extent to which parts of a building would be consumed by fire. Since then, it has been determined that the asbestos fibers pose serious health risks to humans when they are disturbed and subsequently inhaled by whoever may be in the immediate area. Asbestos fibers can become entrapped in the lungs and a whole host of health problems, including cancer, may follow.

Asbestos removal needs to be an especially thorough process, and especially so considering the individual fibers are too small to be seen by the naked eye. The industry-standard procedure is as follows:

• Tightly seal off the work area
• Break down the affected materials in a deliberate and detailed manner
• Remove and transport these materials to a proper disposal facility in a sealed container
• Rebuild the affected areas with new uncontaminated building materials

Again, older buildings – both residential and commercial – will be more likely to contain asbestos. Make sure to consider this if you’re looking at purchasing one and particularly if it is to be a home for your family.

Mould – Early detection and treatment is key

Everybody loves water, but when it gets into spots where it can’t get out or evaporate then things can turn “fuzzy” in a bad way. Even if you should discover a mould infestation yourself, be advised that you should not attempt to remove it yourself as you will inevitably shake any number of mould spores into the air and expose yourself and perhaps others to them.

Hunting them out is fine, and encouraged even. But should you find mould, your next move has to be to phone a home restoration professional.  They will conduct a thorough and extensive mould remediation process across any all affected areas on the property and do so in a manner that minimizes the chances of airborne spores.

Mould is commonly found in these areas:

• Attics
• Bathrooms
• Basements
• Inside of Walls
• Carpets
• Windows
• Crawl Spaces

Vermiculite  – Stay warm without the risk

It may be great for soil aeration, but vermiculite is an unwelcome guest in a home or commercial building. It is, however, all to commonly found in buildings built any time before the 1990s. It was identified as having strong insulation properties, but the problem is that much of the asbestos put down as insulation contains tremolite asbestos and any type of asbestos poses a health threat to humans.

The offending material is most often found around water boilers, on the inside of walls or laid down thick in ceiling panels. For the same reasons you don’t want to be disturbing asbestos, you similarly don’t want to take on any type of vermiculite compound insulation. Vermiculite removal should, again, only be undertaken by a trained professional who will see to it the entirety of the material is removed with as little disruption and air contamination as possible.

Home and property owners in the Lower Mainland can be assured of the best and most reliable home restoration services from Urban Environmental Ltd. Trust your living or working space to them for asbestos removal, mould remediation and vermiculite removal in Vancouver.