Browse Forums General Discussion 1 Jun 20, 2007 8:52 am Hi,
My partner and I just bought our first house a couple of weeks ago (yet to move in) before we bought it a painter removed the textured ceiling in the hall way and three bed rooms, was no texture anywhere else in the house, he said he laid plastic on the walls and floors but there was quite a bit of white dust in the carpet and tons of it on all the services like window sills and above door frames, if you wipe your finger over some of the walls you get white powder on your fingers. I had four samples tested for asbestos three came back positive (two sills positive and one carpet samples positive the other carpet samples came back negative) the painter got in a bit of trouble over this and had to pay for asbestos cleaners to come in and for new carpet. Asbestos cleaners came in two weeks ago spent a few hours vacuuming and wet wiping window sills, cupboards and whatever else they did, few days later they came back pulled the carpet up and gave the place another vacuum. I also paid them a little extra to remove the lino in the kitchen, they used wall paper steamers and a scraper, did three air test about 2 hours later. They were in for four hours they all came back clear, all under 0.01 f/ml, the fiber count (fibers/100 fields) one was 1.5 second was 1 and third was 0. the place was probably pretty damp from the steamers and the weather was cold outside, how accurate would the air samples be because of the high humidity? I went through the place after I got the results from the air samples and there were a few places the cleaners had missed, some of the walls still had white dust on them and they didn’t bother cleaning the sills after they removed the carpet so they had dust from the carpet on them. I spent about 12 hours going through every room wet wiping all of the walls, vacuuming the floors and vacuuming the walls. How likely is it that there is still fibers in the air when the humidity is not so high? The new carpet goes in this Thursday so I want to be triple sure the place is clean enough. Sorry about the long post. Thanks Darren Re: Asbestos removed the wrong way? 2Jun 20, 2007 9:14 am DON"T vacuum the dust! Ooops, too late.
Normal vacuums aren't suitable for sucking up asbestos. They aren't fine enough and just blow the small particles out the back of the bag. I hope you were wearing a P2 filter. You need a special HEPA filter vacuum to suck up asbestos. You did the right thing in wet wiping the dust. Don't rush into laying the carpet. Postpone it. Get your asbestos monitor to come back, have a look and give his blessing before laying the carpet. Once the carpet is in and dust is still settling, it will be too late. Re: Asbestos removed the wrong way? 4Jun 20, 2007 10:14 am Bud977 Don't rush into laying the carpet. Postpone it. Get your asbestos monitor to come back, have a look and give his blessing before laying the carpet. Once the carpet is in and dust is still settling, it will be too late. You think its worth getting them back to have a look? They thought it was good enough before I did the cleaning, there is no dust or anything visible to see now. Re: Asbestos removed the wrong way? 5Jun 20, 2007 12:11 pm daz59 Hi, I did the vacuuming with a dyson vacuum fitted with a hepa filter. Dyson say their HEPA filter shouldn't be used with asbestos, but I dont know if that's just them wiping their hands of all the risks etc. Re: Asbestos removed the wrong way? 6Jun 20, 2007 12:25 pm I would. Don't underestimate the danger from asbestos. Apparently, one fibre could be enough to trigger health problems. Having another check would give you peace of mind, as you wanted.
I am not normally overly concerned about the dangers in life, but asbestos is one that we should all stick clear of. Here is an excert from the Queensland DEIR site http://www.deir.qld.gov.au/workplace/su ... /index.htm . "Asbestos vacuum cleaners Household vacuum cleaners must never be used where asbestos is or may be present - even if it has a HEPA filter. PPE should be worn whenever an asbestos vacuum cleaner is opened to change the bag or filter, or to perform other maintenance. Asbestos vacuum cleaners should only be emptied by a competent person: with the correct PPE in a controlled environment in compliance with the manufacturer's instructions. Wherever possible, asbestos vacuum cleaners should not be hired as they can be difficult to fully decontaminate. Hiring may be more viable in some cases, e.g. when a one-off maintenance task is required. Asbestos vacuum cleaners should only be hired from organisations that provide vacuum cleaners specifically for work with asbestos. More information on vacuum cleaners is available in section 11.8 of the asbestos management code (non-Queensland Government link)" By using your domestic vacuum, you have contaminated it with asbestos. To use it in future, you would need to decontaminate it, or you risk asbestos fibres being blown around your new house. How do you thoroughly clean it out of trapped particles? Ask your asbestos guys. You may have to toss it. Sorry about the bad news, but it pays to do things right when dealing with asbestos, for your peace of mind. Re: Asbestos removed the wrong way? 7Jun 20, 2007 1:06 pm parker daz59 Hi, I did the vacuuming with a dyson vacuum fitted with a hepa filter. Dyson say their HEPA filter shouldn't be used with asbestos, but I dont know if that's just them wiping their hands of all the risks etc. I know, I think your right about the reason. The owner of the company that did the clean said any vacuum with a hepa filter would be fine. There wasnt tons of dust around so wasnt to warried about the one off clean with the vacuum, the place had already been over twice with a vacuum by the asbestos removing company, I just pretty much cleaned up the little bits they missed. Re: Asbestos removed the wrong way? 8Jun 20, 2007 1:14 pm Bud977 I would. Don't underestimate the danger from asbestos. Apparently, one fibre could be enough to trigger health problems. Having another check would give you peace of mind, as you wanted. . I hear what your saying, but I dont see the point in bringing a company back that didnt do the clean properly in the first place, and thought the job was done properly when there was still dust on the walls and a few other places. I cant remember if I said this in the first post but after the asbestos company did the clean I had OSH over at the house looking through it because I wasnt happy with their job, the OSH guy saw the bits of dust they missed and said the quantity wasnt much to worry about but he would get the company back again to finish the job since good money was spent for them to clean up, the asbestos company came back vacuumed the floors again wiped the walls but still over looked a couple of bits that I got when I did the two cleans. Thanks Darren Re: Asbestos removed the wrong way? 9Jun 20, 2007 1:32 pm When I read the first post here, I had alarm bells ringing!
But others have pretty much covered it, so I don't have much more to say. Just to emphasize..... DON'T put new carpets in there until all asbestos is positively removed from the place. Good post there by Bud977. Ash. Re: Asbestos removed the wrong way? 11Jun 20, 2007 3:51 pm I have just rung 4 asbestos companies, all of them pretty much said, you passed the test, (a couple of them weren’t sure about the humidity causing the results of the air test to be out) the place has been cleaned over so many times that there is nothing more that can be done to the place, there is nothing different that the companies would have done to clean it than what I did, non of them said it was a problem that I used the dyson vacuum. I did ask them all again if there was anything else I could to clean the place, they all pretty much said no its already been done. Re: Asbestos removed the wrong way? 12Jun 20, 2007 3:58 pm maybe just get a new HEPA filter for your vacuum, just to be safe?
They are repalceable arent they? Re: Asbestos removed the wrong way? 13Jun 20, 2007 4:13 pm This would be about the best way to really be sure.....
Hire one of these... http://www.dri-eaz.com/PRODUCTS/HEPA500.html They are large capacity HEPA air scrubbers. The concept is you seal up a room, and have an air scrubber exhausting out of the window. This creates a negative pressure within the room. Then with PPE on, you go about thoroughly cleaning every surface. As you do so, anything released into the air is exhausted through/by the air scrubber. Then you move to the next room, and do the same until the whole house has been done. Afterwards, the HEPA filter is disposed of along with your overalls etc. If you want, I can tell you where to get an air scrubber. Contact a Dyson service centre about cleaning out your vac. Ash. Re: Asbestos removed the wrong way? 14Jun 20, 2007 4:47 pm parker maybe just get a new HEPA filter for your vacuum, just to be safe? They are repalceable arent they? Yep - from any Dyson service centre - and easy to replace too. Re: Asbestos removed the wrong way? 15Jun 20, 2007 7:47 pm royalblue This would be about the best way to really be sure..... Hire one of these... http://www.dri-eaz.com/PRODUCTS/HEPA500.html Ash. I had a fan in the window each time I did the cleans, I had the fan sitting in cardboard to seal the rest of the window (same sort of fan used in bathrooms), it doesn’t move as much air as the one your talking about, it moves about 1/8th the air. I had the doors shut in each room but I allowed the draft to come under the door as im sure it would send the dust out the wind easer if there is air flow in the room. If there was no air flow (ie sealing off all other windows and doors) then once the room drops to a set pressure the dust would just float around. Re: Asbestos removed the wrong way? 16Jun 20, 2007 8:28 pm Air scrubbers are specialised units that filter the air with high surface area pleated HEPA filters as they move the air.
A fan is just a fan, and if they are exhausting the particulates from the air, they are doing so into the atmosphere An air scrubber contains these contaminants for safe disposal. Proper asbestos and/or mould remediators will use negative pressure and air scrubbers throughout the operation. Ash. Re: Asbestos removed the wrong way? 17Jun 20, 2007 10:59 pm I wish I hadn't read this post. We have a house with presumably internal asbestos (fibro) walls. Whenever we have put a picture up and so on we sucked up the dust that was visible with our vacuum cleaner (which I think has a HEPA filter but we've been slack and never changed it in all these years)
We aren't moving house and have had any major walls removed by professionals but I'm wondering how to get up the dust if not using a vacuum cleaner when we put things up on the wall. Also how does one confirm that the fibro walls actually contain asbestos. The house was built around 1968 so I just assumed it had. Jola Re: Asbestos removed the wrong way? 18Jun 21, 2007 7:45 am Everything I've read says the only way to know for sure is to have a sample tested. What you are looking at is fibrous plaster, true gypsum, it is cast on horizontal beds with fibers included to give strength. I has no Asbestos in it. Houses before 1985… 2 7113 4 1825 |