Inspecting An Inherited Home For Asbestos: Why Is It Important?

Posted on: 13 February 2018

If you've inherited an old home from a relative, you may want to move into the home soon. Before you go through with the moving process, you should hire professionals to perform an asbestos inspection. If you're inheriting a home that was built several decades ago, there is a good possibility asbestos was used at some point in construction for different purposes. It was once thought to be a safe product used primarily for insulation, but exposure to the fibers of asbestos can cause many serious health issues.

What Was It Used For?

In the past, asbestos was the go-to material for insulating homes. It was commonly used by professionals when insulating electrical equipment and adding insulation into the walls of a home as a way of controlling the temperature inside of the home. It was even used in some paint and cement products. The reason it was commonly used is because it was affordable and seemed to do the job, but the people who used it decades ago didn't realize the harmful effects it could have on their health.

Why Is an Inspection Important?

The last thing you want to do is move into a home where you may be exposed to asbestos. It's important to have an asbestos inspection performed to find out if it was used in any of the insulation or paint and cement products throughout the property. If you were to live in a home where asbestos is present, you could suffer from several medical issues. 

A professional will perform a full inspection of the property, looking for materials inside the home that may be damaged. The inspector will wear protective gear while gathering any necessary samples. Those samples are sent out to the lab for additional testing to determine if asbestos is present or not. Once you find out this valuable information, you'll need to decide what you're going to do. You may want to have all the asbestos materials removed from the property and replaced with materials that are safe to use in homes.

If you've inherited an older home, there is a possibility asbestos is present in the home because it was commonly used for insulation purposes just a few decades ago. Because exposure to the fibers can cause you to have difficulty breathing and could even potentially lead to a serious form of lung cancer, it's important to hire a professional from companies like Hutzel & Associates, Inc to inspect the home for you.

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