Charlotte Asbestos Testing for a Standard Home Begins at $250 plus $15 per Sample!

Get The Lead Out® has tested thousands of homes, apartment buildings and commercial buildings for Asbestos Containing Material (ACM) since 1993.  We are a professional company with experienced, qualified, licensed asbestos inspectors that will uncover any asbestos-containing material on your property!  It is estimated that thirty million tons of asbestos building materials were used in the U.S. between 1900 and 1975 with probably eighty to ninety percent of that still in place.  This is why it can be found in many commercial and residential buildings built before 1975.  Because of its needle-like shape, an asbestos fiber can stick to lung tissue if inhaled and cause an inflammation.

Types of Professional Asbestos Tests

There are two types of professional asbestos tests that Get The Lead Out® inspectors use to identify the presence of asbestos.  One is a basic test and the other is a more advanced test.  As asbestos fibers cannot be seen without the use of a microscope, these two methods are the recognized tests that the EPA utilizes.

PLM (Polarized Light Microscopy) Test
The EPA requires that the asbestos content of suspect materials be determined by analyzing samples with polarized light microscopy (PLM). PLM analysis results give the percent and type of asbestos in the sample. The asbestos content of manufactured items ranges from one percent to 100 percent.  Our experienced and licensed asbestos inspectors carefully target and collect enough individual samples to proficiently determine the presence of asbestos.  These samples are then shared with our EPA-approved laboratory partners. With this method, a small amount of the sample is crushed and placed on a microscope slide using the appropriate refractive index oil. Polarized light is used to observe the many optical properties of asbestos fibers that allow the microscopist to distinguish it from non-asbestos fibers.

Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) Test
TEM is also used to identify and quantify asbestos in a bulk sample. TEM uses a beam of electrons from a filament in a vacuum. The TEM's electron beam passes through the sample and an image is displaced onto a screen. Using an energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) and a computer system, information about the fiber's elemental properties can be gathered and graphed in their appropriate ratios. The higher magnification used by the TEM allows for more accurate asbestos concentration estimations in samples that contain very little asbestos (less than 5%). TEM samples are ashed at 480°C for 6-8 hours to eliminate the organic binder and/or tar material, and are then treated with acid for a few minutes to eliminate the carbonate material. This allows hidden asbestos fibers to surface and be easily noticed and identified under the TEM.

Cost of Basic PLM Asbestos Test
A basic PLM Asbestos Test with Get The Lead Out® costs $250 plus $15 per sample.  The number of samples collected at your home depends upon the initial survey and findings of our inspector.  The variance in cost is tied to the number of samples that are collected for testing.

The cost of a TEM test varies widely and we can give you an estimate for bulk sample collecting under this very advanced asbestos testing method.

Please call Get The Lead Out® at 704-376-3594 or email peteh@gettheleadout.biz to find out more about PLM and TEM asbestos testing for your home.  Peace of mind and general safety for your family is the very reason we provide these asbestos tests. 

 

Technorati Tags: charlotte asbestos testing,charlotte PLM asbestos test,charlotte TEM asbestos test,charlotte residential asbestos testing,asbestos cancer,asbestos inspection,asbestos removal

 

Charlotte Asbestos Testing & Asbestos Removal Before You Remodel

Are you thinking about remodeling your home?  Was your home built before the 1970’s?  There could be a chance that some of the materials used in the construction of your home contain asbestos.  Get The Lead Out® can professionally assist you with the identification, assessment, and management of asbestos. Our expertise, training, and up-to-date regulatory knowledge allows us to provide comprehensive and complete asbestos testing and consultation.

What is asbestos?

Asbestos is a mineral fiber. It can be positively identified only with a special type of microscope. There are several types of asbestos fibers. In the past, asbestos was added to a variety of products to strengthen them and to provide heat insulation and fire resistance.

What could contain asbestos in your home today?

Most products made today do not contain asbestos. those few products made which still contain asbestos that could be inhaled are required to be labeled as such. however, until the 1970s, many types of building products and insulation materials used in homes contained asbestos.

Common products that might have contained asbestos in the past, and conditions which may release fibers, include:

Resilient floor tiles (vinyl asbestos, asphalt, and rubber), the backing on vinyl sheet flooring, and adhesives used for installing floor tile. sanding tiles can release fibers. so may scraping or sanding the backing of sheet flooring during removal.

Patching and joint compounds for walls and ceilings, textured paints and ceiling texture. sanding, scraping, or drilling these surfaces may release asbestos.

Houses built between 1930 and 1950 may have asbestos as insulation.

Steam pipes, boilers, and furnace ducts insulated with an asbestos blanket or asbestos paper tape. these materials may release asbestos fibers if damaged, repaired, or removed improperly.

Cement sheet, millboard, and paper used as insulation around furnaces and wood burning stoves. repairing or removing appliances may release asbestos fibers. so may cutting, tearing, sanding, drilling, or sawing insulation.

Door gaskets in furnaces, wood stoves, and coal stoves. worn seals can release asbestos fibers during use.

Soundproofing or decorative material sprayed on walls and ceilings. loose, crumbly, or water-damaged material may release fibers. so will sanding, drilling, or scraping the material.

Get The Lead Out® will make sure make sure that the asbestos inspection will include a complete visual examination and the careful collection and lab analysis of samples. If asbestos is present in your home, our report will provide a written evaluation describing its location and give recommendations for correction or prevention.

For more information about residential asbestos inspections, please call Get The Lead Out® at 704-376-3594 or email peteh@gettheleadout.biz.  We look forward to working with you and keeping your home safe from the dangers of asbestos.

Technorati Tags: charlotte asbestos testing,charlotte asbestos removal,charlotte asbestos consulting,charlotte asbestos abatement,charlotte asbestos experts,charlotte asbestos home remodeling,asbestos cancer

 

Charlotte Asbestos Inspections from Get The Lead Out Can Calm Fears about Cancer from Asbestos

Charlotte and the surrounding area has a number of neighborhoods and buildings that were built before 1970 and the asbestos regulations that were passed to protect people from exposure to asbestos-containing products.  Could your home be at risk?  Where is asbestos found?  Get The Lead Out can help you find out.

Asbestos is a mineral fiber. It can be positively identified only with a special type of microscope. There are several types of asbestos fibers. In the past, asbestos was added to a variety of products to strengthen them and to provide heat insulation and fire resistance.

From studies of people who were exposed to asbestos in factories and shipyards, we know at Get The Lead Out that breathing high levels of asbestos fibers can lead to an increased risk of:

• lung cancer;
• mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the chest and the abdominal cavity; and
• asbestosis, in which the lungs become scarred with fibrous tissue.

The risk of lung cancer and mesothelioma increases with the number of fibers inhaled. The risk of lung cancer from inhaling asbestos fibers is also greater if you smoke. People who get asbestosis have usually been exposed to high levels of asbestos for a long time. The symptoms of these diseases do not usually appear until about 20 to 30 years after the first exposure to asbestos. (photo at left is a cancerous lung from asbestos)

Most people exposed to small amounts of asbestos, as we all are in our daily lives, do not develop these health problems. However, if disturbed, asbestos material may release asbestos fibers, which can be inhaled into the lungs. The fibers can remain there for a long time, increasing the risk of disease. Asbestos material that would crumble easily if handled, or that has been sawed, scraped, or sanded into a powder, is more likely to create a health hazard.

Examples of Where Asbestos Hazards May Be Found In The Home

• Some roofing and siding shingles are made of asbestos cement.

• Houses built between 1930 and 1950 may have asbestos as insulation.

• Attic and wall insulation produced using vermiculite ore, particularly ore that originated from a Libby, Montana mine, may contain asbestos fibers.

• Asbestos may be present in textured paint and in patching compounds used on wall and ceiling joints. Their use was banned in 1977.

• Artificial ashes and embers sold for use in gas-fired fireplaces may contain asbestos.

• Older products such as stove-top pads may have some asbestos compounds.

• Walls and floors around wood burning stoves may be protected with asbestos paper, millboard, or cement sheets.

• Asbestos is found in some vinyl floor tiles and the backing on vinyl sheet flooring and adhesives.

• Hot water and steam pipes in older houses may be coated with an asbestos material or covered with an asbestos blanket or tape.

• Oil and coal furnaces and door gaskets may have asbestos insulation.

Get The Lead Out can provide Charlotte asbestos testing to discover if asbestos is present around your home.  Call us at 704-376-3594 or email peteh@gettheleadout.biz to learn more about asbestos and asbestos management.  There is no need to panic or live in fear of possible asbestos present in your home.  We can help you accurately determine if asbestos is present or not!

Technorati Tags: charlotte asbestos inspections,charlotte asbestos testing,charlotte asbestos cancer,charlotte asbestos abatement,charlotte asbestos removal