Asbestos ceiling?

[Gardenarian]

Hi all,

DH and I are looking at a house (actually, two houses on one lot) as an investment. It's not a super deal, but it's in an awesome neighborhood and both houses are great, lots of character.

The one issue: The larger house possibly has asbestos tile in the downstairs ceilings. The tile ceilings are unattractive, but I could cover them with a textured (anaglypta) wallpaper. Everything I read says that asbestos is safe as long as you don't mess with it...but what if there is a leak or fallen branch and the ceiling becomes compromised? And how does having asbestos effect the resale value?

I don't know for certain that they are asbestos tiles, but I'm wary of making an offer on the house and paying a lot of money for inspections and so on.

Would you buy a house with asbestos ceiling? Would you have it taken out (hard to get every last fiber collected afterwards!!) or would you leave it?
If it turns out to be asbestos, would you ask for a reduction in price?

We are planning on making a cash offer at about 10% below the selling price. It has been on the market since just before Xmas and houses in this area tend to be snatched up within a couple weeks. (This is a slow time of year.)

The owner claims not to know what the ceiling tiles are made of, though clearly there are new light fixtures throughout.

Suggestions?

[rodeosweetheart]

Ooh, if you are buying this to rent, think about it long and hard. Thinking about liability and health claims. Just thinking here.

Asbestos affects resale in a negative way, although professional remediation should take care of the problem.

Will you need a mortgage? If so, asbestos can be a problem.

Personally, I would look farther, but many folks would hav eno problem buying a house with asbestos after remediation or figuring out way to remediate it before the purchase.

[Gardenarian]

Thank you for the feedback! Even though I read over and over that it's safe, I can't get past the "EEK Asbestos!" factor.

We would be paying cash. The house(s) are in a highly desirable historic district; the smaller one could be used as a vacation rental bringing in $150-$175 per night. There is no asbestos in the smaller house (built in 1993.)

I would get an estimate on the remediation...though you always hear that it's best just to leave asbestos in place. I would be worried that one of those tiny little fibers would get to me.

I'm thinking maybe we'll put in an offer and do the asbestos testing right away. That's only $50. We could wait on the more expensive inspections until we got the word on the ceiling.

[Williamsmith]

Asbestos can be a real headache. But is it asbestos? You obviously have more than a passing interest in the house so why not ask the owner for permission to get it inspected and tested? The answer will determine your next move. Professional remediation is going to be expensive. You offer should be reduced by the cost of remediation. Otherwise is it really worth it to get in a bidding war?

[Gardenarian]

Williamsmith, I wish we could. But we are not allowed to do any inspections until an offer has been accepted

[kally]

we bought an old house 8 years ago. We were told that there was vermiculite in the attic, but it was safe if we just left it there. No worries.
Since that time no one will buy a house with vermiculute (just a possibility of asbestos) so it has to be taken out at some point. We took it out about 4 years ago, a hazmat company 4 days onsite $9000.00. Think long and hard about having any asbestos anywhere in the house.

[Ultralight]

At my parents' house when I was a kid they had a two story print shop from the previous owner out back in the yard. It was the size of a small house, perhaps 700 square feet. It was completely covered with asbestos. When I was about 14 they gave me the summer project of tearing it down and burning it in a "burn pile."

My tools were a claw hammer and a hatchet.

I wonder if it was bad for me to be working with asbestos like that.

[kib]

There is usually wiggle room in a contract, in other words you can back out (which also means you can lower your offer) if the house doesn't pass inspection. Your realtor should be able to expand on that, putting in a clause that specifically includes passing asbestos testing. Asbestos is IMHO "one of those things" - sort of like mold. You can probably live with it forever and never have a speck of trouble, but it would be a big liability in a rental or for resale.

[pinkytoe]

Do they have disclosure laws in your state? Here, it must be stated on a disclosure addendum given to anyone looking at the property so you know exactly what "defects" it has, asbestos being one. I believe it might also affect insurance rates.

[SteveinMN]

I guess I have a different view on this one.

Many houses are loaded with materials which seemed thoroughly modern at the time but which time proved to be dangerous. As we looked at replacing the windows in our mid-70's house, every contractor mentioned having to deal with lead paint, which was not completely out of the construction business by then. This same house had suspected asbestos-backed vinyl flooring in the kitchen; the installer had to seal and level it before the new floor went down. My rental property had some asbestos-lined ducts that had to be worked around when we updated the place. Many of the homes around here have to remediate radon, which just happens to occur in the soil beneath some houses and not others. For a while before homes were ventilated better, a tight house often resulted in mold, hidden at first and then creeping, like rust, out into the open. Current homes contain flooring and other materials in which aldehydes are present in off-gassing.

Sometimes it's perfectly okay to just encapsulate the material (as they did with our floor) and which they could do with Gardenarian's ceiling tiles. Much will depend on code and finding someone with the knowledge and integrity to deal with it properly. If it were me, I'd make a few calls and ask for a ballpark price on either removing or encapsulating the ceiling; you know the area it covers and you probably can describe the tiles well enough -- it hasn't been that long since they went out of fashion.

Houses will always have liabilities. I think it would be very difficult for any given renter to declare that, of their exposures in other properties, at work, with personal habits such as smoking, etc., their health problems came from your property. By all means, know what you're dealing with. But there are plenty of materials which have been used in buildings which are dangerous under certain conditions. If we all shyed (sp?) away from a property with problems, no one would ever buy a house.