A hazardous materials assessment is usually required before beginning a project revolving around a demolition or renovation. This assessment will properly identify any hazardous materials within a building that will need to be removed that require specific disposal procedures for the property owner’s safety. To safely perform a renovation or demolition of any kind, a hazardous materials assessment is necessary to remove all materials and substances that could prove dangerous to one’s health if disturbed. Such an assessment needs to be carried out by a hazardous materials consultant, a professional that utilizes different tools and resources to identify the hazardous materials that may not be able to be visible otherwise.
Find out everything you need to know about assessing hazardous materials and how they prioritize safety and health over anything else.
Why is the assessment required?
Homes that were built before 1990 are more likely to have incorporated hazardous materials in some regions of the house, like in the pipes or furnaces, because importing materials like asbestos into building supplies was ubiquitous. After some of these building materials were banned from numerous countries between the 1980s-90s for inducing ailments in individuals that vary in severity, assessments and testing were needed to rid buildings and homes of these harmful materials. Many municipalities
What a hazardous materials assessment accomplishes
Hazardous materials assessments are required before a demolition or renovation can take place. Professional consultants should identify every potentially harmful material and substance found in the home that cannot be seen with the naked eye. Although the house or building may look outwardly safe, you cannot determine the security of a property when mercury, lead, and asbestos can hide in plain sight. If exposed to these substances in any way, or if they are disturbed, and you inhale them, it can be highly detrimental to an individual’s long-term health. A hazardous materials assessment is necessary to keep everyone safe, including those working on renovations and demolitions and homeowners.
What is the process?
Before a demolition or renovation on any building begins, you need to understand the scope of the entire property so you can determine what areas need to be surveyed by professionals. After that, find a professional to do the survey for you. Any professional that you contact should be a certified consultant and building inspector and ask questions to this professional about their qualifications, history of inspection if they are insured, and what methods they will be used for sample analysis.
An appointment to survey the area will need to be scheduled once a professional inspector is chosen. The time this survey takes will depend on the size of the building and how many samples are collected, but on average, it can take anywhere between 30 minutes to over 2 hours, but it’s best to prepare for a long wait. The surveying inspector will have access to all property locations and perform the survey wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) for proper safety measures. In addition to the PPE, the surveying person might also have a hand tools respirator and an impermeable suit. When a sample is being taken from specific areas, those not doing the surveying must stand a minimum of 10 feet away from the person taking the sample.
Completed survey
When surveying a property has been completed, the samples collected will be submitted for analysis. The analysis results will be available between 2-4 days in a written report that showcases what is found in the samples and if any harmful substances have been reported. If hazardous materials are discovered, the report will include a thorough risk assessment stating how these materials should be handled, and the hazardous materials consultant might offer quotes to have these materials professionally removed.
Cost
Most companies that provide a hazardous materials assessment have a minimum fee that covers such elements of surveying, such as visiting the site, the length of the survey, and the number of samples that were subsequently collected and submitted for analysis. If you then hire professional services to remove the hazardous materials that were found in the investigation, there will be additional fees.
Possible materials identified
Because the assessment is meant to identify any nefarious material that can be a possible threat to the health of whoever is in the vicinity of the area, there are many common materials that the assessment will be able to ascertain. Some of the most common materials can include:
- Lead
- Mercury
- Asbestos
- Mould
- Silica
- Flammable materials
- Rodent or bird droppings
- PCB’s
- Arsenic
- Toxic or radioactive materials