On a building constructed before 1990, a positive result is the expected outcome, not the surprising one. It changes the sequence and the cost of your project. It does not stop it.
The calls we get after a positive survey tend to have the same tone — somewhere between annoyed and alarmed. Usually the alarm is about the wrong thing. People worry about the material being present. What actually costs them money is not knowing what order to do things in from here.
Why almost everything old tests positive
Asbestos was used across a wide range of ordinary building products for decades: floor tile and the mastic under it, sheet flooring, drywall joint compound, textured ceilings, pipe and duct insulation, cement board, and roofing. A single house can contain several distinct asbestos-containing materials in completely unrelated places.
This is why a survey samples in layers and in multiple rooms rather than taking one sample per building. It is also why "we already tested the ceiling" is not a survey.
Intact, undisturbed material in good condition is generally not the hazard. The risk is created by disturbance — cutting, breaking, sanding, or demolishing it — which releases fibres into the air. That is exactly why the survey has to happen before demolition rather than during it.
What the report actually tells you
A useful survey report does more than say yes or no. It should identify each confirmed or presumed hazardous material, where it is, roughly how much there is, and what condition it is in. Materials are also characterised as friable or non-friable — broadly, whether the material can be crumbled by hand pressure — because that distinction drives how removal has to be carried out and therefore what it costs.
If your report gives you a yes without locations and quantities, you cannot price abatement from it and neither can anyone bidding the work. Ask for it to be completed.
The sequence from here
- Scope the abatement. The report is translated into a removal scope — what comes out, in what order, under what containment.
- Engage a licensed abatement contractor. In British Columbia, asbestos abatement work is performed by licensed contractors using certified workers. This is not work a general crew can absorb.
- Notify WorkSafeBC. A Notice of Project is generally required before qualifying asbestos work begins, with a required notice period.
- Containment and removal. The work area is sealed, put under negative air pressure where required, and the material is removed under controlled conditions by workers in appropriate respiratory protection.
- Clearance. An independent consultant inspects and, where required, conducts air monitoring to confirm the area meets clearance criteria before the containment comes down.
- Disposal and documentation. Waste goes to a facility authorised to receive it, with manifests retained. The clearance letter and disposal records are what prove the site is clean.
- Demolition proceeds. Only now.
What it does to your schedule
For a straightforward residential teardown with limited quantities, abatement is often a matter of days on site. What extends it is usually not the removal itself — it is the notification period, contractor availability, and clearance turnaround stacked in front of and behind it. Plan in weeks, not days, from the day you receive the report.
Cost scales with quantity, friability, how difficult the material is to access, and how much containment the work requires. A friable material in an occupied building is a different job from non-friable flooring in a vacant house, even at the same square footage.
The one thing not to do
Do not let anyone start demolition "carefully around it." Disturbing asbestos-containing material without proper controls contaminates the building, exposes everyone on site, converts a contained removal into a much larger decontamination, and creates liability that follows the owner and the prime contractor rather than the person holding the tool.
The positive result is the cheap moment. The expensive moment is the one where somebody ignored it.
Where Nexora fits
Nexora coordinates and manages this process end to end. We engage and manage the licensed abatement contractors, certified workers, and independent clearance consultants who carry out the regulated work, and we hold the sequencing, the notifications, and the documentation package together so the handoff to demolition is clean and provable.