Vermiculite in older attics in Arlington! (house, crawl space, buyers)

[ArlingtonHomebuyer]

My wife and I just put in an offer on an Arlington home and during the home inspection, vermiculite (which can contain asbestos) were found in the attic and crawl space in the basement of the house. We receive mixed advice from family, friends, and professionals. The main message being to leave the vermiculite alone unless we wanted to do a major renovation project that could compromise the vermiculite. Though we are concerned with cracks on the ceiling (at any point during the time we own the house), the vermiculite from the attic could stimmer through cracks. Maybe we are being a tad paranoid about this possibility. We understand it is VERY costly to remove and must be done by a EPA-certified specialist. What are your thoughts on this and have you experienced something like this in your home in Arlington (or anywhere in NoVA)? Many folks find this to be extremely new information. Perhaps we are one of the unfortunate possible home owners with this problem. :-/ If you have experienced this and had this annoying outdated insulation substance removed, which service provider did you use and any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Several of my wife's family members have offered to help remove the substance (they r contractors out of state tho), but sounds like to us it is a job that a specialist needs to do. We are seriously thinking about VOIDING on the offer bc of this - legally, we have to inform future buyers (when we sell this house) about this material and this could be a turn-off. Thoughts?

More info on this: http://www.waptac.com/data/files/Web...ermiculite.pdf

FYI - we need as much input from you ASAP as we only have a short time to take action on whatever needs to be done. Thanks!

[Carlingtonian]

I think most fears of asbestos are overblown. Almost all the people who got cancer were working with the stuff (mining, packaging, installing) not just living with it.

That said, if yours is friable (falling apart), that's very bad. Crawl space--who cares; you're not gonna be going in there, ever. Attic, however--I wouldn't worry it'd leak down into the house, but if you do store things in the attic, you might disturb the asbestos.

Hopefully your offer was contingent upon home inspection. If so, I would ask the seller to have an abatement done or to pay you the cost of doing one. Or, you could pull the offer and resubmit with a price of 10-12K less than what you put in before, to compensate for the cost of hiring a company to remove it. And you will have to remove it if you ever want to resell the house yourself--because people are just that paranoid.

The seller should definitely cooperate with you, because any other buyer is going to have exactly the same concern you are. I'd get a quote from an abatement company and insist on knocking that amount off the offer price--or the contract is void.

[saganista]

From the EPA website...

Q. What should I do if I have vermiculite insulation?

A. YOU SHOULD ASSUME THE VERMICULITE CONTAINS ASBESTOS AND DO NOT DISTURB IT! Any disturbance could potentially release asbestos fibers into the air. If you absolutely have to go in your attic and it contains vermiculite insulation, you should limit the number of trips you make and shorten the length of those trips in order to help limit your potential exposure.

We recommend that you:

Leave vermiculite insulation undisturbed in your attic or in your walls.
Do not store boxes or other items in your attic if it contains vermiculite insulation.
Do not allow children to play in an attic with vermiculite insulation.
Do not attempt to remove the insulation yourself.
Hire a professional asbestos contractor if you plan to remodel or conduct renovations that would disturb the vermiculite in your attic or walls to make sure the material is safely handled and/or removed.

[Jenjen391]

We walked away from a home after inspection revealed that there was friable asbestos in the basement. We just didn't want to deal with it. I was very sad, too, I loved the house otherwise!

[john6757]

May I ask what you ended up doing? We are now in the exact same situation in Arlington!