Citizens of Canada’s are no strangers to asbestos problems. Used throughout the 20th century as a prominent building material and insulator, health hazards related to asbestos has affected millions worldwide. Highly regarded for its qualities as heat and fire resistant, homes, buildings, and other products built before 1980 could still contain asbestos materials.
If you are a potential homeowner or are seeking to remodel an older home, exposure can cause many health concerns for you and your family. If you are interested in living in a safe, healthy environment, free of health damaging materials, here is some information to get you on that track.
Asbestos exposure can cause a debilitating lung ailment known as mesothelioma. This asbestos-related illness is one of the hardest for physicians to diagnose for a variety of reasons. The disease typically has a latency period lasting anywhere from 20 to 50 years when it has already reached its later stage of development. Its symptoms also resemble many of other less serious conditions. Mesothelioma treatment is usually limited to a handful of procedures and results vary from patient to patient. If your home or jobsite has had asbestos removed, exposure may have occurred previously and receiving a medical checkup is of the upmost importance.
Health Canada offers assistance and information in the prevention, disposal and removal of asbestos. They are federally responsible for helping citizens maintain and improve health at home and the work place. Homeowners should not disturb any suspected asbestos themselves as this makes its fibers airborne. The inspection and removal of toxic substances must be performed by licensed abatement contractors who are trained in handling dangerous materials. They work under provincial and federal regulations to ensure no health concerns arise from improper removal.
Once the area is asbestos free, environmentally sustainable materials should be considered including cotton fiber, cellulose and lcynene, water based spray polyurethane foam that can reduce energy costs annually. With the constant growth in technology, there is absolutely no need for health damaging materials such as asbestos.
Click for a larger image displaying potential problem areas for asbestos in the home.
A qualified home inspector can often detect the presence of asbestos and other potentially dangerous products that may have been used in home construction over the years. Put “healthy living environment” for your family at the top of your “wants and needs” list when shopping for a new home.
I’m always happy to answer your Saskatoon real estate questions. All of my contact info is here. Please feel free to call or email.
Norm Fisher
Royal LePage Saskatoon Real Estate
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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Oh my. CREA’s most recent 2009 projection/revision (released February 9, if I recall) was for a 16.9% decline in sales and an 8% decline in the average price from 2008, right?
I’m sensing some more downward revisions in their next projection:
Home sales fall by 41 per cent
http://tinyurl.com/b22rbn
“Sales of existing homes fell to the lowest level since the mid-1990s last month, with activity dropping by 41 per cent in January from a year ago.
Last month 16,343 resale homes changed sales across the country, according to a report Friday from the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA). The average price fell by 11 per cent from the year before to $273,607.”
Lots of information about the pace of declines in different regions, but nothing specific to Saskatchewan in this article.
Happy Friday the 13th.
Norm,
great topic. I think most people(myself:)) on here are fixated on prices, sales and the economy so much that important topics such as this are never really discussed. And this is a RE blog. Not downplaying prices etc, but having topics like this, allows people to be more informed.
I would love to see more topics like this. If I find some myself, I will post them as well. I feel this blog just gets better and better. ( probably has a lot to do with me not posting much lately
)
Asbestos can be a financial issue as well. When we sold our home in Saskatoon a few years ago, inspectors brought up the issue of zonolite insulation, an asbestos-contaminated material which comes from a certain mine in Montana and was popular for many years. As part of the closing, we had to pay out to the buyers a fair chunk of money to get the stuff removed (it was not found during the home inspection when we bought years prior, of course). Happily, it seems that there is a possibility of getting some of this money back through a class-action settlement.
We are told that it has not been commonly found in Saskatoon in the past couple of years. I think that this is probably due to the buying hysteria that occured here, with people buying with no inspections or regardless of what was in the attic. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s in a lot of homes in the city.
This is a terrific article. And I agree with George, in addition to being financially informed about purchasing a home there are many other issue that we should be educated and aware of.
Crikey,
Hard to know. January sales would make up a fairly small portion of the whole.
For interest sake, Canadian MLS sales came in at 523,855 in 2007 and dropped to 434,477 in 2008. If CREA’s predicted drop of 16.1% is realistic, that would reduce sales to $350,616, quite a difference from the peak.
George,
Thanks. When I first got started here I tried to do much more general real estate stuff, but then, well, we all know what happened to the real estate market. Some weeks it’s a bit of a challenge to get the one statistical post going. This article was actually provided to me by the folks at asbestos.com so it was very easy. I would like to try to do more of it. Appreciate the feedback.
“probably has a lot to do with me not posting much lately”
Aaah, no.
TimD,
Excellent point. I’ve come across “zonolite” insulation on a number of occasions. It wasn’t all that uncommon, but it didn’t all contain asbestos. I believe that Health Canada still takes the position that it’s harmless if contained to the attic but I can appreciate why people would sooner not have it. Buyers should definitely consider potential resale implications when making that decision. Just curious, how much money is “a fair chunk” and how much attic space would you have been dealing with in that home.
Norm,
It cost us a little under $5 per square foot for about 940 square feet. Not so much in the scheme of things, but it was a little painful at the time. I’d be tickled pink to get some of it back through graceclaims!
Thanks Tim. I would agree that close to $5K is a fair chunk of change. I read somewhere that claimants may recover 55% of the removal costs, up to $4,000. Looks like money is going to trickle into that fund over a long period of time though. Hope it doesn’t take forever to recover the money.
For those that don’t know, W.R. Grace, the company responsible for putting “zonolite” insulation out in the open market has settled a class action lawsuit that will put over a billion dollars into a trust fund (over a period of years) to settle damage claims.
http://tinyurl.com/bhbo67
If you have removed zonolite insulation that contains asbestos you can apply for a reimbursement for part of your costs if you complete the application by August 31, 2009.
Details here: http://www.graceclaims.com/