How to Do a Home Asbestos Test

Although there are do-it-yourself home asbestos test kits available in the market today, most of them tend to be expensive and may sometimes give inaccurate results. Instead of investing on these kits, why not try some easy-to-follow, home-based testing methods to test for asbestos in your home? Asbestos testing in homes is important especially for homes that are more than a decade old.


Before people were made aware of the dangers of asbestos inhalation, this mineral fiber was extensively used to strengthen and make various construction materials fire resistant-from floor tiles to roof shingles and texture paints. In the 1970s-specifically in 1978-after asbestos was found to cause serious lung diseases such as cancer and asbestosis, the use of asbestos in building materials was disfavored, although not entirely stopped.

The importance of testing for asbestos in your home can not be emphasized enough, as there are very real dangers of having airborne asbestos at home. You should get in touch with qualified professionals to do sample testing. It is better to be sure, than be sorry in the long run. While there are experts advising against getting samples of materials suspected of containing asbestos, there is actually a proper way of doing it without posing risk of asbestos exposure to your home. Signs of asbestos in textured ceiling are not always easy to detect, unless there is a label on it that says so. The same is true with asbestos in floor tiles and in any other construction materials listed to have been decked with asbestos before the 1970s.Your best bet is to assume that they all contain asbestos and should be tested for it for your own peace of mind.

But unless you're doing major renovations to your home that can possibly disturb these construction materials, it is best to just leave them alone. Asbestos do not really get airborne unless the materials containing them get damaged or improperly handled.The first step to a safe home asbestos test is to identify areas of the house at risk of potential asbestos contamination. This may include rooms with extensive duct work, those that contain heating systems, and those that employ traditional wiring circuits.The best way to test for asbestos is to take a sample of construction materials to a qualified asbestos laboratory to be tested. To make sure asbestos do not get released into the air, it is advisable that you mist the area thoroughly before extracting the sample.

Arm yourself with the proper protective gear like face mask and a pair of plastic gloves Using a spraying bottle, mist the area to be tested with water containing a few drops of detergent to dampen it and keep the fibers from getting airborne. Break off a piece of the material gently and place this in a re-seal able plastic bag or any other clean container that can be sealed and properly labeled. Send this sample to a federally accredited asbestos testing lab. This is how a safe and risk-free home asbestos test is properly done.