Unseen Improvements

In any major renovation there is alot that needs doing that you cannot see. For the most part this really is the blood, sweat and tears of the job. We determined early on that the attic had vermiculite as an insulation source, now that would not have ordinarily bothered us but we know from the sale of our last house that it is a bother to any future buyers of our home.
Here is a site with an overall of asbestos (often found in vermiculite insulation}

http://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/en/co/maho/yohoyohe/inaiqu/inaiqu_001.cfm

So basically asbestos is fine until disturbed, which is exactly what we did. Why? In the event we were ever to sell this home we would be asked to lower our price by thousands of dollars as removing vermiculite is a bargaining tool in many home inspections. I do not have an issue with that per say, in all liklihood now that I have been educated as to it's existence I may do the same thing.

We choose to do the removal ourselves GASP you say, well it has become very big business to have an abatement done on your home, in some cases it is extortion by fear, that being said we did our homework and dug into this job almost as soon as we arrived. I am in no way suggesting this is a do it yourself job and if any of the "professionals" are reading this they are probably having a good old fashioned freak out, so if you can pay to have it done then I say fill your boots, but for us this was not an option.

So my Mr. and our youngest suited themselves up in their bio suits with taped wrists and ankles and headed into the dreaded attic, as far as I am concerned the bats hanging upside down watching the operation were of far greater concern. Don't get me wrong we did take this seriously, even though it is PROLONGED exposure to asbestos that is the danger, we had a fan in the attic hatch acting as a negative pressure to prevent any fibres from entering the home, as well the hatch itself was sealed with a plastic tube for entering and exiting. After each day of sucking out the dreaded vermiculite suits were ripped off and disposed of and new ones replaced the next day. In all it took about 4 days to remove over 40 large bags of the stuff and then this was taken to the local dump whereupon it is buried (don't as me about the safety concerns there.)

We never tested our insulation so as far as we know it did not contain any asbestos at all but felt regardless it would still be an issue with any buyer intent on making a deal so why keep it.

So that was our first major task completed and I wish I had pics of my guys all suited up but it seems they have gone missing, ah well a job well done and now an attic empty of insulation in the month of March Brrrrrr!