How much does asbestos testing cost?
Asbestos testing can save you thousands of dollars and may very well save your life asbestos, if left alone and maintained safely, poses no threat to your health. Pre-purchase asbestos testing can save you from getting stuck with an asbestos money pit. Workplace Health and Safety states that “homes built before 1990 may contain asbestos”. And “One in three Australian homes may contain asbestos”. Asbestos has been used for thousands of years for all sorts of things, it could be moulded into shapes, woven into fabrics and asbestos was used in over 3000 products and in the 1920’s it was used in a broad form and made its way into Australian homes twenty years later in the 1240’s.
The basic ingredients of asbestos sheeting found in your home are sand, cement, water and asbestos shards. When mixed together, these ingredients made really strong and flexible water, a fire-resistant product that was lightweight, easy to use, chemically inert and electrically inert. Asbestos was known as the miracle mineral. When these sheets are cut, broken, sanded, water blasted or filed; the asbestos shards break into millions of asbestos fibres. These fibres are so small that they get into the deepest parts of your lungs and cause diseases like mesaphelemonia, asbestosis, and various other cancers with no cures.
Getting suspected asbestos sheeting tested is the only way to know 100% whether you have asbestos. The only way of testing for asbestos that is recognised Australia wide is in a NATA laboratory. This stands for National Accredited Testing Authority Laboratory. This system was developed and is regulated by the OPEC nations to ensure best laboratory practices are followed and a standard of testing procedures used to produce reliable results globally. You can rest assured it is the gold standard in testing for asbestos globally and ensures consistent, reliable results.
All that said, how much does asbestos testing cost?
Obviously, it varies from lab to lab and region to region and whether you DIY ( not recommended) or engage a professional to come to your home safely, harvest a sample and package it up and label it correctly for the high standards required by the NATA laboratory. The price can range from $60.00 to as high as $350.00 +GST. These prices may contain just one sample or multiple samples; currently, Coastal Asbestos rates are $165.00 for the first sample, then $77.00 for each sample. After that, if there are more samples of ten plus, we would negotiate a low rate on request for a total sample package.
So what do you get for your money?
Do it yourself asbestos testing (not recommended)
You can DIY this is the riskiest way and may end up the most expensive basically because, without experience and training, you may be harvesting building products that have never had asbestos used in their manufacture. You also may harvest a sample that is too big or too small for the lab to handle. You will have to spend time and money purchasing the right equipment, protective equipment, packaging materials and learn how to fill out the paperwork correctly so that you get the right paperwork back from the lab. There is a huge risk you may expose yourself to asbestos and contaminate your family home with the method you use to harvest the sample and how you leave the site of the sample once it has been harvested. You also have to hassle of driving the samples to the NATA laboratory yourself because it’s illegal to post asbestos in the mail.
Engaging a professional like Coastal Asbestos.
You get all the benefits of over twenty-five years of experience in the industry that can help you find out if you even have anything in your home that may contain asbestos. Over many years of experience working on thousands of jobs, we have learned that every job is different, and asbestos can be lurking anywhere; you would not believe the places asbestos turns up in family homes. We have complied an eighty-eight point checklist to train our technicians and where asbestos can be lurking in family homes and commercial buildings. We are constantly updating our database of asbestos locations; our skilled technicians can assess asbestos-containing materials for the likelihood of it being friable or non-friable and ensure there is no risk of contamination to the rest of the building.
Asbestos sampling is just like every part of the industry. There is no room for DIY enthusiasts. It’s just not safe. Call our office today. We are constantly traveling around our service area and can usually get there that day.