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[quote=Anonymous]op again.

[i]Are you working on a project? How are you going to handle containment/vacuum even though 0.2%. Your approach to date has been very deliberate.[/i]

Yeah, over the years I have done lots of little cutting type projects.  I'd figured out that putting a vacuum pickup right below the sawzall caught about 95+% of the dust.  So much that even in the room you'd find very little settle out onto surfaces.  The issue comes with...what's going THROUGH the vacuum.  If its not a HEPA, particles just can go through the filter and back into the air!  For the wall project I just did and the few cuts I did in late 2013, I had ported the vacuum output out a window.  I had no idea at the time, but that was a really good thing to do.  [u]All this [/u]cutting was before I thought to test.  [i]And why should I think to test[/i]....nobody really mentions it.

And of course I had no idea when we ripped out ALL of our guest room walls.  BUT the contractor who did that (not me) had a negative air machine running which sequestered all that dust in there and kept the room negative-pressured).  That dude didn't even wear a dust mask and was ripping out walls for 3 days!

[i] How are you going to handle containment/vacuum even though 0.2%. [/i]

For drilling holes from now on, like for picture frames, just going to drill through a wet paper towel.  No more cutting.  I'm designing another bedroom to add on, and that will require a lot of plaster demo in an adjoining room....I'm just going to sub that out to a remediation company.  Its at their minimum job size of $3000.  But that means less demolition for a general contractor to do, so the real cost [i]differential[/i] may be more like $2000 or less overall.  Worth my peace of mind.

Its important to keep in perspective....the drywall (really called rock lathe in this application) is about 40% of the total wall thickness.  And it's &lt;1% asbestiform.  So even if it actually approaches 1%, its really only .4% of the total wall material.  Inhaling the ground silica dust from the plaster is as bad or worse really.  The test requirement is actually [i]by layer[/i], if any layer is 1% or greater then the whole system would be treated as positive.

Oh, and I called 2 different environmental companies and told them what I had been doing, really concerned.  I have 3 kids after all....  They could have sold me on $800 worth of air sampling and testing in the house for &quot;peace of mind.&quot;  But they basically told me its already settled out whatever little was there.  Wipe stuff down.  Vac up with a HEPA.  And &quot;go and sin no more&quot;

Again, I really want to stress that the [i]type[/i] matters.  I've read a good 5-10 research papers on the stuff from medical journals.  A one-time exposure to [b]amphibole[/b] asbestos in a heavy enough dose could be the death of you in 30-40 years.  There are some horror stories.  So avoid that stuff, really; but don't go billowing up clouds and say &quot;hey its only Chrysotile&quot;.  But, see, there are exposed rock formations with amphiboles in them, right in our area.  The stuff is on the wind in very very trace amounts.  If the &quot;single fiber theory&quot; was true for amphibole, they'd literally be stacking bodies like cordwood from it.

Measured caution and respect for risk is key...neither paralyzing fear nor utter carelessness.

(I also took the asbestos cement siding off my house back in 2006.  Also chrysotile.  If you don't break them up, there's no issue.  I just wore my HEPA mask and kept them wetted, bagged them up.  They even take them at the dump in the bags.  Then... the siding crew came and just ripped off the stuff of the shed dormer triangles that I though they would cover over.  Threw it all in their truck without gloves, a mask, or anything at all.  On their own accord.  I just rolled my eyes.)[/quote]

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