Home Renovations: Don’t Forget The Asbestos Risk

Home renovation

Almost half of all Canadian homeowners plan on spending some money on home renovations. When you add in the hot GTA real estate scene, which has seen many fixer uppers flood the markets as desperate buyers compete for homes at seemingly any price, and you’ve got the current reno boom. The Asbestos Risk Resistant to…

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17K Realtor Listings Boast: No Popcorn Ceilings!

Here’s something you didn’t see years ago: realtor listings that make a point of mentioning ‘No Popcorn Ceilings!’ They’re outdated, they’re unsightly – and they might just pose an asbestos risk. A recent tally on Realtor.com counted over 17,000 listings that touted ‘No popcorn ceilings!’ Once a fad, now a pariah, if you watch those…

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Asbestos And Freezing Temperatures

Asbestos was once thought of as a miracle construction material. It certainly has many qualities that make it seem nearly indestructible. Even so, extreme cold can wreak havoc on buildings and materials — including those containing asbestos. The recent polar vortex and the icy cold air it has brought to the GTA was a nasty…

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Asbestos Removal in Historic Homes

An older home is a source of pride. They truly are a piece of history, and many feature distinctive design and architectural details that speak to their place in time. The silhouette of a Victorian townhouse is unmistakable, for example, as are the sleek bungalows of mid-century modernism. Older vs. Historic Homes When the house…

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Sarnia’s Centennial Park Asbestos Nightmare

Many cities are taking old industrial properties and now reusing them for new developments, often called brown field remediation. But, what’s under the ground? Often, the rubble and debris includes asbestos. Sarnia’s Park Problem Picturesque Centennial Park in Sarnia sits on the St. Clair River, once the site of music festivals, kids and families playing…

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Repeated Asbestos Offenders

Some parties just don’t learn – although in this case of repeated asbestos violations, we’re not sure if that statement applies more to the company or the governmental bodies involved. Seattle Environmental of Vancouver was fined a whopping $280K last December for incidents involving asbestos removal that happened between 2013 and 2015. Those fines were…

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The Legacy of Asbestos

As asbestos exposure is revealed as Canada’s leading cause of workplace deaths and the World Health Organization estimates that one third of workplace cancers are caused by the mineral which was once hailed as the “miracle” construction material. A recent article in the revered medical journal The Lancet estimated total deaths worldwide from asbestos exposure…

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