1890's Victorian Home: Leaky basement + asbestos

[Stephan & Christina]

Hi everyone,

so this house has asbestos insulation covering the boiler pipes not that long ago, and I'm worried that, because the floor is mostly dirt in this crawl space, there might be some asbestos in that dirt, and that everytime you drag your feet, it gets airborne again. Also, there's water coming in, usually during spring melt.

So, crazy idea: to get rid of the water, i dig a trench around the inside foundation perimeter, drop in a drainage pipe that leds to a sump pump well. Then, I wet as much of the dirt as I can, flatten it out to make it even, lay a couple of layers of landscape fabric on top, and then some 2' x 2' cement slabs on top of that. Is that excessive? Is there an easier way?

Is there a product out there, similar to Dustbane that's used to keep dust particles down, that can keep asbestos particles down?

[HayZee518]

first and foremost. take a sample of the dirt/dust to an asbestos testing facility to see if there's airborne [friable] particles in the dust. if there is, be prepared to do an encaspulation job on the whole house! this will NOT be cheap. airborne asbestos is very dangerous to people and the environment. when you take the samples, wear a particle dust mask. wear goggles. wear latex gloves. use a spray bottle with one part detergent to three parts warm water. spray the water on the dusty areas. use a scraper to put the particles in a zip lock bag, then put this bag into another zip lock bag and take it the the test lab. they'll probably have you take samples from several areas around the house. put the scraper in the bag with the samples. WASH YOUR HANDS VERY THOROUGHLY!