Here at Hazmat One we have a full service testing lab. We offer same day (Rush) results for asbestos sampling, and 1 or 2 day results for Mold and Lead samples.
Questions we usually get about our lab are:
Of course, once someone walks through our process, they are curious (and sometimes worried) about the possibility of having asbestos in their home or office. We have tried to create a general overview of these possibilities on our Asbestos FAQ page. If you would like to get peace of mind, or if you have a demolition/renovation coming up, you can always Request a Survey from one of our building inspectors.
Asbestos Samples
Samples are taken from your home or office from likely Asbestos Containing Material (ACM) areas. Examples of common testing areas would be: walls, ceilings, floors, and rooves. The size of the sample is generally the size of a $.50 piece (which is roughly 2" x 2") in order to provide enough material for our lab to test with.
Who can take a sample? Well, there is a regulation called the Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act (AHERA) that the federal government enacted in the 1986.
Per this set of regulations, if a person who is not AHERA certified takes their own samples, this causes a new set of issues.
A homeowner can technically take their own samples, if they plan on renovating their house themselves, in a DIY fashion.
Other than that, a homeowner or business owner, cannot take their own samples. The results report that we would generate for those samples would not be valid for anything other than information. A contractor engaged in a demolition or renovation cannot use an asbestos results report where the samples were not taken by an AHERA certfied building inspector. This means that no work could happen on the home or business until new samples were taken and tested by our lab.
