Is textured paint on my Westboro walls an asbestos risk?

Textured paint on walls built before 1990 is worth taking seriously before any renovation work. Health Canada lists paint among older building materials that may contain asbestos, and Ontario's guide to O. Reg. 278/05 lists textured paints and coatings specifically.

Whether your walls are actually a risk depends on two things: whether the material tests positive at 0.5 per cent or more asbestos by dry weight (the threshold set by O. Reg. 278/05, section 3(4)), and whether you plan to disturb it. Health Canada is clear that there are no significant health risks if materials containing asbestos are left undisturbed and in good condition. The risk comes from renovation activities: drilling, sawing, sanding, scraping or breaking the surface apart.

If you do plan to sand, skim or remove the texture, the work falls under O. Reg. 278/05. The Type the contractor assigns depends on whether the material is friable and how much area is being disturbed, assessed on site. A contractor who removes more than one square metre of friable material is in Type 3 territory, which requires workers to have completed the Asbestos Abatement Worker Training Program approved by the Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Development, and requires the constructor or employer to notify a Ministry of Labour inspector, orally and in writing, before work begins. Type 3 work also requires clearance air testing once the enclosure is dry: every air sample must show no more than 0.01 fibres per cubic centimetre of air using the PCM method, or pass a statistical comparison using TEM. Type 1 and Type 2 operations have their own controls set out in the regulation, though clearance air testing does not appear in those sections.

The owner-occupier exemption in section 2(4) of O. Reg. 278/05 covers your duties as a homeowner, but any contractor you hire is bound by the regulation in full. Health Canada advises hiring a professional to test before renovating and a qualified asbestos removal specialist if asbestos is found.

A pre-renovation inspection with asbestos testing runs roughly $250 to $1,300 depending on building size and number of samples, based on published Ontario contractor prices read in September 2026. If removal is needed, general asbestos removal is published at $8 to $15 per square foot, with textured ceiling removal at $6 to $12 per square foot; wall texture pricing is not separately published, so ask for a per-square-foot figure in the quote. Asbestos waste must be transported under Ontario Regulation 347 to a disposal site whose operator has agreed to accept it, arranged before the waste leaves your home.

Ask the contractor to spell out in the quote exactly where the asbestos waste is going and which site has agreed to accept it, because that arrangement has to be confirmed before the waste leaves.

You can request a match with local abatement contractors through the form on this page; they are listed in the Ottawa Construction Network directory.