Asbestos Testing & Sampling

Testing answers the question that decides everything else on an older Ottawa renovation: does this material contain asbestos? Health Canada says that before 1990 asbestos was mainly used for insulating buildings and homes, and lists older materials such as house siding, cement and plaster, floor and ceiling tiles, roofing felt and shingles, drywall, spackling, caulking, paint and insulation around hot water pipes and tanks.

Ontario's own guide adds that sprayed-on material and pipe and boiler insulation were widely used until 1973, and many other asbestos products until the mid 1980s. Looking at a material tells you nothing; a lab does.

A sampler takes small pieces of each suspect material, seals and labels them, and sends them to a lab. Under Ontario's asbestos regulation (O. Reg. 278/05), a material counts as asbestos-containing when a bulk sample shows 0.5 per cent or more asbestos by dry weight, and the regulation names the lab method (EPA/600/R-93/116).

Health Canada's advice is to hire a professional to test for asbestos before renovating or remodelling, and not to disturb material you suspect in the meantime. Published Ontario prices for a pre-renovation inspection with testing run roughly $250 to $1,300 depending on the size of the house and the number of samples. There are too few published per-sample lab prices for Ottawa to quote one, so ask each firm what the price includes: how many samples, a written report, and the turnaround.