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My daughter just had a home inspection of a home from 1900 and there was asbestos tape noted on the seams of the duct work. What should we do?

And I am assuming it is not only on the visible ducts. What is the danger with ducts between the walls that can't be seen, and what should we do about it?

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In many jurisdictions, a plumber is allowed to remove a limited amount of asbestos pipe insulation or tape.

Or put on a mask, douse the whole thing with water, and cut it off. Not rocket science here.

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  • An inexpensive mask will do almost nothing to prevent asbestos fibers from entering your lungs. – RockPaperLizard May 1 '15 at 22:50
  • There won't be flying asbestos fibers if the whole thing is soaking wet. – gbronner May 2 '15 at 1:01
  • Then why recommend the mask? How does the water reach the asbestos that is not exposed on the surface, but will become exposed and disperse in the area as you cut? Remember, water will only touch the very outer surface. Plus, I'm not finding any scientific evidence that asbestos will be contained by water as you suggest. Ignoring science doesn't nullify it. Maybe there is more science involved than you initially realized. :-) – RockPaperLizard May 2 '15 at 4:57
  • doityourself.com/stry/… Traditionally, you just keep saturating it with water. The water doesn't 'contain' the asbestos, but makes the fibers heavier and (through surface tension) gets them to stick together. Again, this is what I've been told by numerous plumbers; stuff you see on the web tends to be more hysterical. – gbronner May 3 '15 at 5:20

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