Testing comes first on every Farmington asbestos job, from a kitchen update to clearing a whole lot. We schedule the samples, take out the materials that test positive and see to the state notice before the next trade shows up.
Farmington still has more than 500 homes from 1939 or earlier, part of the more than 2 in every 10 that predate 1980.
Asbestos cleared from an older house after its owners move into a new one on the same property
Example project
Home
1920s one-and-a-half story house in Farmington, re-sided in cement shingles years later
Original request
Take down the old house once the owners have moved into the new one built on the same property
Testing
An MDH-certified inspector surveys the old house top to bottom, cellar through attic and roof
Found
Asbestos in the basement pipe wrap, the kitchen and bathroom flooring and the cement siding shingles
Clear
Plaster and roofing both negative
Timeline
Survey; five days of MDH notice; five days of removal; demolition at least two days after that
Cost
$17,600
In this example, a family in Farmington has built a new house on the same property as their 1920s house and moved in. The old house comes down next, and the city asks for the asbestos testing and abatement to be done, and the papers handed to the building official, before any demolition.
Most of Farmington’s housing is recent. The 2000s added close to a third of today’s homes, and the median home was built in 1998. Older houses are a small share: about 1 in 16 homes dates from 1939 or earlier.
One-unit homes account for close to 9 in 10 of the city’s housing, and renters occupy about 1 in 7 of the homes that are lived in.
Houses from before 1940
An older house can hold plaster, old flooring, pipe or boiler insulation and vermiculite, all of which are on MDH’s list. Only sampling settles what a given material contains.
Rented homes
A rented house or apartment in Farmington needs the same testing, state notice and licensed removal as an owner’s own home.
Farmington’s residential demolition handout asks for asbestos testing and abatement to be finished, and the documents turned in to the building official, before any demolition. The demolition plan also has to describe the steps taken to find and dispose of contaminants in the building or on the property.
The city can hold an application for up to ten business days while it checks a building for historic or architectural value, and a permit is needed before fixtures are salvaged from a building that is going to be demolished. Plan the abatement so it is finished before the wrecking date.
MDH’s answer is to hire a licensed asbestos contractor, and it says so strongly. The law itself is narrower. It excuses just one person from the license and permit fee, the owner who lives in the single-family house where the work happens. Landlords, duplexes and apartment buildings never qualify.
We found suspect material during a remodel. Can removal start right away?
Not right away. MDH says a find during a renovation is not an emergency, so regulated removal waits for the five-calendar-day notice. Leave the material alone until then.
Does tearing down a house need an MPCA notice?
Not in general. MPCA leaves houses of four units or less out of its ten-working-day notice, and the exceptions are narrow. They cover a house converted from a covered use, several houses demolished by one owner, and a house taken down for urban renewal, highway or commercial development. Otherwise a Farmington house needs no MPCA notice, though the city’s own demolition steps still apply.
What should I get from the contractor when the job ends?
Keep a folder for the job. It should hold copies of the contractor’s license and the worker certificates, the MDH project permit, every waste manifest and the lab report from the air sampling, stored with your deed and other house papers.
Building permits in Credit River come from the city itself, and its biggest building decade was the 1970s. Asbestos removal in Credit River has its own page, and the home page lists every service.
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