Where it hides
In older buildings, asbestos turns up most often in pipe insulation, boiler insulation, gaskets, floor tile and some wall and ceiling materials. On a steam or boiler project that is not a side issue. The insulation wrapped around the piping is the first thing demolition touches.
The rule
Federal regulations require a building to be inspected for asbestos before renovation or demolition disturbs it. If it is there, it has to be removed by a licensed abatement contractor under controlled conditions before the other trades can work in that area.
Found in design
When testing happens during design, asbestos becomes a defined scope. The drawings show where it is, the specifications say how it comes out, and the estimate carries a number for it. Every bidder prices the same abatement, so the bids can be compared, and the schedule already has the time in it.
Found in demolition
When it is found after the contractor has started, work in that area stops. Samples go to a lab, an abatement contractor has to be brought in, and the cost and the delay arrive as a change order. In an occupied hospital, an unplanned stop in a plant or a tunnel can also hold up the phases that depend on it.
How we handle it
On our steam and boiler projects, asbestos testing is part of the design team, not something left to the contractor. At the Albany boiler plant and on the Manchester steam replacement, Mabbett performed asbestos testing alongside the civil work while the design was still being developed. At Sacramento, Mabbett is covering industrial hygiene and environmental work along with the civil engineering.
The takeaway
If the building is old enough to need the retrofit, it is old enough to test. A few samples at the start cost far less than one stopped job.