How do you safely remove old ceiling tiles?

January 17, 2022 10:10 AM

Asking for a friend who has an old house with drop ceilings and tiles that probably contain asbestos. They can be lifted out of the grid. How risky is removing them, if the tiles are intact? Does a professional need to do it in case a tile breaks, and if one does, how do they ensure that asbestos doesn't stay in the air?
posted by pinochiette to Home & Garden (5 answers total)

Response by poster: Update: she says the tiles aren't actually in a metal grid like some ceiling use, but seem to be glued up.
posted by pinochiette at 10:30 AM on January 17, 2022

Yeah, ugh. We have popcorn ceilings in a good sized bit in our house, and some tiles under the basement floors that likely are asbestos. Interested in seeing the answers.
posted by Windopaene at 10:39 AM on January 17, 2022

So I've done some slightly asbestos-adjacent home renovation, but it's going to depend a lot on if there is asbestos and if so, local rules for disposal. Step one is to have the tiles tested for asbestos. Find a local lab, bring them a small sample and they'll let your friend know if there is in fact asbestos. If not, that's it! If there is, it depends on disposal rules. Where I live it's easier to dispose of "non-friable" asbestos, meaning asbestos that isn't likely to become airborn. That meant the one place I ran into it in my home, in some old linoleum, wasn't friable and so I could do the work myself safely and simply had to dispose of the tiles appropriately. Were it friable, it would require the full asbestos abatement treatment. So! Figure out the exact situation via testing, then see what that specific situation requires where your friend is. My guess is that tiles would be considered similarly non-friable, but that is just a guess.
posted by lhputtgrass at 11:14 AM on January 17, 2022 [1 favorite]

This video has some of the details on how to handle small projects, while this one shows how to build a large abatement enclosure.

How fragile the tiles are would determine how close I need to get to the second video than the first, but at a minimum would be complete plastic enclosure, plenty of water spray, and all the PPE shown. If they will come off mostly in one piece or only wet like in this video (note that's not appropriate for asbestos, just a short video you can see there isn't dust), I would feel the doors and blower would be excessive and you could follow the decon procedures from the first video.
posted by flimflam at 1:47 PM on January 17, 2022

Here's a guide from the province of BC that I found pretty useful in learning about asbestos in our home: https://www.worksafebc.com/en/resources/health-safety/books-guides/safe-work-practices-for-handling-asbestos

Your jurisdiction might have something similar.

Read the chapter 3 ("Work practices")-- it will tell you what is considered low/medium/high risk. For us, we did some drywall removal, which is a medium risk activity. I felt okay about wearing the right PPE and taking the recommended steps for a medium risk activity, but would not feel comfortable with anything high risk.

Is leaving it in place an option? We drywalled over some asbestos-containing popcorn ceilings to cover them up.

Seconding that disposal can be an issue-- it was a not-inconsiderate headache to get rid of the old drywall.
posted by beepbeepboopboop at 1:48 PM on January 17, 2022 [2 favorites]