Asbestos Spray-on Fireproofing – Economically Encased, Not Expensively Replaced
I just spoke to a guy who said he had spent a lot of time on the GLOBAL Encasement, Inc. (GEI) and Encasement Guy websites researching options for an asbestos situation he has. He recently bought a building that has 100,000 sf of spray-on asbestos-containing fireproofing covering the structural steel. He was looking into the expensive and complicated process of removal and replacement of all the spray-on fireproofing. He found out that the costly process would entail labor-intensive hand scraping all the fireproofing off and under full containment procedures, generating lots of hazardous waste. Checking the pricing, he also discovered that he would have to replace all the fireproofing with some other product to re-coat the structural steel after the asbestos was removed because that steel could not be left unprotected.
He started making calls, checking options and was rightfully told by the Environmental Protection Commission (EPC) that if the asbestos was in good shape he could just leave it alone. I told him they were right. Then he asked, "but what would you do if it was your building?" That’s where my answer changed and I switched gears.
“I’d simply manage the asbestos in place with Global Encasement, Inc.’s Green Coatings,” I said. “Why is that?” he asked. “If for no other reason, I’d do the encasement for peace of mind”. It would guarantee for the life of the building that future occupants would not be exposed to the chance release of asbestos, which may set myself up for potential liabilities,” I explained. Then he asked, “Why do it now instead of later when the asbestos might start to break down?” “It would save me time and money to do the encasement while the building is still unoccupied,” I replied. He kept probing on what I would do and why then one of the common questions came up. “Why would you leave it in place instead of removing and replacing it now when the building was unoccupied?” I explained three main reasons. First, asbestos was the best fireproofing known and that I would want it left in place doing what it was originally intended to do - giving excellent fire protection over the structural steel. Second, it was far more economical to encase the asbestos than unnecessarily removing and replacing it. I would rather invest and spend my money on other things. Third, I do not want to unnecessarily generate waste, especially hazardous waste. We are already causing so much pollution from producing waste that needs to be transported and stored in limited and overflowing landfills that creating more just doesn’t seem right or make good sense. We also spoke about the fact that even if the asbestos was removed and out of the building, there is still an ownership of the stored hazardous material in the dump - sometimes referred to as Cradle-to-Grave or Womb-to-Tomb liability. Whether the asbestos was in my building or in a dump, I still owned it.
At that point in the conversation, he made his own summation. He stated he now understood that if he did the asbestos removal and replacement later on, the process would be much more expensive and complicated in an occupied building around people and their contents. But if he did the encasement at this point, it would be so much simpler, safer and economical. But something still bothered him. “Wasn’t the asbestos dangerous just being there?" he asked. "Absolutely not!” I replied. “It is the same thing as having electricity present in the building and that we safely deal with it with a superior coating covering it to simply manage it and take advantage of its useful properties.” I also made the comparison of gasoline in all our vehicles, which is literally a potential bomb, that we safely manage all the time. You wouldn’t want a cheap coating over electric cords or a cheap gasoline tank. That’s where quality coatings come into play to safely manage in-place asbestos and other common potentially dangerous materials in our buildings.
Some of GEI's spray-on fire proofing completed projects.
The conversation ended with agreement that encasing the spray-on fireproofing in his building with GLOBAL Encasement, Inc. (GEI) coatings before the building became occupied was the best, practical and most economical option for his situation.
