Some buildings give up their secrets slowly.
This large building on a property in Monroe, Washington has turned into an ongoing project for the homeowner. Every layer that comes off exposes another surprise underneath. That is hidden asbestos during demolition in a nutshell: you do not find it all at once, and you do not find it on your schedule.
What We Found This Time: Black Mastic
The latest discovery on this job was asbestos-containing black mastic, applied directly to portions of the wood siding and the structural wood framing.
Not under the siding. Not behind a panel. Stuck to it.
That detail changes everything about how the work gets done.
Why You Can’t Just Scrape It Off
Here’s the part people do not expect.
When mastic is adhered directly to wood like that, you cannot simply scrape it off. You also cannot take the structure apart piece by piece and sort the good wood from the bad. The material and the building have become the same problem.
So the affected building materials get handled and demolished together, using the appropriate asbestos procedures. The whole assembly is treated as asbestos-containing, because that is what it is.
That is more work. It is also the only version of this job that is actually legal.
Older Buildings Are Layer Cakes
This is not unusual. We see it constantly in older structures that have been remodeled, added onto, and covered up multiple times over the years.
Someone re-sided in the 60s. Someone else added a room in the 80s. Somebody painted over all of it in the 2000s. Each of those decisions left something behind, and none of it is visible from the outside.
You truly don’t know what’s hiding behind those layers until demolition begins. One wall can tell decades of remodeling history.
What Hidden Asbestos During Demolition Means for Your Project
If you own an older building in Snohomish County and you are planning to tear into it, plan for surprises. Not because we want to scare you off, but because the alternative is worse.
Finding asbestos mid-demolition, with no survey and no plan, is how projects get shut down. The Puget Sound Clean Air Agency (PSCAA) and Labor & Industries do not care that you did not know it was there. Tearing into asbestos-containing material without a certified AHERA survey is a $10,000 mistake waiting to happen.
Get the survey first. Find out what you are dealing with before the demo crew shows up, not after.
We’re Still Working This One
This building isn’t finished. We are still working through the surprises and getting it ready for the homeowner’s next step.
That’s the honest version of this work. Some jobs are a clean scope from day one. Others are an ongoing project where every layer earns you a new decision. We handle both the same way: by the book, with the right containment, and with a straight answer about what we actually found.
Surprise asbestos on your project? We can help.
Request an Asbestos Survey | Call us: 206-786-6667
