I would bite the bullet and get the asbestos out. I believe that when you are ripping out and remodeling, that's the time to fix things that you could not do otherwise. You would be putting yourself on firmer footing for the sale of your house down the road - there are people who will walk away post-inspection from a house with asbestos.

Absolutely agree with graywings because of the strings the word asbestos plucks, especially in younger people who have grown up with the health warnings of the last two decades. They'll mentally associate anything asbestos in their homes with a ticking time bomb or the cost of remediation.

If you go energy efficient now you may get some tax credits. In a starter home, people do look closely at the mechanicals like furnaces and air. Many would also balk at a twenty year old furnace.

And last but not least, don't ever assume the continuing value of fuels. At any time the costs can change and anything you can do now to make your home energy efficient is an investment. Our electrical bills seemed to have taken a sudden leap over last year with little or no warning they have almost doubled.

If you plan to sell your home, you should take care of any "glaring" issues. For most buyers, asbestos is a glaring issue. People have a lot more fear of it than the science supports, but that doesn't make the fear any less of a selling obstacle.

It depends...
in general I don't think you're going to get more money for a house with a new high efficiency furnace. it sounds good, maybe a sellng point, but won't garner much in the way of additional money vs say, a shiney new kitchen.

I personally am not afraid of asbestos, I understand what the deal is with it, and unless it were crumbling off the ducts I wouldn't care, others might, not sure how much $.

It also depends on how much $$$ you're talking a few $K vs $10K?

my boiler is probably 50+ years old, not much of an issue, not particularly efficienct. Can you remove the asbestos from the ducts? a resporator mask and some garbage bags and you're done.

I agree with chrisk ... asbestos ducts are common here in older desirable suburbs ... as long as it's not crumbling.

Depends on what others in your area are doing. Can you ask some real estate agents what they are seeing in the houses selling these days?

Thanks!

Some answers...we're talking roughly $1500 just to re-vent v. $6K for a new furnace + asbestos abatement, once rebates are factored in. So it's a lot, but not an insane amount. We will also soon have a shiny new kitchen that won't be too outdated by the time we sell! :)

Asbestos ducts are also common here, and very visible/identifiable so I think the issue is more likely to be pre-offer than post-inspection...I'd guess, based on the houses we looked at and our friends' homes, that maybe one in two houses like ours in our city (bungalows c. 1910-1930) still have asbestos ducts, so while it's a concern, it's a pretty normal thing for home shoppers to encounter.

We can theoretically remove it ourselves, but we're in California where it's tightly regulated, so we still have to comply with the mandates---so it's probably not worth it, since we'd spend a big chunk of change on containment and disposal anyway (whereas that's included when a contractor does it). We would not want to do the venting ourselves either way, since it requires going up into an old chimney and such, so I'd rather have a licensed contractor do it.

We're getting a couple more bids on replacing the whole system, but I'm thinking maybe this is the way to go. Thanks!

I understand what you're saying..

I'm not sure what extra contamination is left in the home.

My municipality has a program where i can dispose of various harmful things from rat poison to gasoline and I beleive aesbestos. This allows a homeowner to remove certian things properly as opposed to dumping it down a drain or in a landfill.

As far as I understand, and I am far from an expert in this matter, aesbestos its only harmful if inhailed. and its really is only harmful inhailed in large quantities or people with comprimised respiritory systems. There are plenty of lawfirms which will have you beleive otherwise.

It is my understanding that in my area, most furnace companies will not do it. I've known people who have been told that they can do it themselves and how to do it (apparently things must stay wet, because when it's dry it is likely to be inhaled. I believe that to have it removed professionally, it requires a company with special licenses and tends to be very expensive.
It seems that most older homes do have asbestos in the furnace duct or asbestos in the old floor tiles.
What a hassle this is. Good luck
Susan

$6k for a new furnace and ducts (and hot water heater, I assume) sounds reasonable. That water heater, at 15 yo, is at the end of its useful life. LEGAL asbestos abatement is not cheap.

Thanks...the 6K doesn't include the hot water heater, unfortunately, but does include the abatement, which is around 1K. It does require special licenses here too, and as it turns out, most of the HVAC people who came to bid use the same abatement firm, so that part was a little simpler---they just gave us a direct quote.

Looks like we are going ahead with it, though---turns out the whole shebang is not to code (not totally unexpected, as the chimney dates to the 1910s and the furnace to the 1990s!) so we have to move both appliances to get them close enough to an outside wall that they can be legally vented. Having an old furnace was one thing, but having a not-to-code furnace is another all together---a good home inspector should catch that (as ours should have---grrr!) so we definitely want to correct it, and might as well do it now while we can enjoy some of the benefits. :)

Thanks for all of the advice!

Building codes don't apply retroactively. If your existing furnace was installed "to code" at the time of installation, it is grandfathered in and does not need to comply with modern code. If you replace it, then whatever you replace it with will need to follow modern code.

If you have a 1910 home, there will be hundreds of things that don't meet modern standards but are still perfectly legal.

Thanks. I believe where we live, inadequate venting of a furnace is considered a life and safety code violation, and thus cannot be grandfathered in---but we'll definitely check with our building department and verify this. (The current venting setup turns out to be causing corrosion to the heat exchanger anyway, though, so seems like it's worth correcting regardless!)

I realize this conversation is old, but closest I could find to my situation.... Selling house built in 1962...... Inspector said to check chimney for asbestos..... If so, remove....... If the asbestos is intact, doors it need to be removed? The liner that the company wants to put in is the same size, so the asbestos would have to be removed.... Any thoughts/advice? Thanks!

It sounds like you don't know if it has asbestos, so you would need to test it to determine this. If you knew for certain that there was no asbestos, is there any reason to remove/replace the liner? If it does have asbestos, you could pay for a removal, or you could leave it and report its presence in the disclosures as you are legally required to do in most localities when selling a home. Or, you could not bother to test and, with no knowledge of the presence of asbestos, there is nothing to disclose (guessing that the liner might have asbestos doesn't obligate you to disclose an unsubstantiated speculation).

With many instances of asbestos in the home, the simplest and cheapest course is to leave asbestos alone that is in good condition. Just because it's present in building materials doesn't mean anything if it's not releasing fibers. On the other hand, if you have pieces of the liner falling down into the chimney, it might be wise to test; if you have no evidence of deterioration, what are you trying to accomplish?

I'm not suggesting a course of action...just that you think through your objectives, the options, and the consequences.

As a buyer, I wouldn't pay more, but I might go away from the deal if asbestos was found.

Unfortunately I wasn't always that informed. As a buyer in the similar situation we did end up buying the house:) The sellers removed the ducts where asbestos was initially found (asbestos wasn't intact) at their expense. Just to get a peace of mind, we went with a full asbestos inspection. We didn't get a peace of mind though-there was asbestos everywhere, walls, floors, and we knew we were going to mess with the house, remodel etc.

Why we still bought the house escapes me..:)

We know we would have to disclose it if we buy then sell..unlike our sellers who presumably didn't know. The moment we got the results from the lab, the city got them too.

We almost went out of the escrow. At the last moment, we didn't. There was something special about this house. And I obviously wasn't thinking right..it was a sad and crazy year for us, we were in a hurry due to family circumstances, we were looking for a very specific location, etc, etc..

(Little did I know. Now I can safely say that even if we were looking for a house for another year-we'd still find ourselves in a new place faster.)

After long and painful consideration we went for a full abatement. In our case-meaning we had to gut the house. There's been a year and a half for us paying two mortgages in Southern CA, tending to and financing the remodel, and whatnot.

Sometimes it seems to me I am still alive and sane just to tell this story LOL

Get rid of whatever you have to and can afford. Asbestos and remodel are not going together very well. If it's covered, fine; I wouldn't take the risks if it is going to be disturbed, whether is going to be me personally remodeling, or somebody else.

Now, I'll say something a bit contradictory, but: If you feel uncomfortable with all the asbestos removal, maybe it's better not to check deeper into it. We take different decisions based on information we have; and while it's usually important to know things, sometimes ignorance is a bliss.

But even in this case I'd take all the extra precautions when remodeling-wet the surfaces, work in a mask, etc. And if you have kids-keep them away from the work zone as much as possible.

I must add that we did have recent death from asbestosis in the family, and it couldn't but influence us.

Maybe other buyers will be less fussy than we were, not giving much significance to the fact, coming with different experiences or lack thereof.

I wouldn't pay more for a new furnace, but it definitely would make my inclination to buy a house stronger, if I had such inclination in the first place.

PS I just read the commentary to the end and saw it's an old discussion with a new question, albeit similar. Sorry! Hope my long rant might still be useful though