Cases of asbestos exposure are always very rampant when home owners choose to begin renovating their old homes. Since the new building measures restrict the use of asbestos in modern day construction, you cannot face this problem with new buildings. You must of course identify the asbestos first through inspecting various parts of your home to find evidences of the same. Testing for the same can be ideal before you start the demolition or renovation procedure that might just harm those around. The first step is reaching out to asbestos survey London and removal companies who will avail not just the trained team but also quality equipment which will be used in the removal process. Here are some of the procedures of testing that you should be familiar with when pursuing the removal of asbestos from your building.
Air samples
There is a possibility of airborne asbestos in old homes so a Phase Contract Microscopy (PCM) should be your most ideal option to pursue. This technique makes it easy to measure asbestos that is present in the air. Of all the various testing methods, this is the most ideal because of its cost efficiency and Time efficient nature. Rather than identifying the presence of asbestos, this procedure can help one to gauge the fiber types that exist in the air sample being tested.
Building materials
There are a number of techniques that are used in the event that you are testing presence of asbestos in building materials. Polarized Light Microscopy is the most considered technique to use because of the ability to use polarized light to check out specific minerals in the fibers being tested. This technique will not just enlighten you on the presence of asbestos but also show you the various type of asbestos that there are today. You should expect to get the percentage of asbestos that there is in the tested sample of building materials once you are through with the analysis.
Soils and water testing
It is not always that asbestos will be found in buildings, dump zones and other areas accessible to the public for instance pipes around the area can easily be filled with asbestos. Water and soil testing is therefore ideal if you suspect or discover presence of asbestos in certain regions. There two methods which can be used to soil tests and that includes PLM and the Transmission Electron Microscopy for fibers that are rather small to be identified using PLM. TEM remain the best technique to rely on when testing water samples for presence of asbestos as it can help bring out even the minute of asbestos fibers present in the water.
Caution
Remember that dealing with asbestos is best left for the experts for their experience and training in handling the matter. Testing or sampling the asbestos by yourself can be very risky to your health as slight exposure to the same could have dire repercussions on your health. There are numerous companies that you can immediately reach out to for assistance depending on where your budget guides you.