If you own a Shorewood home and have a remodel, reroof or teardown coming, we can take the asbestos side of it. Testing is arranged, confirmed material comes out, the state notice is filed, and the records are yours at the end.
In Shorewood, houses built before 1980 make up more than 3 in every 10 homes, and those from before 1970 account for nearly a quarter.
Cement siding taken off a garage front before the garage becomes a family room
Example project
Home
1960s rambler in Shorewood with cement shingle siding and an attached one-stall garage
Original request
Close in the garage door opening and turn the garage into a family room
Testing
An MDH-certified inspector tests the cement shingles on the garage front and the putty on its window
Found
Asbestos in the cement siding shingles
Clear
No asbestos in the window glazing
Area
About 220 sq ft of siding on the garage front
Timeline
Five-day notice, then one working day
Cost
$2,950
In this example, the owners of a 1960s rambler in Shorewood no longer park in their one-stall garage and want it as a family room. Their builder will frame a wall and a window where the garage door was.
More than 9 in 10 Shorewood homes are one-unit homes, and fewer than 1 in 10 of the occupied ones are rented. The median build year here is 1987, yet close to 7 percent of homes go back to 1939 or earlier.
Houses from before 1970
Floor tile and mastic, ceiling texture, joint compound and siding are all on MDH’s list, and houses from those years may have any of them. Some come back clean, though, and testing is how you find out which kind of house you own.
Owners in their own homes
Most Shorewood homes are lived in by their owners, but the exemption for owners is narrow. It lets someone who lives in their own single-family house skip the license and the permit fee for asbestos work there, and MDH strongly recommends a licensed contractor regardless. A rented house gets no exemption.
Shorewood’s demolition permit checklist asks whether an MPCA demolition notice has been submitted, and the form itself notes that single-family dwellings are generally exempt. It also asks you to confirm that all hazardous materials were removed and disposed of under MPCA requirements.
Asbestos is not named anywhere on the checklist. Even so, MPCA counts it among the wastes that have to come out ahead of a renovation or demolition. Shorewood is also in Hennepin County, which means the county’s pre-demolition inspection applies, so keep the asbestos survey, abatement receipts and disposal manifests ready.
In most cases no, because MPCA leaves out houses of four units or less. A Shorewood house is pulled back in if one owner is clearing several houses, if it was converted from a regulated use, or if the demolition serves commercial development, a highway or urban renewal. Whatever the answer, the asbestos is removed before the house comes down.
How far ahead must the state be told?
Your licensed contractor sends MDH a notice, which must reach the department at least five calendar days before removal starts.
Is a small patch safe to scrape myself?
Not in MDH’s view. MDH does not regulate a job below the state limits, but it says that does not make the job safe, and it recommends licensed removal for any asbestos material. In a home the limits are more than 10 linear feet of friable pipe insulation, more than 6 square feet of friable material on any other part and, for material with no length or area to measure, more than 1 cubic foot.
Who checks the work when it’s done?
Air samples are taken at the end of a licensed job. MDH tells homeowners to ask for that lab report along with the waste manifests.
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