My parents in law neglected their HVAC vents for over 40 years. Eventually they broke and started belching fiberglass insulation around the entire fricking house.
Every single square inch of the house is covered thick with sugary smelling insulation and I have absolutely no idea how the holy frick I'm supposed to get rid of it. ITS IN ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING.
HOW DO I GET RID OF IT?
just put drywall on top and forget about it
Well first off depending on how much particles are in the air this could be a health hazard. The "OSHA approved" way to fix this is to temporarily vacate the premises and have air testing done. BUT... you're probably not gonna do that, because you're asking PrepHoleg for advice. So instead I would
>wear at least an N95, pref. a real P100 respirator
>ventilate the building, open all the windows and doors, you can put fans in windows help with this
>use a fully sealed, hepa filtered vacuum to vacuum every square inch of the home and it's contents (miele and shark are the go-to brands) - make sure you use a beater bar attachment on carpets
>launder everything that can go in a washer
>get the vents/HVAC cleaned and serviced
If you do even one or two of these things you'll greatly reduce the potential health hazard.
I got the hvac ducts replaced and replaced the upstairs carpet and it dramatically reduced the problem but I just don't see how you can remove the sheer fricking amount of it.
The parents in law are boomer morons so they just ignore it.
Will house insurance cover this?
No.
they hardly cover the shit they're supposed, the shit thats not your fault
they will never cover shit that's your fault
absolutely
fricking
typical
boomer
behavior
until something is going up in flames, they will neglect every conceivable form of normal maintenance/upkeep
I pity the fool who lives in a house that was ever boomer-owned for even a week
MASK MASK MASK
now that that's put of the way, wet it with a spray bottle of soapy water and shovel it
basically the same procedure for asbestos removal
big shop vac, hepa filter the exhaust, masks.
Very likely all soft furnishings, carpets, curtains etc are a write off, you could vacuum the shit out of them and still come away itchy months down the line.
Empty every room down to the floorboards and deep clean, this includes washing down the walls and ceilings with sugar soap. Nothing goes back in until that item has itself been deep cleaned to prevent future contamination.
N95 facemask, goggles, stout rubber gloves and disposable overalls are essential.
Accept the fact that despite all your efforts you likely won't get every bit of it and your moronic inlaws will be finding fiberglass for years to come
Best of luck OP, rather you than me one this one
So, the problem here is that they live there and refuse to acknowledge that it's a problem. Their cat is basically experiencing a chronic asthma attack. They get headaches if they shuffle along the carpet too quickly.
How do you even help people like that?
You can't help stupid, I wouldn't walk into a house in that state without a mask on let alone live in it.
If you got kids make sure to keep them away from that house, let the boomers choke on the own stupidity
you don't, it's not your problem
have you tried telling them "not my problem"
>40+ year old hvac vents
>he thinks it's fiberglass
Lol
I'm quite confident that it's not asbestos. The house was built a long time ago but it was purchased only 15 years ago.
It's in America so I don't know if they have to test for that shit or not?
They did not. There's a waiver you sign when you buy a house thats more than 10 years old 'this might have asbestos in it I dunno lol'
Personally if I was buying anything from about 1960-1980 I would have asbestos testing done
It in everything including the drywall and mud from the 1900s to rhe 1990s
Only in tiny amounts for most of that time. Peak asbestos in my city was 60-80. In my building it was in the flooring, popcorn ceiling, and mud. But the mud is only about 2% asbestos, just above the legal cutoff (<1%) for "asbestos containing material". The flooring and popcorn on the otherhand were pretty much solid asbestos (>90%). And the modern stuff around the building was also tested, came in at much less than 1% asbestos for everything. So yeah legally they can still use it in tiny insignificant amounts, and such usage has been common through the years, but in practice it's the concentrated stuff that matters. And of course everything is different depending on location. For example in India they apparently still use tons of asbestos in housing to this day
and naturally they would be too cheap to pay a professional
I think you stay away from disaster situations like that
just sell the home to foreigners and dont say anything about it
Open all the windows and doors, use a leaf blower and shopvac to simultaneously blow and suck all the shit out of your mom's house. Wear a mask.
>Eventually they broke
They just broke? How? Why?
Is this typical?
I have an old house..
Probably clogged. Just have them inspected/cleaned if you're worried. You can get a cheap drainscope to check yourself if you don't trust tradies (I don't, shifty buggers, the whole lot of 'em)
Seems like even larger problems if the joists or tin rotted away to the extent to get insulation into the return air.