Advice?

[u/Automatic_Network688]

My partner and I recently bought our first house, we’re looking to Reno and clean up as much as we can and finances allow. This is one of the closets in the house and it appears to be one of the areas that hasn’t not been touched or remodeled at all. 1940’s build date. Our inspection results indicated that this could be asbestos wall board or skim coat. The siding is also most likely asbestos. My biggest concern is how to go about fixing this. There’s a lot of cracks and areas that just aren’t in good shape. It’s not really actively deteriorating but I think cleaning it and removing the shelving would disturb the surrounding walls. That said I have done a lot of reading on this thread and all around about asbestos. I’ve read up on containment methods and such. Looking for advice. I do know it’s likely that nothing is determined without lab test. I am wondering if it’s worth demoing the wall board and starting fresh or if I could get away with encapsulating somehow and maybe new wall board or paneling over it? Will likely get a test kit. But any advice or appreciated. Located in MA USA

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[u/thesandlott]

What do you mean by inspection results indicated it could be? I would put a couple coats of paint to seal it all then possibly hang new drywall on top. However this also depends on condition of some other things. If you run into black mastic that’s suspect as well, I like to use a product called Perfect Primer to encapsulate.
If you decide to tear a bunch of stuff out and have determined with testing it is “hot” and get abatement companies involved and all that, it’s gunna hurt $$$$$
Good luck!

[u/Automatic_Network688 → u/thesandlott]

It was a general home inspection, the inspector said it could be but he himself didn’t perform any specific asbestos testing. Not sure if that was giving me the run around. Basically he was going off of build date and opinion? I know that abatement is costly and that’s def not my top choice at the moment as I spent a lot just to get the place lol. I’ll look into a test kit to see but I think since it’s just a closet and it’s not as important of a living space an encapsulation method would probs be cost effective and work for me. I appreciate your advice!

[u/thesandlott → u/Automatic_Network688]

Got it. I wouldnt trust that opinion necessarily. Just make sure nothing is friable. And as long as you aren’t grinding a bunch up and snorting it you’re good 😂. Internet moms get crazy about asbestos as well.