If you’re taking a structure down to the foundation, this is the survey you need. Also called a pre demolition survey, a demo survey, an AHERA survey, or good faith asbestos survey. If your permit office or your contractor asked for any of those, you’re in the right place.
Certified inspectors
No guesswork, no wasted time. Here’s exactly what happens from the day you call to the day you get your report.
Book online or by phone. Paused jobs, time crunches, and repeat partners get priority scheduling.
A certified inspector walks the property, collects samples, maps and documents everything needed for your report.
Samples analyzed by an NVLAP-accredited lab. Results in 3 business days, or next business day if your project can't wait.
A documented report with everything you need to keep the job moving, or to submit to the permitting office for approval.
You want an inspector focused on your best interest, not the next job. Pick wrong, and you risk L&I violation tickets, a halted job site, and liability for both the contractor and homeowner. All it takes is one neighbor with a little knowledge of hazardous material rules to bring a compliance officer to your site. A proper survey is your first line of defense when that happens.
We’re a dedicated inspection company, not an abatement company. We don’t stand to gain from your materials testing positive. Our priority is protecting you, your crew, & your project.
A stalled job site costs you money every hour it sits idle. Paused projects or those with a time crunch get priority scheduling and rush results in as little as 24 hours. Our priority is keeping your project moving, not adding to the delay.
When an L&I compliance officer shows up, the first thing they ask for is the asbestos survey. Lack of a survey, or an improperly done one, and they can start writing $600/day fines on the spot. It goes up from there if other safety violations are present.
Straight answers to the questions we hear most from homeowners and contractors before a demolition starts.
No. PSCAA Regulation requires an AHERA-certified building inspector for every demolition survey, with no owner occupied exception. Only that inspector’s determination counts, and it has to cover the whole structure being torn down.
Earlier than most people think. The survey itself is quick, results come back in 3 business days or the next business day on a rush. The delay is everything that comes after if asbestos turns up.
If asbestos is found, it has to be abated before demolition, and that’s its own track:
Leave ample time so your schedule isn’t affected if the results come back positive. We’d recommend at least a month, if not more, because the scope of removal can range from a single floor to thousands of square feet of popcorn ceiling.
PSCAA regulation makes it unlawful to demolish without first obtaining the survey, and every demolition also requires a formal notification filed with the agency and a 10-day waiting period before work can legally start. Skip either one, and you’re not just risking a denied permit. You’re looking at violations and fines, and a project that can’t legally proceed at all.
Yes. Under Puget Sound Clean Air Agency regulation, it’s unlawful to cause or allow a demolition unless the property owner or their agent obtains an asbestos survey from an AHERA-certified building inspector covering the entire structure. Only a certified inspector can determine that a suspect material doesn’t contain asbestos, and a summary of the results has to be posted at the job site or given in writing to everyone who might come into contact with the material.
In our experience, the most common materials we find are:
Pro tip: if your home has HVAC floor registers, pull the grill and look at the sides of the opening. Sometimes you can see multiple layers of flooring, which tells you there’s more to test than what’s visible.
Check the pricing tables above for the base rate and per-sample cost. As a general idea of scope:
These are rough averages. Every structure is different, and the count depends on:
A demolition survey covers the entire structure, not one room or one work area, so the sample count runs higher than it would on a renovation survey of the same building. These are general guides, not a quote.
If asbestos is found, it has to be properly abated before the structure comes down. That work goes to a licensed abatement contractor, and they’ll give you the specifics for your materials and scope.
At a high level, here’s what that process involves so you know what to expect:
None of that happens same day. The Clean Air Agency requires a 10-day wait after the demolition notification is filed before the structure can be demolished, and your permit office will want the survey and that paperwork before signing off. Order the survey early so the abatement and the waiting period fit inside your schedule
Yes. There’s no exemption for a structure that looks like it’s all wood. Washington requires an asbestos survey by an AHERA-certified building inspector before a demolition, regardless of what’s visible.
Asbestos was used in hundreds of building products, and plenty of them aren’t obvious. Gaskets, vent and duct components, caulking, window glazing, roofing felt, and adhesives all show up in structures people describe as plain wood. A trained inspector knows where to look for them.
You also need the survey as documentation. It’s what proves the structure was reviewed by an AHERA-certified inspector before it came down. Seeing wood isn’t proof, and it won’t satisfy the permit office or the Clean Air Agency.
No, you don’t need to be present, as long as our inspector can get into the home, whether that’s a lock box, a door code, or someone else letting us in. Most of our customers aren’t there for the visit.
What we need from you ahead of time:
On access: whatever’s in the project’s scope needs to be open to us. A kitchen remodel means we need the whole kitchen, no locked closets or blocked areas inside that scope. A full demolition means we need access to the entire home.
Most surveys take about 2 hours. Hard-to-reach spaces or a bigger scope of work can push that to 4 hours or more. It really depends on the scope.
