How do I know if my roof contains asbestos?

Only from a laboratory result on a physical sample. OSHA defines presumed asbestos containing material as thermal system insulation and surfacing material in buildings constructed no later than 1980, so roofing material is not presumed asbestos containing simply because of its age. The year the house was built, and any records of earlier roof work, tell you whether to sample. They do not tell you the answer.

What does asbestos roof removal cost in Hammond?

The sample is estimated at $50 to $150 for each distinct material. The removal itself is priced per roof from the laboratory result, the measured area and the disposal route, as a line on top of the replacement roof that follows it, so it is not something anyone can quote off a rate card.

What is the 25 square feet rule?

It is a work practice exemption, not a licence exemption. Intact roofing under 25 square feet can be removed without wet methods or HEPA vacuuming, as long as manual methods are used that keep the material intact and no visible dust is created. The standard then requires all removal and repair work on the same roof on the same day to be counted together.

Can the old roof just be broken up and thrown in a skip?

No, and doing it changes the problem. The standard requires roofing material to be removed in an essentially intact state to the extent feasible. Sanding, grinding, cutting or abrading an asphalt product, or crumbling a cement one, brings it inside the regulated definition, with the disposal obligations that go with that.

Does the replacement roof need a permit?

Yes. The roof that goes back on is a reroof, and both the City of Hammond and Tangipahoa Parish permit and inspect those under La. R.S. 37:3737(I), with the inspection able to accept location verified geotagged photographs or videos under R.S. 37:3737(H). Which office issues it depends on whether the address sits inside the city limits, with the City Building Department at 219 E Robert St and the Parish office at 15485 West Club Deluxe Road.

What should I be holding at the end?

Three things: the laboratory report naming the analysis method, the waste record showing where the material went, and photographs of the roof before and after. Those are what demonstrate the job was done correctly, and they matter at survey and at sale.

Home/Service Areas/Louisiana/Hammond/Asbestos Roof Removal

Asbestos Roof Removal in Hammond, LA

Big Easy Roofing handles asbestos roofs across Hammond and Tangipahoa Parish starting with a laboratory sample rather than a quote. The result is the first thing that separates an ordinary tear off from work that has to be handled as abatement, and it decides who may carry it out, how the material comes off, and what the replacement roof costs.

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Service

City

$1 or moreLouisiana licence threshold

City or parishPermits a reroof

Essentially intactThe federal removal method

25 sq ft, same dayThe small job limit

Hammond asbestos roof removal at a glance

Nobody can tell you whether a roof contains asbestos by looking at it, so this work starts with a physical sample and a laboratory result. That result decides the licence position, the removal method, the disposal route and the price, which is why no honest quote comes before it.

Removal cost

Call for an estimate

The laboratory result, the measured area and where the waste can go set this figure, and it sits as its own line beside the replacement roof rather than inside it. Call Big Easy Roofing on (504) 800-8196.

Who permits the reroof

City or parish, by boundary

The roof that goes back on is a reroof, permitted and inspected through the City of Hammond Building Department at 219 E Robert St inside the city limits, or through the Tangipahoa Parish Permit Office at 15485 West Club Deluxe Road outside them. The abatement itself answers to a different authority again.

Louisiana licence threshold

$1 or more

The state licensing board lists asbestos abatement and removal under hazardous materials at a value of $1 or more, against $50,000 for commercial construction. That threshold applies whatever the material turns out to be. What the laboratory result and the removal method change is which classification and which work practices apply, and that is settled with the board and named on your quote rather than assumed. See the board.

Estimated bulk sample

$50 to $150 each

At least one sample of every distinct material, read under polarized light microscopy, with the count set by whoever is sampling rather than by a rule. A single roof commonly holds two or three distinct materials, because the covering, whatever is under it and any mastic can each give a different answer.

Federal removal method

Essentially intact where feasible

The construction asbestos standard requires roofing material to be removed in an essentially intact state to the extent feasible. Breaking, cutting, grinding or crumbling it is not a shortcut: it can change which work practices and disposal rules apply, depending on the product, its condition and the method used.

The small job limit

25 sq ft, same roof, same day

The exemption from wet methods and HEPA vacuuming applies to intact roofing under 25 square feet, and the standard requires all removal and repair work on the same roof on the same day to be counted together.

Every figure on this page is an estimate, not a quote, and is subject to Big Easy Roofing sign off. Cost and timescale depend on size, pitch, access, weather, materials and whatever is found once work starts, so call Big Easy Roofing on (504) 800-8196 and we will come out and give you an estimate for your own roof.

Two asbestos products turn up on a roof. The first is asbestos cement sheet and shingle, the hard grey material often called transite. The second is asbestos containing asphalt felt and mastic in older built up and low slope sections. Neither announces itself, and a cement shingle that has weathered for fifty years looks like any other cement shingle. A laboratory result on a physical sample is the only thing that settles it.

The federal standard gets quoted loosely here, so it is worth being exact. OSHA presumes asbestos in thermal system insulation and surfacing material in buildings constructed no later than 1980. Roofing is neither of those, so the law creates no presumption either way from the age of a roof. What age does do is tell you whether it is worth sampling. It does not tell you the answer, and anyone pronouncing on a roof from the driveway is guessing at your expense.

What is actually up there and how each one is handled

Four materials get sampled on a roof and they are not handled the same way. The fifth row is not a material, it is what a guess looks like. The last column matters more than it looks, because the federal category decides the removal method, and the method is the part a cheap quote cuts first.

Material	How it is confirmed	Estimated removal	Federal category if intact
Cement sheet or shingle, the grey product called transite	One or more bulk samples, the count and the positions set by whoever is sampling	Priced per roof	Category II nonfriable while it stays whole
Roofing felt, including each layer of a built up roof	Each felt layer sampled in its own right, since a cap sheet can test differently	Priced per roof	Category I nonfriable while it stays whole
Mastic, flashing cement and sealant	Its own sample. An asbestos mastic can sit under a covering that tests clear	Carried with the covering	Category I where it is asphalt based
Cement panel where the eave turns down the wall	Taken at the same visit, because one panel often runs roof to wall	Priced per roof	Category II, under a different paragraph
Anything identified by looking at it	It is not confirmed, it is a guess	Not quoted	Unknown until sampled

Sampling is the only figure that can be given up front. Removal is priced per roof rather than off a rate card, because the laboratory result, the area and the disposal route move it. Call (504) 800-8196 and we will sample it before anyone talks about price.

The licence, the method and the rule that is easy to miss

Three separate sets of rules meet on an asbestos roof: who is allowed to do the work, how the material has to come off, and who permits the roof that goes back on. They are administered by three different bodies and a contractor needs all three answers.

Who may do the work, and who will

Named on your quote

Louisiana licenses asbestos abatement and removal under hazardous materials at a value of $1 or more, and the board classification for it also requires Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality asbestos certification. That threshold applies whatever the material turns out to be. What the laboratory result, the condition of the material and the method change is which classification and which work practices apply, and that is settled with the board and the department and named in writing on your quote, rather than decided on a doorstep.

How it has to come off

Essentially intact, to the extent feasible

The construction asbestos standard at 29 CFR 1926.1101 requires roofing material to be removed in an essentially intact state to the extent feasible, and wet methods where it is not intact or will not stay intact.

The sentence after the 25 square feet

Same roof, same day

The small job provision exempts intact roofing under 25 square feet from wet methods and HEPA vacuuming, and then requires all removal and repair work on the same roof on the same day to be added together. A roof cannot be cut into several small jobs in one day to stay under the figure.

The eave changes the rulebook

A different paragraph

Cementitious siding, shingles and transite panels on building exteriors other than roofs sit under a separate set of work practices. So the same panel can be governed by one paragraph on the roof and another where it turns down the wall.

What a compliant quote looks like

It names the laboratory and the analysis method, it lists how many samples are being taken and of what, and it separates the abatement from the replacement roof rather than folding them into one number. It also names where the waste is going, and who holds the classification for the abatement itself.

You should end up holding three documents: the laboratory report, the waste record, and photographs of the roof before and after. Those are the record of what was found and where it went, and they are worth keeping with the deeds rather than in a drawer.

What turns a contained job into a regulated one

Method. Intact, both families are nonfriable and the work is contained. An asphalt roofing product that has been sanded, ground, cut or abraded, or a cement product with a high probability of being crumbled or reduced to powder by the forces acting on it, is caught by the regulated definition.

That is not a technicality. A crew arriving with a circular saw and a skip can move a roof from one category to the other in an afternoon, and it is the homeowner who is left with the site and with the disposal problem, not the crew.

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Why this matters on a Hammond reroof

Asbestos is not a Hammond question in itself, it is an age question. What is local is the sequence, because the office at file now permits and inspects the roof that goes back on, and that sits either side of an abatement that answers to somebody else entirely.

Two authorities, one roof

The removal answers to the state licensing board and to environmental regulation. The replacement roof needs a reroof permit, issued and inspected under La. R.S. 37:3737(I) by the City of Hammond Building Department at 219 E Robert St inside the city limits or by the Tangipahoa Parish Permit Office at 15485 West Club Deluxe Road outside them, and R.S. 37:3737(H) allows the inspection to accept location verified geotagged photographs or videos.

Sequencing those two is the practical difficulty on this job, and it is a reason to settle both before a start date is promised rather than discovering the clash halfway through. Where a Hammond property sits inside the City's Historic District overlay named on the permit form, the specific review path for a reroof comes from the City rather than something the form itself settles.

Age of the house, not age of the neighbourhood

Asbestos went into roofing products for decades and stopped being used in them gradually rather than on a date, so the year the house was built is the first reason to sample. Product records, an earlier survey and whatever is known about previous roof work all count as well. Because roofing carries no federal presumption either way, an old roof is not automatically asbestos and a newer one is not automatically clear.

The cheap and correct move is to sample before anyone quotes a tear off. A sample costs tens of dollars. Discovering the answer with the covering already broken up costs considerably more than that.

A wet climate does not make it safer

Wet methods appear in the standard as a control during removal, not as a reason a rainy region is lower risk. Weathered cement sheet can be more fragile than it looks, which cuts against intact removal rather than for it.

That is worth saying because a damp or outdoor location is sometimes offered as a reason intact removal does not matter. Neither is in the standard, and neither changes what the material is.

Big Easy Roofing Process

Three steps, and the first one is the whole point. Beyond the controlled sampling itself, nothing is disturbed and no removal is priced until a laboratory has said what the material is.

A roofer taking a bulk sample from a cement roof sheet for laboratory analysis

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Sample every distinct material

The covering, the felt or underlayment, and any mastic sampled separately and sent for polarized light microscopy. Sampling every distinct material is what stops a clean result on the covering hiding an asbestos mastic underneath it.

Set the licence, method and disposal route in writing

What the result means for who may do the work and who will be doing it, whether removal is intact or wet, how the waste is contained and where it goes, and how the reroof permit for the replacement roof fits around it.

Remove, document, then reroof

Removal carried out to the federal method by whoever holds the credentials the result calls for, photographs before and after, the laboratory report and the waste record handed to you, and the replacement roof permitted in its own right. Call (504) 800-8196 to get the roof sampled.

Everything else we do in Hammond

The rest of the Big Easy Roofing services available in Hammond, each with its own page and written estimate. An asbestos removal is quoted as a line on top of the replacement roof that follows it rather than as a job on its own.

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