When my client approached me to help them renovate the new building they just purchased for their company, I thought, “Sure, this should be easy enough”. When I showed up at the property in question, I immediately retracted that thought. I pulled up to an old Victorian-style mansion that had been run down over the years, and definitely fell into the category of needing a little TLC.

Determining What Can Stay & What Must Go During the Renovation Process

Although it still had the existing trim and some other existing woodworkings, they hadn’t been well maintained over the years. This meant they went on the list of items that would potentially need to be replaced during the reno, or would at least go on the list of items that you would need to compare cost of refinishing versus installing new. Some things are worth saving like this old marble fireplace mantel and brick work!

To start everything off, a Designated Substance Survey (DSS) needed to be done. When you’re dealing with buildings as old as this one the chances of there being asbestos or other harmful toxins are high. At this point we weren’t sure of the age of the building: we were speculating that it was built in the early 1900’s which meant it may or may not contain asbestos (asbestos wasn’t common until the 30’s-40’s, so a little investigating was in order). Unfortunately, the DSS determined that at some point the owners and occupants had brought in asbestos and other toxic materials, and so some abatement was necessary. As it turned out, we were dealing with some old vinyl tile – typically requiring a Type 1 removal – and then some asbestos wrapped pipe, which needed a Type 3 removal (which is far more serious). What classifies asbestos as Type 1 versus Type 3? It’s the amount of airborne spores that are present when the material in question is disturbed. The vinyl tiles are harder and therefore if removed carefully are less likely to cause fibres to be air borne. The pipe wrap contained a much looser type of asbestos, so as soon as you remove any section of it, it emits the particles into the air. Luckily, we’re pros, so we had this on lock!