On Tue, 13 Mar 2007 00:51:25 -0800, tenplay wrote:

My elderly mother's house has a crumbling popcorn ceiling in her tv
room. We were informed of the danger of asbestos leakage if the ceiling
is allowed to deteriorate. I was told that a significant water leak in
the kitchen above the tv room several years ago contributed to the
ceiling damage. We were told that removal of the popcorn ceiling and
the asbestos behind it will require us to keep her out of the immediate
area until the removal and then the post-repair testing of the air is
completed. This will create a real hardship on everyone since she is a
virtual shut-in and suffers from Alzheimer's. Is there an alternative
fix that is less invasive and would prevent any leakage of asbestos into
the air? I read that one can place a layer of wallboard over the
ceiling. But then it seems that it would be extremely risky since any
nails or bolts into the ceiling could cause leakage of asbestos. Thanks
for any advice or suggestions.


The onset time for exposure to asbestos to cause problems is
something like 20 years, I woudn't fix it at all.

But if you're going to, the first order of business is to
make sure that the water issue is permanantly solved.
After that, painting with an encapsulating paint or skim-
coating with a lightweight spackle will encapsulate the
asbestos, you should only need the 1/4" wallboard over it
if there are chunks of material trying to fall off, or
if the result of the spackle is too ugly to look at.

In any case, not enough dust will filter through
screw holes to matter. (It should be none,
because you're going to tape and mud all the seams
and screw-holes, right?)

You'll want to move all non-working peoples out of the
immediate area while working on the ceiling anyway.