My turn to rant: So we have a pipe pouring bathtub water out under the house - seems like a problem, no? The landlord and his handy man show up and start cutting into the side of the house - sensibly, it seems, as there's no other way to get to this pipe. After a few cuts and sledgehammer blows, out pours a stream of flashing little chipits of weirdness. Possibly asbestos, is my first thought. They both hum and haw and the handyman mutters about how "it might not be healthy" and then they keep cutting and banging away. I retreat inside and start emergency planning, internet searching and calling labs in town. The air is filled with dust. Eventually I have to insist they take a sample and drive it down to the lab, but meanwhile the work continues. The landlord tries to sneak it by me with "we'll cover it with a tarp, and I'll take it away. . . " and "don't mention it to the handyman, it will scare him. . . " and finally "ok, ok, we'll do it your way. . . " I'm in panic and generally freaked out because I hate being unwillingly exposed to crazy toxins, and I hate the thought that those particles will now be floating around my house for months and maybe years to come. How do you clean up microscopic particles? How do you keep the dog from rolling in them? How do you breath easy when they are endlessy and invisibly suspended in the air?
The sample is off to the lab, there's a huge hole in the side of the house that will eventually need patching (how do you patch up an asbestos area?) Fingers crossed that the tests come back negative. . . and that if they are positive the men in white suits are properly engaged and paid for and the hole is safely sealed. . .
Leaky pipes? I thought a pool of stagnant water and a mud pit under the house was unsanitary, but I think I preferred it to this new problem. . .