Before Renovating in Spokane: Finding Current Asbestos Requirements
The requirement that catches a Spokane home project is not the age of the house. It is what you are about to disturb, and one question about the property that sorts almost every job into one of two sets of rules. Answer it first, and the survey, the notification, the waiting period and the disposal route follow.
This page is for a Spokane-area owner planning a remodel, a repair or a demolition. It names the agencies, thresholds and documents and stops where removal begins; no abatement procedure appears here.
Quick route
| Your situation | Check first | Have ready |
|---|---|---|
| A remodel, inside or out | Whether the project counts as an owner-occupied, single-family residence | The address, and who will do the work |
| The work will be done by a contractor | An asbestos survey by an AHERA-certified building inspector | A written description of what will be disturbed |
| Removal of 10 or more linear feet, or 48 or more square feet | A Notice of Intent to the clean air agency | The survey, and a way to pay online |
| Any demolition | Both notifications, and the permit office’s checklist | The agency’s Notice of Intent number |
| A fire-damaged or destroyed structure | The agency, before any debris moves | The survey and the notice |
Two authorities, and the county boundary
In Spokane County the asbestos programme belongs to the Spokane Regional Clean Air Agency, in its Regulation I, Article IX, “Asbestos control standards”. It reaches a project anywhere in the county — the City of Spokane, Spokane Valley and the unincorporated county alike — and a project outside the county is not its business.
Behind it sits a state requirement. The Washington State Department of Labor & Industries certifies abatement contractors, supervisors and workers, and requires its own notification before an asbestos project starts. The federal standard for asbestos as a hazardous air pollutant is the floor both agencies work from.
Age is not an answer either way. The clean air agency states there is no “safe date” of construction that makes a structure asbestos-free, because the 1989 federal rule covered new uses and only some products, so even newer buildings may hold it in mastics and joint compounds. Labor & Industries requires a good faith inspection before any work that could disturb suspect material, whatever the building’s age, and owners and contractors alike face a daily penalty if it is not done.
The one question that sorts the project
The agency divides every project into owner-occupied, single-family residences and everything else. In its words, such a residence is “any non-multiple unit building containing space used for living, sleeping, cooking, eating, etc., by one family who owns the property as their permanent and primary residence both prior to and after the reno or demo project (and can be demonstrated as such upon request)”. Houses, mobile homes, trailers, detached garages and outbuildings can qualify.
Its own yes-or-no test decides the rest, and one yes moves the project to the other set of rules: someone else owns the structure or pays its property tax; the structure is, or will be, something other than your permanent primary residence; more than one family lives in it; it is a vacation or seasonal home; it is, or will be, a rental or a mixed-use building with a home business; it was previously used for public or business purposes; it is being demolished under an urban renewal or highway project or a city or county order; it will be used for fire training. The agency warns that misidentifying a project as an owner-occupied residence when it does not qualify can bring a fine.
Debris from a fire-, flood- or disaster-destroyed structure counts as demolition: the owner-occupant can no longer do the abatement work, and the survey and notification requirements apply.
What each category requires
| Project | Survey | Notification | Who removes it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Renovation by the resident owner of an owner-occupied residence | Recommended, not required — the owner may assess the material | None to the clean air agency | The resident owner may do it |
| Renovation on that residence, done by anyone else | Required, by an AHERA-certified building inspector | Notice of Intent before removal | Certified workers |
| Renovation on any other project | Required, by an AHERA-certified building inspector, and kept at the site | Notice of Intent before removal | Certified workers, for anything likely to be disturbed |
| Any demolition | Required, by an AHERA-certified building inspector | Notice of Intent | All asbestos removed by certified workers before demolition begins |
The notice is not required for every renovation. The agency must be told before a removal reaching 10 linear feet or 48 square feet, either measure, per structure, per calendar year. It need not be told about caulking, non-friable window glazing or non-friable roofing, or about demolishing a structure with a projected roof area of 120 square feet or less that contains no asbestos.
The waiting period depends on the project. The agency’s current fee schedule sets three days for demolition of an owner-occupied, single-family residence and ten days for other demolitions and the larger removals, while the agency’s renovation-and-demolition page says a demolition notice must reach it at least ten days beforehand. The schedule’s figure is the narrower one; where they disagree, ask the agency.
A second notice runs alongside the first. Labor & Industries requires its own asbestos project notification above the same threshold, received no later than ten calendar days before work starts; smaller projects are exempt, and an emergency is reported within three working days. Both notices are normally the contractor’s job, and both are documents an owner should keep.
The demolition permit waits on the agency’s number
A demolition in the county also needs a permit, and all three permitting authorities tie that permit to the asbestos step. The City of Spokane’s demolition guidesheet directs the applicant to obtain a Notice of Intent “prior to the issuance of the City of Spokane Demolition Permit”, and its application carries a field for the number. Spokane Valley’s demolition application lists a Notice of Intent from Spokane Clean Air among its required documents, with structures under 120 square feet excepted. Spokane County’s own demolition checklist requires an asbestos survey by an AHERA-certified building inspector and the filing of the Notice of Intent before the permit application.
The order is survey, notice, permit. Which authority handles the address is a separate lookup, which the jurisdiction guide settles; a demolition on a listed property or inside a local historic district carries its own review on top, which the older-homes pillar and the design-review guide cover.
Disposal is part of the requirement
The agency requires asbestos-containing waste to be off the site and disposed of within ten calendar days of removal at a site authorized to accept it, unless a temporary storage permit is obtained first. It goes into leak-tight containers at least six mils thick, marked with the collection date, the waste generator and the address, and carrying the standard asbestos warning.
Asbestos is not accepted at the transfer stations or the Waste-to-Energy Facility, as the City of Spokane states on its solid waste pages, so the load goes to a facility that takes it. The agency publishes the disposal guidance, the waste shipment record and the receiving facility, and the same number answers all of it. Everything else a renovation produces is the cleanup and disposal pillar’s subject.
Checking the company before you hire it
Removal belongs to a contractor certified by the state, unless the project is the resident owner’s own renovation on a qualifying residence. Labor & Industries publishes the certified abatement contractor list, the certifications it has revoked, and a verification tool showing a firm’s inspection history.
The clean air agency also keeps a list of local asbestos service providers, and states plainly that appearing on it is no recommendation. It keeps a five-year history of violation notices. Keep the paperwork: the state certifications for the supervisors and workers on site, confirmation that Labor & Industries received the project notification, confirmation that the agency received the Notice of Intent, the air-sampling laboratory results, and the waste disposal manifest for your address. An owner, or an owner’s agent, can be cited for a violation a contractor commits.
The asbestos pre-project record
Empty fields are intentional.
| Field | Your entry |
|---|---|
| Address and structure | |
| Renovation or demolition | |
| Owner-occupied, single-family residence — yes or no, and why | |
| What will be disturbed, and in which part of the building | |
| Survey: inspector, certification number, date, stated limitations | |
| Notice of Intent: number, and the date filed | |
| Waiting period the agency set | |
| Labor & Industries notification: date filed | |
| Who removes the material, and their certification | |
| Waste: shipment record, receiving facility, disposal date |
Exceptions and stopping points
- Material that is intact. Leaving asbestos in place is one option the agency describes, because undisturbed material does not release fibres; whether it can stay is for the survey and the agency.
- Removal itself. No removal procedure appears here. The agency publishes its own guidebooks for a few common materials, and says plainly that some projects are very hazardous and belong to certified contractors.
- Fire, flood or disaster debris. The agency’s damaged-structure guidance applies and the requirements are not waived by the disaster; it is waiving notice fees and waiting periods for the wildfires it names, so ask which programme covers your address.
- Suspected material found after work starts. Stop and bring the inspector back; the state keeps a shortened-notification route for that situation.
- An emergency, or structural, electrical, gas or roofing work. Both agencies provide a route for urgent work, and the trades stay with licensed professionals, whoever files the paperwork.
Next step
Settle the category first: whether the project qualifies as an owner-occupied, single-family residence, and whether the work is contracted out or is a demolition. Then call the Spokane Regional Clean Air Agency on 509-477-4727 with the address and the scope of work in hand, and file both notices before anything is removed. Report an error through our contact page.