Asbestos testing — Toronto and the GTA
Find out in writing, before anybody touches it.
$295 for the inspection in the core GTA, plus $95 for each material sent to an accredited laboratory. That is the price, not a starting point — and it is the one thing here that does not need a site visit to quote, because the site visit is what you are buying.
Do not take your own sample.
Please do not cut, scrape or bag a piece of it yourself. Material that is intact and left alone is not releasing fibre; breaking a piece off to send away is the one thing that changes that. Leave it, keep people out of the room if it is already damaged, and let somebody who is equipped for it take the sample.
Book a test
No account, no obligation. The price is on this page rather than after a phone call.
What it costs, by where you are
| Area | Inspection |
|---|---|
| Toronto and the core GTAToronto, Etobicoke, Scarborough, North York, York, East York, and the nearer parts of Mississauga, Brampton, Vaughan, Markham and Pickering. | $295 |
| Outer GTA — roughly 30 to 60 km outOakville, Milton, Newmarket, Aurora, Ajax, Whitby and similar. | $395 |
| Further out — roughly 60 to 100 kmHamilton, Barrie, Oshawa, Guelph and similar. | $550 |
| Beyond thatStill possible, but the travel is quoted rather than published — the figure shown is a ceiling, not a price. | $800a ceiling, quoted properly |
Laboratory analysis is $95 per sample everywhere. How many samples is agreed with you on the day, before anything is taken. All figures are before HST.
If the result comes back positive and you go ahead with the removal through Safeway, the base inspection fee comes off the price of the work — provided the work comes to $2,500 or more and the contract is approved and the deposit paid within 30 days. Laboratory and sampling charges are separate, because the lab invoices us whether or not the work goes ahead.
What you get
- A technician at the property who looks at the material you are worried about, and at anywhere else the same material is likely to be.
- Samples collected under controlled conditions, sealed, labelled, and submitted to an accredited laboratory under chain of custody.
- The sample point patched.
- The laboratory result in writing, saying whether asbestos is present and what type.
- A plain-English explanation of what the result means for your renovation, sale or demolition — including what it means if the answer is no.
What it is not
- Removal or abatement of anything. This is testing only.
- Opening finished surfaces to reach a concealed material, or making good after that.
- A designated substance survey, which is a separate written report for a project going out to tender.
- Air clearance testing, which happens after abatement rather than before it.
How long the laboratory takes depends on the laboratory and on whether expedited analysis is requested. You are told which it is when the samples are submitted, rather than given a figure now that nobody here controls.
Why people book one
You are about to renovate
Drilling, cutting or pulling down a material that turns out to contain asbestos spreads fibre through the house, and cleaning that up costs many times what testing it would have.
You are buying or selling
A written laboratory result settles a question that otherwise gets argued about in a conditional offer. It is worth having either way — a negative result is as useful as a positive one.
Something has already been disturbed
A ceiling has come down, a pipe wrap has been knocked, a contractor has cut into something and stopped. Stop work, keep people out, and find out what it is before anything else happens.
You are the building owner and a project is going out to tender
Under Ontario's occupational health and safety legislation a building owner must determine whether designated substances — asbestos among them — are present at a project, and provide that list to every prospective constructor before they bid. It is the owner's duty, not the contractor's, and it comes before the tender rather than after it.
If the project is going out to tender, what you need is a designated substance survey, which is a written report covering everything to be disturbed rather than a test of one material.
Not sure whether you need a test at all? Call 416-474-3978 and describe it. It is answered around the clock by a person, and being told you probably do not need one is a normal outcome of that call.