Asbestos Removal · Allegheny County
Penn Hills more than doubled in the 1950s, growing 103.8% to 51,512 residents, and 36% of its homes were built in that single decade (ACS 2020–2024). Its population peaked at 62,886 in 1970 and was 41,059 at the 2020 census, and 90% of its housing predates 1980.
Penn Hills more than doubled in the 1950s, growing 103.8 percent to 51,512 residents, and the houses from that boom still define it: Census estimates show 36 percent of its 20,261 homes were built between 1950 and 1959, more than any other decade, with another 22 percent from the 1960s. Ninety percent predate 1980. Plans like Rosedale, Lincoln Park, Crescent Hills, Eastmont and Shannon Heights are rows of brick and frame houses built quickly, cheaply and to the standards of the day, which means the building materials of the 1950s were used everywhere.
In a Penn Hills house of that era we expect to sample nine-inch floor tile in the basement and kitchen, often with black cutback mastic beneath it; paper tape and wrap on the seams of warm-air furnace ducts; insulation on any hot-water or steam piping; and, in some houses, vermiculite in the attic. Many basements have been finished since, so the original tile is frequently under carpet or a newer floor. That is fine while it stays covered. The time to deal with it is before a contractor tears the finish out, not after.
Penn Hills is overwhelmingly owner-occupied single-family houses: 83 percent detached and 75 percent owner-occupied, with only about 10 percent of homes in buildings of five or more units. For a private house of four or fewer units, the Allegheny County Health Department's Article XXI generally does not apply. What does apply is Pennsylvania's asbestos certification law, so anyone you hire for removal must be certified by the Department of Labor and Industry, and the contractor must give notice before friable work over three square or three linear feet. Teardowns paid for by a municipality are different: the county treats them as part of a larger project, so a survey and notice are required.
Penn Hills sits about 20 to 25 minutes east of downtown on the Parkway East, with Rodi Road, Frankstown Road and Saltsburg Road carrying most of the traffic through its hills. The jobs that come up most here are basement floor tile and mastic ahead of a remodel, and testing before a sale or a furnace replacement.
Asbestos testing and removal across Allegheny, Washington and Westmoreland counties:
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