Asbestos Removal in Pittsburgh, PA

The Oldest Housing in the Region

Census estimates put the median Pittsburgh home at 1942, and nearly half of the city's 161,908 housing units were built before 1940. Eighty-three percent predate 1980. That is unusual even among old industrial cities, and it shapes what turns up in a Pittsburgh basement: steam and hot-water heating mains wrapped in aircell or magnesia block, boilers jacketed in lagging, coal-era flues, horsehair plaster patched with later joint compound, and floors where nine-inch tile sits under one or two newer layers. In Lawrenceville, Bloomfield and Polish Hill rowhouses, and in the 19th-century houses of the North Side and the Mexican War Streets, the original heating system has often been converted from coal to gas, with insulation left in place on pipe that is still in use.

Rowhouses, Duplexes and the Four-Unit Line

About 14 percent of the city's homes are attached rowhouses and another 15 percent are in buildings of two to four units. That matters, because the Allegheny County Health Department's Article XXI only regulates a residential building as a facility once it has more than four dwelling units. A private owner renovating a rowhouse, duplex or triplex is generally outside it, unless the building was ever used as a business or the work is part of a larger project. The 27 percent of Pittsburgh units in buildings of five or more units are a different matter: those buildings need a survey, county notice or a permit above 160 square feet, a county-licensed contractor and a final clearance inspection.

Party Walls and Shared Basements

Attached houses add a practical wrinkle. A heating main can run through a shared wall, and a basement that looks self-contained can connect to the neighbour's through gaps around joists and pipes. Containment in a rowhouse basement has to seal those paths as well as the stair door. On a demolition, the City of Pittsburgh's Permits, Licenses and Inspections department asks for a demolition narrative and an engineer's report where a party wall is shared, and its permit page notes that asbestos removal may need a county permit application.

Getting Around the City

Pittsburgh's hills and rivers make the map misleading: South Side Slopes and Polish Hill are close as the crow flies and slow by road. We work across the city, from Brookline and Carrick in the south to Squirrel Hill in the east and the North Side across the Allegheny, reached by the Parkways, Route 28 and Route 51. For most city jobs the order is the same: sample the suspect materials, then plan pipe and boiler insulation removal around the heating season.

Pittsburgh Asbestos FAQs