NYS and NYC M/WBE Certified Contractor
East Irvington’s housing stock is old genuinely old. Some of the homes here trace their construction back to the late 1800s, when Irish laborers settled what locals called “Little Dublin.” Others went up during the postwar boom of the 1950s and ’60s, when asbestos was in nearly everything: floor tiles, pipe insulation, ceiling texture, duct wrap, drywall compound. If your home was built before 1980, there’s a meaningful chance some of that material is still in there. The question isn’t whether it’s a concern it’s whether you’re going to find out before or after something disturbs it.
When abatement is done right, you get more than a clean workspace. You get documentation. In a real estate market like the Irvington area where buyers come prepared, their attorneys are thorough, and homes command serious prices having a formal clearance record from a licensed contractor isn’t just peace of mind. It’s a selling asset. It tells the next buyer, the lender, and the inspector that the issue was handled correctly, by someone qualified to handle it, with air testing to prove it.
There’s also the renovation angle. A lot of East Irvington homeowners are mid-project or planning one updating kitchens, finishing basements, replacing old ceilings. The worst time to discover asbestos is after your contractor has already opened the wall. Getting ahead of it means your renovation moves forward on your timeline, not someone else’s.
We are a New York-based environmental remediation contractor serving the full Westchester County market including East Irvington and the broader unincorporated communities of Greenburgh. The work isn’t subcontracted. The crew that shows up is our crew, and the outcome belongs to us. That distinction matters more than most people realize when they’re hiring for this kind of work.
Our credentials are real and verifiable: NYS Department of Labor Asbestos Handling License, EPA certification, NYC DEP contractor approval, and a Minority/Women-owned Business Enterprise certification from the NYS Office of General Services a government-issued credential that required formal review, not a self-designation. With more than 5,000 completed projects across the metro area, our team has worked in every type of pre-1980 construction you’ll find in Westchester, from postwar ranches to converted historic buildings like the former East Irvington School on Taxter Road.
Every worker on every project holds an individual NYS DOL certification not just the company license, but personal credentials for each person entering your home. That’s the standard we hold ourselves to, and it’s the standard you should expect from any contractor you hire.
It starts with a free on-site inspection. A representative from our team comes to your East Irvington property, assesses the materials in question, and gives you a clear picture of what you’re dealing with no charge, no pressure, no obligation. If testing is warranted, samples are collected and sent to an accredited lab. You get real answers, not estimates based on visual guesses.
If abatement is required, the work area is sealed with polyethylene sheeting and placed under negative air pressure. That’s not a detail for the sake of sounding technical it means air flows into the containment zone, not out of it, so fibers can’t migrate to the rest of your home while work is underway. HEPA-filtered air scrubbers run continuously throughout the project. The materials are removed, packaged, and transported to an approved disposal facility with a fully documented chain of custody.
One thing worth knowing if you’re in East Irvington specifically: because the community is unincorporated Greenburgh not the Village of Irvington renovation permits and contractor approvals run through the Town of Greenburgh Building Department. It’s a distinction that trips up a lot of homeowners who share the 10533 ZIP code with the village and assume they’re under the same jurisdiction. We know the difference and navigate it correctly. After the work is complete, post-abatement air clearance testing is conducted, and you receive formal documentation confirming the project met all NYS Industrial Code Rule 56 requirements.
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Asbestos isn’t one material it was used in over 3,000 building products manufactured before 1980. We handle the full range: vinyl asbestos floor tiles, acoustic ceiling texture (the popcorn ceiling that’s in a lot of Westchester homes from the ’60s and ’70s), pipe and boiler insulation, duct wrap, drywall joint compound, roofing materials, and exterior siding. If it’s in a pre-1980 home in East Irvington, it’s something we’ve removed before.
The scope of work is matched to what’s actually there. For homeowners in the former East Irvington School condominiums at 50 Taxter Road a building with construction layers from 1891, a 1925 expansion, and an 1980s conversion that assessment needs to account for multiple eras of materials, not just the most visible surface. We approach those environments the same way we approach any complex project: methodically, with the full picture in view before work begins.
For homeowners dealing with water damage a pipe burst in January, a basement flood after a nor’easter abatement is often triggered as part of the restoration process when pre-1980 materials are affected. We work directly with insurance carriers and handle billing coordination, so you’re not stuck in the middle of an already stressful situation trying to manage two separate processes at once. The free inspection is the starting point regardless of what brought you here.
If your home was built before 1980, testing before any renovation work is the right call not a formality. New York State’s Industrial Code Rule 56 requires that asbestos-containing materials be identified and properly managed before any demolition or renovation that could disturb them. That applies whether you’re refinishing floors, replacing a ceiling, updating a bathroom, or opening walls for any reason.
In East Irvington specifically, the housing stock spans from the late 1800s through the postwar era, which means you could be dealing with multiple generations of building materials some from the earliest days of asbestos use in construction, some from the peak era of the 1950s and ’60s. The only way to know what you have is to test. Visual identification isn’t reliable, and assuming a material is safe because it looks intact is a risk that isn’t worth taking. A free inspection from us is the fastest way to get a clear answer before your contractor starts work.
You can’t tell by looking at them that’s the honest answer. Vinyl floor tiles from the 1950s through the mid-1970s were commonly manufactured with asbestos as a binding agent. Acoustic ceiling texture (the textured “popcorn” finish applied to many ceilings in homes built between the 1950s and late 1970s) frequently contained asbestos as well. The only way to confirm is laboratory testing of a physical sample.
What you can do right now is note when your home was built and whether those materials are original to the construction. If you’re in a home built before 1980 in East Irvington and those surfaces haven’t been replaced, there’s a real possibility they contain asbestos-containing material. The good news is that intact, undisturbed asbestos doesn’t pose an immediate health risk. The risk comes from disturbance sanding, cutting, scraping, or demolition that releases fibers into the air. That’s exactly why you want to know before any renovation work begins, not after.
This is one of the most common points of confusion for East Irvington homeowners, and it’s worth getting right before you start any project. East Irvington is an unincorporated community within the Town of Greenburgh it’s not part of the incorporated Village of Irvington, even though both share the 10533 ZIP code and the Irvington Union Free School District. That means renovation permits and building inspections go through the Town of Greenburgh Building Department, not the Irvington village office.
For asbestos abatement specifically, the governing regulation is NYS Industrial Code Rule 56, which applies statewide regardless of which municipal office issues your renovation permit. But knowing which building department to contact for your project and not wasting time being redirected between offices is something your contractor should be able to help you navigate. We serve the full Greenburgh area and understand the distinction. If you’re unsure where to start, the free inspection is a good first step we can walk you through what the process looks like for your specific property.
Work stops. That’s the short answer, and it’s the right one. Under New York State law, if asbestos-containing material is discovered or suspected during active renovation, the work area needs to be secured and the material assessed by a licensed professional before anything continues. Continuing work after a suspected ACM discovery isn’t just a regulatory violation it’s a health risk to anyone in the building, including your renovation crew.
The practical reality is that mid-project discoveries happen more often than people expect, especially in older Westchester homes where renovation work uncovers materials that weren’t visible during the initial walkthrough. If this happens to you, the first call is to a licensed abatement contractor. We can respond quickly, assess what’s been disturbed, and develop a remediation plan that gets your renovation back on track with the proper clearance documentation in place. The worst thing you can do in this situation is try to keep moving forward and deal with it later.
It depends on what caused the exposure. If asbestos-containing materials were disturbed as a direct result of a covered event a pipe burst, water damage from a storm, or another incident your policy covers the abatement required as part of that restoration is often covered under the same claim. That’s a scenario that comes up regularly in East Irvington and across Westchester County, particularly after winter pipe events or nor’easters that cause water intrusion in older homes.
If the abatement is being done proactively as part of a planned renovation or pre-sale preparation that’s typically not covered by a standard homeowners policy. The cost varies depending on the scope and the materials involved, but it’s worth calling your insurer before assuming either way. We work directly with insurance carriers and handle billing coordination on claims where abatement is covered, so you’re not left managing two separate processes at the same time. The free inspection is a good starting point regardless it gives you a clear picture of scope and cost before any decisions are made.
For a single contained area one room, one material type abatement typically takes one to three days from setup through final clearance testing. Larger scopes, or homes where multiple materials across multiple areas need to be addressed, take longer. The timeline also depends on the complexity of the containment, the volume of material being removed, and how quickly the post-abatement air clearance testing can be completed and confirmed.
In East Irvington, homes with layered construction histories original late 19th century materials alongside postwar additions sometimes require a more thorough initial assessment before work begins, which adds time upfront but prevents surprises mid-project. The post-abatement air clearance testing is not optional and cannot be rushed it’s the step that produces the documentation confirming the work was done correctly. That documentation is what protects you in a future sale, satisfies your insurance carrier, and gives you a clean record for the property. We schedule projects to minimize disruption to your daily life and communicate clearly at every stage so you’re never left wondering where things stand.
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