NYS and NYC M/WBE Certified Contractor
When asbestos is removed properly, you’re not just clearing a material you’re clearing the path forward. Your renovation can move again. Your sale can close on schedule. And you have the documented clearance certification that your buyer’s attorney, title company, and your own peace of mind require. In a neighborhood where median home values sit around $1.1 million, that paper trail isn’t a formality it’s a financial safeguard.
Hollis Hills homes from the 1940s and 1950s don’t typically have one asbestos risk zone. They have several. The 9×9 vinyl floor tiles in the basement. The pipe wrap around the oil-fired boiler. The textured ceiling in the back bedroom that’s never been touched. When all of it gets properly assessed and addressed not just the one spot you called about you stop wondering what else might be hiding.
After what happened on Union Turnpike in 2023 and 2024, a lot of Hollis Hills residents now know exactly what improper asbestos handling looks like. Unlabeled barrels. Unmasked workers. Asbestos coal tar crushed into dust by passing cars. When it’s done right, you get advance notification, sealed containment, certified workers, and post-removal air clearance testing before anyone calls the job finished.
We are a full-service environmental remediation contractor based in New York, holding a valid NYS Department of Labor Asbestos license the legal requirement to perform this work in the state. Beyond that, we carry USEPA Lead/RRP certification, NYC BIC credentials, IICRC certification, and NYS/NYC MBE and WBE designations, among more than fifteen total credentials. In a field where “licensed and certified” gets thrown around loosely, our credentials are government-verified and documented.
We’re already actively working in Hollis and Queens Village the neighborhoods right next to Hollis Hills so we don’t need to orient ourselves to eastern Queens or figure out the NYC DEP process on your job. We know the housing stock, we know the regulatory environment, and we know what a 1950s single-family home in this part of Queens typically contains. We also handle the full scope: inspection, testing, abatement, post-removal air clearance, and reconstruction all under one roof.
It starts with an inspection and material testing. Before anything is removed, suspected asbestos-containing materials are identified and sampled. In a Hollis Hills home from the 1950s, that typically means checking floor tiles, pipe and boiler insulation, ceiling texture, drywall joint compound, and sometimes roofing materials because these homes were built when asbestos showed up in all of those places. You get a clear picture of what’s actually there before any decisions are made.
From there, we handle the NYC DEP notification process the ACP-5 or ACP-7 forms that need to be filed and approved before any asbestos is disturbed on a New York City property. This is the step that was skipped on the Union Turnpike project, and it’s not optional. Once DEP approval is in place, the abatement work begins under full containment: sealed work zones, HEPA filtration, properly labeled waste disposal, and certified workers who are masked and equipped correctly.
When the material is out, the job isn’t done. Post-removal air clearance testing confirms that fiber levels in the air meet regulatory standards before containment comes down. You receive documentation of that result not a verbal assurance, but a measurable clearance certificate. If your project also requires reconstruction after the abatement, we handle that too, so you’re not left coordinating a second contractor to put the space back together.
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Asbestos abatement in Hollis Hills covers more ground than most homeowners expect going in. The most common materials we encounter in this neighborhood’s postwar housing stock are vinyl asbestos floor tiles the 9×9 and 12×12 tiles found in basements, kitchens, and bathrooms along with pipe and boiler insulation, popcorn and textured ceiling material, and drywall joint compound from renovations done before the mid-1970s. Asbestos tile removal and asbestos popcorn ceiling removal are among the most frequent calls from this area, and both require the same licensed, DEP-compliant process regardless of the square footage involved.
Because many Hollis Hills homes predate 1978 the year lead paint was banned in residential construction we also carry USEPA Lead/RRP certification. If your home has both hazards present, which is common in this housing stock, you don’t need to bring in two separate contractors. We can assess and address both in a single engagement, which saves time and reduces the disruption to your home and your schedule.
For homeowners navigating a pre-sale timeline, we understand that you’re working against a closing date. The documentation produced at the end of an abatement project the DEP clearance, the air quality results, the waste disposal records is exactly what buyers, attorneys, and title companies need to move forward. We operate 24/7, so if something surfaces during an inspection on a Friday, you’re not waiting until Monday to get a response.
The honest answer is that you can’t know for certain without testing. Visual identification isn’t reliable asbestos-containing materials often look identical to non-asbestos versions. What you can do is look at the age of your home and the materials present. If your Hollis Hills home was built before 1980, and most were the median construction year in this neighborhood is 1954 there’s a meaningful probability that asbestos is present somewhere in the structure.
The most common locations in homes of this era are vinyl floor tiles (especially the 9×9 tiles common in basements and kitchens), pipe and boiler insulation, textured or popcorn ceilings, and drywall joint compound used in older renovations. The only way to confirm is to have a sample collected and sent to an accredited lab for analysis. That’s where the process starts not with assumptions, but with actual data. We handle inspection and testing as the first step before any abatement work is scoped or priced.
Yes and this is one of the most important things to understand before hiring any contractor for this work in Hollis Hills or anywhere else in New York City. Under NYC DEP rules, any disturbance of asbestos-containing materials in a city property requires advance notification and approval through the DEP’s Asbestos Control Program. Depending on the scope of the project, that means filing either an ACP-5 form for minor disturbances or an ACP-7 notification for full abatement projects. Work cannot legally begin until that approval is in place.
At the federal level, EPA NESHAP regulations also require 10 working days advance notice to state agencies before removing regulated quantities of asbestos material. These are the same notification requirements that were not followed during the Con Edison infrastructure project on Union Turnpike in 2023 and 2024 the incident that prompted Hollis Hills residents to consider a class action lawsuit. We file all required notifications, manage the DEP approval process, and do not begin work until every regulatory step is cleared. That’s not an extra service it’s the legal standard, and it’s how every job should run.
Work stops. That’s the right call, and it’s also the legal requirement under NYC DEP regulations. Disturbing asbestos-containing materials without proper abatement and DEP approval isn’t just a health risk it’s a code violation that can complicate your permit status and create liability for everyone involved in the project.
The practical sequence from that point is: call a licensed abatement contractor, have the material tested to confirm what you’re dealing with, file the required DEP notification, complete the abatement under proper containment, and obtain post-removal air clearance before the renovation resumes. In a Hollis Hills home from the 1950s, renovation discoveries are common especially during kitchen remodels, bathroom updates, and basement finishing projects, where original floor tiles, pipe insulation, and wall materials are frequently disturbed. We handle this sequence from start to finish, including the reconstruction after abatement, so your renovation doesn’t have to stall indefinitely while you coordinate multiple contractors.
It depends on the scope, but most residential abatement projects in single-family homes like those in Hollis Hills are completed within one to three days of actual work. The timeline that homeowners often don’t account for is the regulatory piece the NYC DEP notification and approval process needs to happen before work begins, and that adds time to the overall schedule. This is why it matters to start the process as soon as you know you have a problem, rather than waiting until a closing date or contractor start date is already bearing down on you.
For a pre-sale situation, the full timeline from initial inspection to final clearance documentation typically runs one to two weeks when everything moves efficiently. For a renovation stoppage, the urgency is higher and our 24/7 availability means you can get the process started immediately rather than losing days waiting for a callback. The post-removal air clearance testing at the end adds a small amount of time, but it’s also what produces the documentation your buyer or attorney will ask for so it’s not a step you want to skip.
The process follows the same licensed, DEP-compliant framework as any other asbestos abatement but textured ceiling material does have some specific handling considerations. Popcorn and spray-applied textured ceilings from the 1960s and 1970s were commonly mixed with chrysotile asbestos as a fire retardant and acoustic material. Because the texture is friable meaning it can be crumbled or reduced to powder by hand pressure it releases fibers more readily than a hard floor tile when disturbed. That makes containment and wet-method application especially important during removal.
In Hollis Hills homes, original textured ceilings are still common, particularly in bedrooms and living areas that haven’t been renovated since the home was built. Homeowners often discover the issue when they’re planning to repaint, install recessed lighting, or update a room that’s been untouched for decades. We handle asbestos popcorn ceiling removal under full containment with HEPA filtration, and post-removal air clearance testing confirms the space is clean before the ceiling is refinished or the room is reoccupied.
Yes and for most Hollis Hills homeowners, this is one of the most practical things to know upfront. Asbestos abatement doesn’t leave your home in finished condition. When floor tiles are removed, the subfloor needs to be addressed. When pipe insulation is stripped, the area needs to be cleaned and sometimes rebuilt. When a textured ceiling comes down, you need a new ceiling. If you hire a contractor who only does abatement, you’re immediately back to finding and scheduling another contractor to finish the space which adds time, cost, and coordination burden on top of an already stressful situation.
We handle the full sequence: inspection, testing, abatement, post-removal air clearance, and reconstruction. For a homeowner in Hollis Hills dealing with a renovation stoppage or a pre-sale timeline, that single-contractor approach is a real advantage. One point of contact, one schedule to manage, and a finished result not just a cleared space when the work is done. We also work directly with insurance carriers when applicable, which further reduces the administrative load on the homeowner.
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