NYS and NYC M/WBE Certified Contractor
Kensington’s housing stock is one of the oldest on the Great Neck Peninsula. Homes along Beverly Road, Arleigh Road, and North Drive were built in the 1910s, 1920s, and 1930s — decades when asbestos was standard in floor tiles, pipe insulation, ceiling coatings, and wall compounds. When you’re renovating, replacing a boiler, or preparing a home for sale, disturbing those materials without a certified abatement plan isn’t just risky — it’s illegal under New York State Industrial Code Rule 56.
What you get on the other side of a proper abatement is straightforward: a home you can renovate without stopping mid-project, a clearance certificate that holds up to attorney and lender review, and the confidence that the air quality in your home has been tested and documented. For a home worth over a million dollars, that documentation isn’t a formality — it’s protection.
Kensington’s proximity to Manhasset Bay means coastal humidity is a real factor. Salt air and moisture accelerate the deterioration of older insulation and ceiling materials, which can make previously stable asbestos-containing materials friable over time. That’s a specific risk in this area that a generalist contractor may not flag — but it’s exactly the kind of thing a certified inspection catches before it becomes a problem.
We are a Nassau County environmental services company. Not a franchise. Not a restoration chain that added asbestos to a menu of services. Asbestos abatement, removal, and remediation is the work — and our entire service footprint is Nassau County, which means Kensington isn’t a stretch assignment. It’s home territory.
Working in Kensington specifically requires holding two separate credentials: the New York State Department of Labor asbestos contractor license under Industrial Code Rule 56, and Nassau County’s Environmental Hazard Remediation Program (EHRP) license. Both are required. We carry both — and that matters in a village with its own building inspector, its own code enforcement, and a real estate market where clearance documentation gets scrutinized.
Kensington is listed by name on our Nassau County service area — because it should be. If you’re on Beverly Road or near the Great Neck LIRR station and you need this handled right, we know exactly what that takes.
It starts with a certified asbestos inspection. A licensed inspector walks the property, identifies any materials that could contain asbestos — floor tiles, pipe wrap, ceiling texture, joint compound, roofing, insulation — and pulls samples for laboratory analysis. In Kensington, where homes commonly date back to the early 20th century, that inspection often covers more ground than homeowners expect. Pre-war construction used asbestos across multiple building systems, not just one.
Once results come back, you get a clear picture of what’s there and what needs to happen. If abatement is required, the project is planned in compliance with NYS Industrial Code Rule 56, including any required advance notification to the NYS DOL Asbestos Control Bureau for applicable project sizes. Work is performed under full containment — negative air pressure, proper protective barriers, and a sealed work area to prevent fiber migration into the rest of the home.
After removal, asbestos waste is packaged, labeled, and transported to an approved disposal facility under NYS DEC regulations. Then comes post-abatement air clearance testing — independent confirmation that fiber levels meet the required threshold. You receive the full documentation package: inspection report, lab results, abatement records, disposal manifests, and clearance certificate. If you’re in the middle of a real estate transaction or coordinating with a general contractor, that paperwork is ready when they need it.
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The most common asbestos-related calls we receive from Kensington homeowners fall into a few specific categories. Popcorn ceiling removal is one of the most frequent — spray-applied textured ceilings manufactured before 1978 routinely contained chrysotile asbestos, and many homes in this village still have original or partially-updated ceilings. Scraping or patching that texture without testing first releases fibers. Asbestos popcorn ceiling removal has to be done under containment, by a licensed contractor, with proper disposal — not by a general contractor who figures it’s probably fine.
Asbestos tile removal is another common need. Vinyl asbestos floor tiles — typically 9×9 or 12×12 inch squares with a fibrous texture — were standard in American homes through the mid-1970s. In Kensington’s older homes, they’re frequently found in basements, kitchens, and utility areas, sometimes buried under newer flooring. The same applies to pipe and boiler insulation: homes from the 1920s and 1930s with original or partially-updated heating systems often have asbestos-wrapped pipes and breeching that surface the moment someone starts a mechanical upgrade.
Every project we handle in Kensington covers the full scope — inspection, testing, licensed removal, regulated disposal, and post-clearance air quality certification. Whether it’s a single room or a whole-house pre-renovation survey ahead of a major remodel, the process is the same: documented, compliant, and built to hold up to whatever comes next.
Under New York State Industrial Code Rule 56, any renovation or demolition that could disturb potential asbestos-containing materials requires a mandatory asbestos survey before work begins. This isn’t optional — it’s a legal requirement, and it applies to residential properties. For a home in Kensington built before 1980, that means virtually any significant project — kitchen remodel, bathroom update, basement finishing, HVAC replacement, or structural work — triggers the requirement.
The practical reason this rule exists is straightforward. Pre-1980 homes used asbestos across multiple building systems simultaneously. It’s not unusual to find it in the floor tiles, the ceiling texture, the pipe insulation, and the wall compound all in the same house. A certified pre-renovation survey identifies exactly what’s present and where, so your general contractor knows what they can and can’t touch. Skipping it doesn’t just put your family at risk — it exposes you to regulatory liability in a village with active code enforcement and its own building inspector.
You can’t tell by looking at it. Spray-applied textured ceilings manufactured before 1978 commonly contained chrysotile asbestos as a binding agent, but there’s no visual indicator that separates an asbestos-containing ceiling from one that doesn’t. The only way to know is to have a sample collected by a certified asbestos inspector and sent to an accredited laboratory for analysis.
In Kensington, where a significant portion of the housing stock dates to the 1920s through the 1960s, the probability of asbestos in an untouched popcorn ceiling is real — not theoretical. If your ceiling was applied or last renovated before 1978 and you’re planning to scrape, patch, or replace it, get it tested first. If it comes back positive, asbestos popcorn ceiling removal needs to be performed under full containment by a licensed contractor. This isn’t a project to hand off to a painter or a handyman who says they’ve done it before.
Cost varies based on the type of material, the quantity, the location within the home, and the complexity of containment required. For a single room — a bathroom floor tile removal or a small ceiling area — you might be looking at $1,500 to $3,000. A larger scope project involving pipe insulation, multiple rooms, or a full pre-renovation survey with abatement across several material types can run $5,000 to $15,000 or more depending on what’s found.
In Kensington, where homes are often multi-story, older construction with original mechanical systems, the scope of an inspection frequently uncovers more than the homeowner initially expected — not because we’re upselling, but because these homes genuinely contain asbestos in multiple locations. The more important number to focus on is what improper handling costs: regulatory fines, failed real estate transactions, and health liability in a home valued at over a million dollars. A properly documented abatement is an investment in protecting that asset, not just a line item on a renovation budget.
It can — in both directions. If asbestos is discovered during a buyer’s inspection and there’s no existing abatement documentation, it can stall or derail a closing. Buyers, their attorneys, and their lenders will want to know the material has been properly addressed, and “we think it’s fine” doesn’t satisfy that requirement. In Kensington’s active luxury real estate market, where homes regularly sell above $1,000,000, that kind of uncertainty is deal-disrupting.
On the other hand, if you have a complete documentation package — inspection report, abatement records, disposal manifests, and post-clearance air quality certification — it removes the issue from the transaction entirely. Buyers and their attorneys can review the paperwork, confirm compliance, and move on. We provide that full documentation package as a standard part of every project, specifically because Kensington homeowners involved in real estate transactions need paperwork that holds up to scrutiny, not just a verbal assurance that the work was done.
For a focused, single-material project — removing asbestos floor tiles in one room or addressing a section of pipe insulation — the abatement work itself typically takes one to two days. Post-abatement air clearance testing adds time, since samples need to be analyzed before the area can be cleared for re-occupancy or contractor access. From first inspection to final clearance certificate, a straightforward project usually runs five to ten business days total.
Larger projects — a whole-house pre-renovation survey followed by abatement across multiple material types — take longer, both because the scope is broader and because NYS Industrial Code Rule 56 requires advance notification to the NYS DOL Asbestos Control Bureau for projects above certain thresholds. That notification period factors into the timeline. If you’re coordinating asbestos abatement with a general contractor’s renovation schedule in Kensington, the earlier you initiate the inspection, the less likely you are to hit a delay that pushes your project back.
New York State licensing under Industrial Code Rule 56 is the baseline requirement for any asbestos contractor working in the state. But Nassau County adds its own layer through the Environmental Hazard Remediation Program (EHRP), which requires contractors to hold a separate county-level credential before performing asbestos abatement work within Nassau County limits. These are two distinct requirements — a contractor can hold the state license and still not be authorized to work in Nassau County without the EHRP credential.
For Kensington homeowners, this matters because it affects your liability. If you hire a contractor who holds only the state license and not the Nassau County EHRP credential, work performed on your property may not be fully compliant with county requirements — and that gap can surface during a real estate transaction, a permit inspection, or a regulatory review. Kensington has its own building inspector and village-level code enforcement, so compliance isn’t abstract. We hold both the state and county credentials, which means every project in Kensington is covered at both levels — no gaps, no exposure.
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