NYS and NYC M/WBE Certified Contractor
You stop guessing. That’s the first thing. When a certified inspector has gone through your home — the basement floor tiles, the pipe wrap around the boiler, the textured ceiling in the living room — and given you a clear picture of what’s there and what isn’t, the anxiety that comes with not knowing disappears. For a lot of North Bellmore homeowners, that alone is worth the call.
The homes in North Bellmore were built fast, mostly between the late 1940s and early 1960s, when asbestos was in nearly everything. Floor tile adhesive, attic insulation, joint compound, roofing materials — it was standard. That doesn’t mean your home is dangerous right now, but it does mean that the moment you start opening walls, pulling up floors, or gutting a bathroom, you need to know what you’re dealing with before anyone swings a hammer.
If you’re selling, abatement documentation gives buyers and their attorneys exactly what they need to move forward without delays. If you’re renovating, it keeps your Town of Hempstead building permit on track and your contractor working without a stop-work order. Either way, you’re not left holding a problem someone else created decades ago.
We’re a Nassau County-based asbestos abatement company that works across the South Shore, including North Bellmore, Bellmore, Merrick, and Wantagh. We’re not a Suffolk County operation making occasional trips west. This is our market, and the post-war housing stock along the Jerusalem Avenue corridor in North Bellmore is exactly the kind of work we do regularly.
Every technician on a Green Island Group project is certified under New York State Industrial Code Rule 56. That’s not optional in New York — it’s the law — and it means every job is done by people who are trained, credentialed, and accountable to the state, not just to us.
What that means for you practically: no subcontracting the work out to whoever’s available, no skipped steps on containment or disposal, and no vague paperwork at the end. You get a clear record of what was found, what was removed, and what the post-abatement air test showed. That documentation matters — for your permit, your sale, or simply your own peace of mind.
It starts with an inspection. A certified inspector walks your home, identifies materials that could contain asbestos, and takes bulk samples for laboratory analysis. In a North Bellmore home built in the 1950s or 60s, that typically means checking the basement floor tiles and the black mastic adhesive underneath them, any pipe or boiler insulation in the utility room, the attic, and any textured ceiling surfaces. The lab results tell us what we’re actually dealing with — not what we assume.
If asbestos-containing materials are confirmed, we set up proper containment before any removal begins. That means negative air pressure, sealed work zones, and HEPA filtration — so fibers don’t migrate into the rest of your living space while the work is happening. For projects in North Bellmore that require Town of Hempstead building permits, we make sure all required notifications and documentation are handled correctly under New York State Industrial Code Rule 56 before work starts.
Once removal is complete, a post-abatement air clearance test is conducted by an independent party to confirm the space is clean. You get the full paper trail — inspection report, lab results, project completion documentation, and clearance test — everything your contractor, your building inspector, or a buyer’s attorney might ask to see.
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The 9-by-9-inch floor tiles in your basement almost certainly contain asbestos if your home was built before 1980 — and the black adhesive underneath them usually does too. That combination is one of the most common things we encounter in North Bellmore homes, and it requires specific handling. You can’t just pull them up and bag them. The adhesive especially tends to be friable once disturbed, which means fibers can go airborne fast without proper containment.
Popcorn ceiling removal is the other one that catches people off guard. A lot of North Bellmore homes still have their original acoustic ceiling texture in living rooms, bedrooms, and hallways. It was applied through the 1970s, and many formulations contained up to 10% chrysotile asbestos. If you’re planning to paint over it, remove it, or renovate the room in any way, testing first isn’t optional — it’s required under New York State law before any work can begin.
We also handle pipe and mechanical insulation, attic insulation, joint compound, and asbestos siding or roofing materials — all common in the post-war construction that defines most of North Bellmore’s housing stock. Every service we provide includes the full scope: inspection, removal, proper disposal through licensed Nassau County-approved facilities, and post-abatement clearance testing.
The honest answer is: probably, somewhere. Homes built in North Bellmore during the 1950s and 1960s were constructed during the height of asbestos use in residential building materials. It was in floor tile and the adhesive beneath it, in pipe and boiler insulation, in attic insulation products, in joint compound used to finish walls and ceilings, and in textured ceiling coatings. Not every home has every one of these materials, and not every material that contains asbestos is immediately dangerous — but the only way to know for sure is to have a certified inspector take samples and send them to a lab.
What matters most is whether the materials are friable, meaning they can crumble and release fibers into the air. Stable, undisturbed asbestos in a sealed floor tile is a different situation than deteriorating pipe wrap in a basement that’s been flooding. If you’re planning any renovation, or if you’ve noticed damaged insulation or crumbling ceiling texture, that’s when you need to act before anything else gets touched.
Yes — and the requirements apply before your renovation permit gets approved, not after. North Bellmore falls under the Town of Hempstead Building Department’s jurisdiction, and any renovation or demolition project that could disturb asbestos-containing materials requires a certified asbestos survey first. New York State Industrial Code Rule 56 governs the entire process, and it requires that all abatement work be performed by NYS Department of Labor-certified contractors using certified workers.
For larger projects, there are also advance notification requirements to the NYS Department of Labor Asbestos Control Bureau. Skipping this step doesn’t just create a health risk — it can result in a stop-work order, failed inspections, and fines that cost more than the abatement itself would have. Getting the survey and abatement handled before your contractor starts keeps everything on track and gives the building department exactly what they need to move your permit forward.
You can’t tell by looking at it. The only way to know is to have a certified inspector take a bulk sample and send it to an accredited laboratory for analysis. Popcorn ceiling texture — also called acoustic or stipple ceiling — was applied in homes across Long Island through the 1970s, and many formulations used during that period contained chrysotile asbestos at concentrations up to 10%. If your North Bellmore home still has its original textured ceiling, there’s a real possibility it’s in there.
The concern isn’t just touching it. Painting over an asbestos-containing popcorn ceiling can actually increase the risk of fiber release if the paint causes the texture to crack or peel. And any contractor who sands or scrapes it without knowing what’s in it is creating a serious hazard. If you’re planning to remove it, update the room, or even repaint, get it tested first. It’s a straightforward process and it gives you a clear answer before anyone puts a tool near the ceiling.
The cost depends on what’s found, where it is, and how much of it needs to be removed. A certified inspection and bulk sampling typically runs a few hundred dollars on its own. Abatement costs vary based on the scope — removing asbestos floor tiles from a single basement room is a different job than addressing pipe insulation throughout a utility room, popcorn ceiling in multiple rooms, and attic insulation all at once.
In Nassau County, where disposal fees, permit requirements, and labor costs reflect the local market, most residential abatement projects fall somewhere between a few thousand dollars for a limited scope and significantly more for whole-home work ahead of a major renovation. With North Bellmore median home values approaching $700,000, most homeowners find that the cost of abatement is a small fraction of what a failed inspection, a delayed closing, or a stop-work order would actually cost them. Getting a specific quote based on your home’s actual conditions is the only way to get a number that means anything.
You can, but it almost always becomes a negotiating point — and not in your favor. When a buyer’s home inspector identifies suspected asbestos-containing materials, the buyer’s attorney will typically require either remediation before closing or a significant price reduction to account for it. In a market where North Bellmore homes are selling at median values near $700,000, that’s a meaningful number. More practically, it can delay or derail a closing entirely if the parties can’t agree on how to handle it.
The cleaner path is to have a certified survey done before you list, address any confirmed ACMs, and have the post-abatement clearance documentation ready to hand to the buyer’s attorney. It removes the uncertainty from the transaction and gives you more control over your timeline. Buyers in this market are sophisticated — many are purchasing older homes specifically knowing they’ll renovate — and having clean abatement records signals that the home has been properly maintained and disclosed.
Testing and abatement are two separate steps, and they have to happen in that order. Testing — more formally called an asbestos inspection or survey — is when a certified inspector physically examines your home, identifies materials that could potentially contain asbestos, and collects bulk samples for laboratory analysis. The lab results tell you definitively what’s there and at what concentration. That’s the diagnostic step.
Abatement is what happens if the lab results confirm asbestos-containing materials that need to be addressed. It’s the actual removal, encapsulation, or enclosure of those materials — done under containment, by certified workers, following the protocols required under New York State Industrial Code Rule 56. In North Bellmore, both steps need to be performed by NYS Department of Labor-certified professionals. We handle both, which means you’re not coordinating between a separate testing company and a separate abatement contractor. One call, one point of contact, and a complete paper trail from first sample to final clearance test.
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