NYS and NYC M/WBE Certified Contractor
Most Shirley homes were built during the same postwar boom that made asbestos one of the most common construction materials in the country. Developer Walter T. Shirley’s affordable housing development put thousands of families into homes that, decades later, are now showing their age and in some cases, releasing fibers from deteriorating floor tiles, pipe wrap, and ceiling texture. When those materials get disturbed during a renovation or repair, the risk becomes real.
The good news is that once properly abated, the problem is solved. You’re not managing it or working around it it’s gone. Your renovation can move forward, your home inspection can close cleanly, and you’re not left wondering whether the work was done legally or safely. That matters especially in a coastal community like Shirley, where South Shore humidity and seasonal storm exposure accelerate the breakdown of older building materials. Moisture doesn’t just damage wood and drywall it makes asbestos-containing materials more likely to become friable, which means more likely to release fibers.
For families in the William Floyd school district picking up an older home, or longtime residents finally tackling that basement remodel they’ve been putting off, the outcome isn’t just a cleaner house. It’s a house you can actually work on without a health risk hanging over every decision.
We are a licensed New York State asbestos abatement contractor serving Shirley and the broader Town of Brookhaven. Every technician on our crew is individually certified under NYS Department of Labor requirements not just the company on paper, but the actual people doing the work inside your home.
We’ve worked in the postwar Cape Cods and ranch-style homes that define this part of the South Shore. We know what 9×9 vinyl asbestos tiles look like under a kitchen floor in a Shirley ranch. We know what pipe wrap looks like around an original boiler. We’ve seen the popcorn ceilings, the asbestos cement siding, the joint compound that tested positive when a homeowner was sure it was fine. Familiarity with this specific housing stock isn’t a selling point it’s just what happens when you’ve been doing this work in Shirley and Suffolk County long enough.
When you call us, you’re not getting a national call center that dispatches whoever’s available. You’re getting a contractor who has been inside homes like yours, in Shirley, and knows what to expect before we even pull up.
It starts with a site visit. We come to your home, walk the space, and take bulk samples of any materials that look suspicious floor tiles, ceiling texture, pipe insulation, whatever applies to your situation. Those samples go to an accredited lab, and we give you the results in plain language. No upsell, no manufactured urgency. If something needs to come out, we tell you what it is and what it takes.
If abatement is required, we handle the NYS Department of Labor project notification which is legally required at least 10 business days before work begins on projects above certain material thresholds. That’s not something you need to figure out on your own. We file it, we track it, and we make sure the timeline works with your renovation or real estate closing date.
On the day of work, we set up full containment around the affected area sealed plastic barriers, negative air pressure machines, HEPA filtration so fibers stay in the work zone and don’t migrate into the rest of your home. When the material is removed, it’s properly wetted, double-bagged in 6-mil polyethylene, labeled, and transported to a NYSDEC-approved disposal facility. After that, we run air clearance testing before the containment comes down. You get documentation for every step, which matters whether you’re pulling a Town of Brookhaven renovation permit or handing paperwork to a buyer’s attorney.
Ready to get started?
The most common materials we remove from Shirley homes are 9×9 vinyl asbestos floor tiles the small square tiles found in kitchens, bathrooms, and basements throughout the postwar housing stock developer Walter T. Shirley built across this hamlet. These tiles almost always have black mastic adhesive underneath them, which also contains asbestos and has to be addressed as part of the removal. We don’t just pull the tiles and call it done the subfloor gets cleaned and tested so it’s actually ready for new flooring.
We also handle asbestos popcorn ceiling removal, pipe and boiler insulation, asbestos cement siding, and attic vermiculite insulation all materials that show up regularly in pre-1980 homes throughout the Mastic-Shirley area. If your home is near the South Shore and has original systems or finishes that have never been touched, there’s a good chance more than one material type is involved. We scope the whole picture during the initial survey so nothing gets missed mid-project.
Every job we do includes the initial survey and bulk sampling, lab analysis, NYS DOL project notification where required, full containment setup, removal by certified workers, certified waste disposal, and post-abatement air clearance testing. That’s not a premium tier that’s the standard. Cutting any part of that process isn’t legal, and it’s not something we do.
The honest answer is that you can’t know for certain just by looking. Asbestos-containing materials don’t look different from non-asbestos materials a 9×9 vinyl floor tile from 1958 looks the same whether it has asbestos in it or not. The only way to know is bulk sampling and lab analysis.
That said, if your Shirley home was built between the late 1940s and 1980, the odds are meaningful. Developer Walter T. Shirley built thousands of homes in this hamlet starting in the late 1940s, and the materials used in that era floor tiles, pipe wrap, ceiling texture, joint compound, roofing routinely contained asbestos. If those materials are still original and undisturbed, they’re often not an immediate hazard. But the moment you start a renovation, replace a boiler, or scrape a ceiling, you need to know what you’re dealing with before the work begins. A bulk sample test is inexpensive relative to the risk of getting it wrong.
Legally, New York State’s Industrial Code Rule 56 requires that asbestos abatement be performed by a licensed contractor with certified workers. DIY removal of asbestos-containing materials isn’t just risky it exposes you to potential civil penalties, and it leaves you without the air clearance documentation that a buyer’s attorney or building inspector will ask for.
Beyond the legal side, the practical risk is real. Asbestos floor tiles are often considered non-friable when intact, but the black mastic adhesive beneath them can contain asbestos and becomes airborne when scraped. Without proper containment, negative air pressure, and HEPA filtration, you’re potentially spreading fibers through your home’s HVAC system and living spaces. In a working family’s home in Shirley where kids are in the house and you’re not displacing everyone for weeks the cost of doing it wrong is much higher than the cost of doing it right.
Shirley is an unincorporated hamlet in the Town of Brookhaven, so there’s no separate village permit process. What does apply is New York State’s Industrial Code Rule 56, enforced by the NYS Department of Labor’s Asbestos Control Bureau. For projects that exceed certain material thresholds, the contractor is required to file a project notification with the DOL at least 10 business days before work begins.
If you’re also pulling a renovation or demolition permit through the Town of Brookhaven Building Department which you likely are if you’re doing a kitchen remodel, bathroom gut, or basement finishing project the town may ask whether an asbestos survey has been completed on a pre-1980 structure. We handle the NYS DOL notification filing as part of every qualifying project, and we can provide the documentation the town building department needs. You shouldn’t have to navigate that paperwork on your own while also managing a renovation timeline.
For a single-room tile or ceiling removal on Long Island, you’re typically looking at a range of $2,200 to $6,500 depending on the square footage, the number of material types involved, and the complexity of the containment setup. An initial asbestos survey and bulk sampling generally runs $650 to $2,200. Those are not Shirley-specific figures they reflect the broader Long Island market but they’re a realistic starting point for what to budget.
What we don’t do is quote major projects over the phone without a site visit. The homes in Shirley’s postwar housing stock vary more than you’d expect one house might have one room of suspect tile, another might have original pipe insulation, asbestos cement siding, and a popcorn ceiling all in the same project. The only way to give you an honest number is to see the scope of work. We provide written, itemized estimates after the site visit with no surprise line items after the fact.
Asbestos waste can’t go in a dumpster or a standard garbage pickup. New York State and the NYSDEC require that all asbestos-containing materials be properly wetted during removal, double-bagged in 6-mil polyethylene bags, labeled with the appropriate asbestos waste markings, and transported to a licensed disposal facility that is permitted to accept asbestos waste. In Suffolk County, those facilities are limited, and the logistics have to be arranged in advance by the licensed contractor.
We handle every step of that chain from containment and removal through transport and certified disposal. You receive documentation showing that the waste was handled and disposed of in compliance with state requirements. That paperwork matters if you’re selling the home, applying for permits on future work, or simply want a record that the job was done correctly. The disposal process isn’t an afterthought it’s a required part of what makes the abatement legal and complete.
It depends on the scope of the project and where in the home the work is happening. For smaller, contained jobs a single room of floor tile removal or a section of pipe insulation it’s often possible for the rest of the home to remain occupied, provided the containment is properly set up and the work area is fully sealed off from living spaces. For larger projects involving multiple rooms or materials in central areas of the home, temporary displacement during the active work period is the safer call.
We walk through this with you before the project starts so you can plan accordingly. In a working family’s home in Shirley where people have jobs, kids have school schedules, and you can’t just disappear for a week without planning that conversation matters. We set up negative air pressure containment zones so that any fibers disturbed during removal are captured before they can reach the rest of your home. Post-abatement air clearance testing confirms the space is safe before containment comes down and the area is reopened.
Local Resources
Useful Links
