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Most building inspectors look for the two obvious forms of asbestos found in older homes, asbestos paper on forced or gravity fed furnaces, and asbestos pipe insulation on boiler pipes and mag insulation on the boiler themselves. Some are finally starting to catch on with the vermiculite and pesky 9 x 9 floor tiles. Most miss older linoleum backing, plaster, applied texture on ceilings, window caulk, transite shingles and siding, chimney mud, and a few others that are not coming to mind atm.

As for the convoluted laws regarding vermiculite, it is my belief at least part of this has to do with the EPA managed Superfund site in Libby Montana. The stricter they make the laws, the more it cost them to clean it up. Not that our precious EPA would ever do such a thing (cough cough world trade center)

I acknowledge that you seem to have a very good grasp of the issues at hand, others on here not so much. I now turn your question around and rephrase it my way. I have been in the asbestos inspection business for 25 years, do you think this is my first interaction with home building inspectors? Yes I have seen a few inspectors that had a firm grasp of things, but trust me, I have seen far more that were severly lacking in knowledge in at least this one particular area. Don't even get me started on Realtor's......... As for the 95% to 80% it depends on your source, EPA just states "nearly all or much" in much of their literature. In my eyes its a rather trivial thing to argue about.

Yes I am a licensed asbestos inspector, been in the business 25 years. As to what you should do? I would print this and hand it to your client. http://www.epa.gov/retailindustry/build ... ure2-1.pdf

For starters pulling a bulk sample or two is not conclusive enough to tell your client the vermiculite is asbestos free, or has such a low concentration it is non-hazardous. It's a disservice to your client to poo-poo it's presence (the aka " I've been doing this for 30 years, etc etc argument). If the house was built prior to 1985, and has vermiculite you should assume it does indeed have asbestos in it ( do to the aforementioned there is really no point in even testing it). As long as it remains undisturbed it is relatively benign. However, such activities as house renovations, adding additional attic insulation, using the space for storage, are all things which should be avoided unless the material is removed properly prior.

Another thing to consider, is that while the typical amounts of asbestos (based on percentage) are relatively small (typically less then 1%) your usually dealing with a rather large area (typical attic space of 1000 square feet at a depth of say 6-10 inches). The material is also very dry, and very easily airborne. Studies have been done in which the vermiculite in an attic tested at only trace amounts, yet while performing air monitoring during a residential project that included the removal of the ceiling, the exposure of asbestos fibers was several times over the permissible exposure limit allowed by the EPA

Actually stumbled across this old thread while doing a google search looking for a specific epa link. Kinda amazed at the lack of knowledge on the subject matter in the home inspection field. Vermiculite is a product that is very unique when compared to any of the other 10,000 products that contain asbestos. The reason for this is quite simple. Asbestos was not intentionally put into vermiculite, but rather is a contaminate of the product. How is this possible? 95% of all vermiculite was mined in Libby Montanna prior to roughly 1985 (the mine itself was operational another 5 years but production tapered off). It just so happens, that tremolite asbestos was also present in the same mine. The veins of each mineral intertwined and separated then met again, in such a way that the actual amount of asbestos present could vary quite substantially. This presents a significant problem in testing. Unlike a manufactured material, such as floor tile, the distribution of the asbestos will vary greatly. You can literally pull 100 samples from different locations in an attic, and get quite a wide range of results. Also to consider is the manner in which the sample is pulled, you will almost always get a higher reading if you dig down deep into the vermiculite (where the fines are located). Understanding how normal Asbestos bulk samples are analyzed also adds to the confusion. Typically speaking a lab tech would pull a small piece of a suspect material, tease it and then place it under a polarizing light microscope. He then begins to determine if asbestos is present, and if so, at what concentration. You need to understand, this sample he is looking at is so minutely small (think of something the size of the head of a pin, only smaller), and you can start to see why it is nearly impossible to conclusively say that no asbestos is present when dealing with the uniqueness of vermiculite (once again due to the fact that asbestos was a contaminate and not added intentionally).