Why this question comes up so often here
Reno grew in two waves. The first built out from downtown into what are now the Old Southwest and Midtown neighborhoods, and into Old Town Sparks, mostly before 1980. The second is happening right now: Tesla's Gigafactory alone employs more than 11,000 people, and the data center buildout at the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center, with Switch, Google, Panasonic and Apple all present, has pulled thousands more workers into the valley. Those people need somewhere to live, and a lot of them are landing in the older stock nobody was touching ten years ago.
The first wave matters because asbestos was standard in American building materials until the tail end of the 1970s. The EPA banned spray-applied fireproofing and insulation in 1973, friable pipe insulation in 1975, and spray-on ceiling texture in 1978, but retailers were allowed to sell through existing inventory, so builders kept installing popcorn ceilings and vinyl floor tile into the mid-1980s. A 2017 Nevada Housing Division analysis of American Community Survey data found that 17 percent of Washoe County's owner-occupied homes were built in 1969 or earlier, with another 31 percent built between 1970 and 1989. Add those together and nearly half the county's owned housing predates 1990. That is not spread evenly. It clusters in exactly the neighborhoods where the current remodeling wave is heaviest.
The second thing that is different here is that Washoe County does not leave this to federal law alone. Northern Nevada Public Health, which Reno residents may still remember as the Washoe County Health District before its 2023 name change, runs its own Air Quality Management Division with a local asbestos program layered on top.
What we help with
Testing and inspection
A bulk sample, an NVLAP-accredited lab, and a report that names the material. Who is licensed to do it in Nevada, and the one question that exposes a conflict of interest.
How testing works →Where it shows up in Reno homes
Popcorn ceiling, 9-inch vinyl tile, pipe wrap, attic vermiculite. What to expect by decade and by neighborhood.
Where to look →Removal and the law behind it
Two different state agencies regulate two different things: who can touch the material, and where the waste is allowed to go.
Removal rules →Before you remodel or demolish
The AAA, the 10-working-day notice, and what happens to your permit if you skip either one.
The permit process →The mistake that costs Reno homeowners the most money
Starting the work before the paperwork is filed. A complete AAA application takes up to 10 business days to process once it is complete, and a renovation or demolition notification has to go in at least 10 working days before anyone touches the material. That is nearly a month of lead time if you do the two in sequence instead of together.
Homeowners who skip this find out the hard way: the building department will not issue a demolition permit without the AAA on file, full stop. A remodeling crew that opens a wall or pulls tile before testing, and turns out to be wrong about what is under there, has to stop, seal the area, get it tested properly and possibly wait out the notification clock before finishing a job that was supposed to take a week. The survey itself costs a few hundred dollars. The delay costs a lot more, in idle crew time and a contractor who is now booked on someone else's job by the time you are cleared to restart.
How this works
- Call or send the form. Tell us your ZIP code, whether this is a renovation or a full demolition, and roughly what materials you are worried about.
- We hand it to one licensed professional working your part of Washoe County, whether you need testing, removal, or both.
- They call you directly with pricing and a date.
No charge to you, no obligation, and we do not blast your number to five companies.