Asbestos removal - Gaston County
Gastonia has the oldest housing of any town around Charlotte: the Census Bureau's 2020-2024 survey puts about 52 percent of its homes before 1980 and 26 percent before 1960, with a median build year of 1978. The 80,411-resident city grew around textile mills, and the Loray Mill Historic District alone counts 649 contributing buildings, mostly frame mill houses from the early 1900s to the 1920s.
Gastonia's homes are older than any other town's around Charlotte. About 52 percent were built before 1980 and 26 percent before 1960, and the median Gastonia home dates from 1978. In a city where half the houses come from the decades when asbestos went into ordinary building materials, testing before a renovation is a routine first step rather than a precaution.
The city grew around textile mills, and the Loray Mill Historic District shows it at full scale: 649 contributing buildings, the five-story brick Loray Mill and about thirty blocks of frame mill houses built from the early 1900s through the 1920s. The mill is also known for the 1929 Loray Mill strike. Mill houses that have been lived in for a century carry layers of later flooring, siding and heating work, and those layers are where asbestos-containing materials tend to be.
Tearing down a building in Gastonia involves three offices. A demolition starts with a zoning permit from the City of Gastonia at the Garland Municipal Business Center on South York Street. Construction permits have come from Gaston County since August 2022. And because Gaston County has no asbestos program, the state Health Hazards Control Unit must receive a demolition notice at least 10 working days before work, even if the inspection found no asbestos. The state says the local permit does not count as that notice.
Where removal goes beyond 260 linear feet, 160 square feet or 35 cubic feet of regulated material, a state removal permit is required too, and the work must be done by state-accredited people.
Asbestos testing and removal across Mecklenburg, Cabarrus, Gaston, Iredell, Union and York counties:
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