Asbestos Testing Highland Park IL

You’re renovating a kitchen in Highland Park. The floor looks modern. Nothing looks concerning.

Then a plumber pulls up a section to access the pipes.

Underneath the vinyl — thick black mastic. Dark. Original. Never touched since the 1970s.

That’s what happened near the Ward Willis House on Sheridan Road.

The mastic tested positive for asbestos. Everything above it — clean. The project didn’t stop. The abatement was targeted to that one adhesive layer. The plumbing continued. The kitchen renovation continued.

But only because testing happened before disturbance — not after.

This is Highland Park’s specific asbestos problem.

This is where asbestos testing in Highland Park IL becomes part of the project — not because anything looks wrong, but because the work is about to expose what’s underneath.

Not old homes that look old. Modern-looking homes with original materials underneath updated finishes.

Black mastic under vinyl floors. Pipe insulation behind finished basement walls. Original drywall compound beneath layers of paint. Materials from the 1960s and 1970s that survived every renovation because each renovation built on top of them rather than removing them.

You don’t see it. You don’t know it’s there. Until the work reaches it.

At that point you have two choices — identify it before disturbance with a $375 inspection, or discover it mid-project when scope, cost, and timeline all change.

312-972-2321

Highland Park’s residential corridors along Sheridan Road, Green Bay Road, and the neighborhoods radiating outward from the historic downtown near Central Avenue were developed heavily during the 1950s through 1970s — the exact period when black mastic adhesive was standard in kitchen and basement flooring installations throughout Lake County.

Black mastic is a tar-based adhesive used to install vinyl and linoleum flooring. Before the late 1970s it was frequently manufactured with asbestos as a binding agent. It appears as a thick dark layer directly beneath vinyl or linoleum flooring and is almost never removed during subsequent renovations that simply install new flooring on top of it.

The result — in house after house throughout Highland Park — is modern flooring sitting directly on top of asbestos-containing adhesive that has been there for fifty years.

Kitchen remodels. Bathroom renovations. Plumbing access. Basement finishing. Any project that pulls back a floor reaches it.

Testing the specific material being disturbed before it’s disturbed is what keeps that discovery from derailing the project.

The inspection scope follows the work scope.

Kitchen renovation — kitchen floor materials tested.

Basement finishing — pipe insulation and floor tile assessed.

Bathroom renovation — wall materials and floor system evaluated.

Full demolition — comprehensive survey of every suspect material.

Nothing gets sampled that isn’t relevant to the planned work. The result is a precise finding tied to a specific material in a specific location — not a general statement about the property that creates more questions than it answers.

When the Highland Park mastic tested positive, the finding was specific. That adhesive. That area. Everything else clean. The abatement scope matched the finding exactly. No project shutdown. No full-home remediation. A targeted problem with a targeted solution.

Highland Park sits in Lake County. Lake County requires licensed asbestos inspection documentation before renovation and demolition permits are issued on older structures.

Kitchen remodels, bathroom renovations, basement projects, and demolition work on pre-1980 Highland Park properties increasingly require documented asbestos clearance before permits are approved. Frank Masoud’s reports are accepted by the Highland Park Building Department and Lake County permit offices.

For projects requiring documentation, see our asbestos inspection requirements for permits in Chicago and surrounding areas.

Residential inspection in Highland Park — $375.

That covers the visual assessment, up to three samples, laboratory analysis, and the PDF report your contractor and permit office need. If the project scope requires more samples — a larger kitchen, multiple material types, a basement alongside the kitchen — each additional sample is $75. Rush results back the next business day are $25 per sample.

Commercial properties start at $550.

Permit and demolition surveys are scoped by project — call 312-972-2321 and describe what’s being torn out.

Frank Masoud — the only person who answers this phone, schedules this inspection, shows up at your property, collects your samples, and signs the report.

IDPH #100-20238. Over a decade inspecting Lake County properties. Focused exclusively on asbestos inspection and testing. 5.0 on Google.

Before you call — the three things Highland Park homeowners usually ask:

My kitchen was renovated recently. Why would black mastic still be there?

Because renovation covers rather than removes. New vinyl goes over original mastic. Fresh paint goes over original drywall compound. The 2019 renovation didn’t change what the 1972 construction left behind. The mastic near the Ward Willis House survived multiple renovation cycles untouched — until plumbing work finally reached it.

If the mastic tests positive does the whole kitchen project stop?

No. The finding is specific to the material sampled. Positive mastic in one area means abatement of that adhesive layer in that location. Everything that tested negative moves forward normally. One targeted finding. One targeted solution.

My contractor hasn’t mentioned testing. Should I still do it?

Yes. Not all contractors require clearance before pulling up floors. The ones who don’t are accepting a risk that belongs to you. Testing before the first section comes up is your protection — regardless of whether anyone else asked for it.

312-972-2321

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Nearby: Deerfield • Lake Forest • Northbrook • Libertyville • Glenview