Asbestos removal and remediation in High River

What High River’s housing means for asbestos

High River became a town in 1906 and grew through the 1950s and 60s and a downtown redevelopment that began in the 1970s, well before the subdivisions of the 1990s and 2000s. The 2021 Census counted about 5,790 occupied homes. Roughly 400 were built in 1960 or earlier, 980 between 1961 and 1980, and 750 in the 1980s — about 2,130 homes, or 37 per cent of the town, built before 1991. That is the highest proportion of older housing in any community on this website, higher than Calgary’s own.

The town takes its heritage seriously: 24 properties carry municipal heritage designation, and the established neighbourhoods around downtown, in the southwest and southeast, are the tree-lined streets of pre-war and post-war housing. Those are the houses where asbestos is most likely in flooring, textured ceilings, joint compound, pipe wrap and vermiculite attic insulation. The newer neighbourhoods such as Montrose and Monteith are a different job.

The Town’s own demolition permit page links to an Asbestos Abatement Standards document, which is the clearest signal any municipality in our area gives that asbestos is expected to be dealt with before a building comes down. We plan around that from the first site visit.

What 2013 taught the town about remediation

On 20 June 2013 the Highwood River peaked at roughly 1,820 cubic metres per second after more than 325 millimetres of rain fell in under 48 hours. All 13,000 residents were ordered out; around 60 per cent of the town was under water and more than 70 per cent of its homes were damaged. The province bought 94 homes in the floodway, most of them in Wallaceville and Beachwood, and the mayor later put the number of structures torn down at about 180. Before any of the Wallaceville houses were demolished, hazardous materials assessments were completed on every one — because the housing there was old enough that asbestos had to be assumed until tested.

The flood also left a long tail of mold. In Hampton Hills, homes whose floor joists sat in water for about three weeks were remediated once, failed, and mostly had to be rebuilt; one homeowner found flood silt and black mold still inside the walls three years later. That is the lesson we carry into every water job: drying that stops too early is not a saving, and wet material in an older house has to be tested before it is torn out, not after.

The town has since built more than seven kilometres of engineered dikes, completed in 2020 and sized for a flood half again as large as 2013. The river is better contained. The houses that were flooded, dried and put back together are still there, and they are the ones we expect to hear from.

Asbestos testing in High River

Most High River jobs start with a test, not a removal. If you are renovating, selling, or still finding water damage from 2013, a sampling visit tells you whether you have an asbestos problem at all — and in our experience a good share of the time you don’t. We come to the house, take a small piece of each suspect material (ceiling texture, floor tile, drywall compound, vermiculite), and send them to an accredited lab. Results come back in writing in two to five days. Samples are priced per sample; the visit itself is quoted with High River travel included when you book online, so there is no mileage line afterwards.

If a result is negative, your renovation goes ahead and you have the lab report to prove it to a buyer or a permit desk. If it is positive, you already have the scope, and the removal quote is a fixed number rather than a guess.

How a job in High River runs

The steps below are the same ones on our asbestos removal page, where you can watch a 30-second walk-through of one of our own jobs. Nothing is skipped because the job is in High River rather than Calgary.

If you searched for an abatement company in High River, this is the page. Nanton and Diamond Valley, further south and west on the same run, are also in our service area — travel priced into the written quote. And if the reason you are reading is a basement renovation in High River, the strip-out and the asbestos check come first — we do both, so the renovation crew starts on a clean, cleared basement.

• Testing. Samples go to an accredited third-party lab; you get the written result before anything is disturbed.
• Notification. Alberta OHS must be notified at least 72 hours before any work that could release asbestos fibres, per address. We file that notice for every restricted-area job.
• Permits. The Town of High River requires a demolition permit, a signed service-disconnection form from the utilities, and refers applicants to its asbestos abatement standards. We provide the assessment and, after removal, the third-party clearance that supports the permit.
• Disposal. Asbestos from High River goes to the Foothills Landfill and Resource Recovery Centre on Highway 783, which accepts it with the manager’s prior approval at a published $175 per tonne for bagged material and a $350 minimum. Wetted, double-bagged in 6-mil poly, sealed, and documented with a weight ticket and manifest.
• Travel. High River is about 65 kilometres south of Calgary, around 45 minutes. Travel is priced into the written quote for every job outside Calgary — there is no separate mileage line and no surprise on the invoice.

Related reading

• A flooded basement: the first 24 hours
• Water damage and insurance in Alberta
• Black mold in the basement: what it means