Asbestos removal cost in Calgary — and what the rest of our work costs

Almost nobody in this trade publishes prices. We do, because the first thing you actually want to know is whether this is a two thousand dollar problem or a twenty thousand dollar one — and you should be able to find that out without handing your phone number to five contractors first.

These are real ranges for Calgary. They are not quotes. Every job here is priced as a fixed, itemized amount after a site visit, with commencement and completion dates in writing.

Asbestos abatement

Vermiculite attic insulation. Small or partial removals start at $4,500. Most Calgary bungalow attics run $10,000 to $16,000. Quoted as a job total, never per square foot — per-square-foot figures for attics come from other markets and overstate Calgary badly. More on vermiculite removal.

Popcorn and textured ceilings. $8 to $15 per square foot where asbestos is present. A single room typically runs $1,500 to $5,000. A ceiling that has already tested clean is closer to $2 to $3 per square foot — which is the whole reason to test first. More on popcorn ceiling removal.

Floor tile and black mastic. Small targeted removals typically $1,500 to $3,500. Full basement floors are quoted as a job total after a site visit and most land in the mid four figures. More on floor tile removal.

Asbestos-cement siding. A 1960s bungalow generally runs $6,000 to $12,000 depending on storeys, access and scaffold requirements.

Small targeted removals — a section of pipe wrap, a furnace flue, one damaged area found mid-renovation — $1,500 to $3,500.

Whole-home abatement on an older house, where multiple materials are being removed at once, $15,000 to $45,000 and up. More on asbestos removal.

There is a floor under all of these. Sealed containment, negative air, decontamination and clearance testing cost close to the same whether the area is small or large, which is why a tiny job is rarely a tiny price.

Testing and lab work

Book a test online → Pick two dates and see your estimate as you go.

How many samples we take. The count follows the size of each material, not the number of rooms you would like done: a small patch is one sample, one room-sized area is three, most of a house is five. Vermiculite is always at least three, from separate parts of the attic — it is unevenly contaminated, and a single sample that comes back clean is the most dangerous result in this business, because it is the one people act on.

Sampling visit — $225 within Calgary. That covers the trip out, collecting the samples under full protective equipment, sealing every sample location afterwards, the chain-of-custody paperwork, and the lab report emailed to you.

Lab analysis — $85 per sample. Results typically two to five business days. Rush 24 to 48 hours: add $60 per sample. Vermiculite: $165 per sample, because it needs a more sensitive lab method than standard analysis — a standard test can miss it entirely.

What a normal job comes to. One material in one area needs three samples, so a popcorn ceiling test is $480. A whole house with two or three different materials is usually five samples, around $650. All prices exclude GST.

Why three samples and not one. Asbestos sits in pockets within a material. A single sample that comes back clean is the most dangerous result in this business, because it is the one people act on. Sample counts follow the area of the material: three for a room, five for most of a house, seven for a large building. Every different material — ceiling texture, floor tile, tile mastic, drywall compound, pipe wrap — is sampled separately.

Just want one sample? That is $310, and it is a screening test. If the one sample comes back positive, you have your answer: the whole area is treated as asbestos-containing and nothing more needs testing. If it comes back clean, it tells you about that one spot and nothing else. Three samples is the Alberta minimum for a room, and it is what we recommend when the result has to convince a buyer, an insurer or the City — or when you simply want peace of mind. Vermiculite is always at least three; the asbestos in it is too unevenly spread for one scoop to mean anything.

If we do the removal, we credit the $225 sampling fee against the contract, as long as you go ahead within 90 days. Lab fees go to the lab and are not credited.

Attics and crawl spaces are priced differently. Alberta OHS treats them as confined spaces, which means a two-person crew — so vermiculite sampling starts at $425 for the visit, plus $165 per sample. There is no safe way to do it single-handed and we will not try.

Outside Calgary: add $95 for Airdrie, Chestermere, Cochrane, Okotoks or Strathmore. Further out, quoted before we go.

For comparison: a full residential survey with a written report from a consultant generally runs $500 to $950 depending on the size of the home and the number of materials. Final air clearance testing: $400 to $700.

Samples go to an accredited third-party laboratory. We do not certify anything as asbestos-free ourselves — you receive the laboratory's own report, with the laboratory's name on it. We recommend testing before anything else, even when the result means there is no removal job in it for us. More on asbestos testing. If a permit is what brought you here, see the City of Calgary asbestos abatement form.

Interior demolition and strip-out

Kitchen removal: $2,000 to $6,500. Bathroom strip-out: $1,500 to $4,500. Single room gut: $1,500 to $4,000. Full floor strip-out: $8,000 to $25,000 and up. Commercial tenant interiors: priced per project after a walkthrough.

Disposal, specifically. In Calgary, asbestos waste is accepted at Shepard Landfill only. It goes under a City of Calgary Industrial Waste Permit — no fee, valid for up to a year — by appointment booked by 10 a.m. the day before, wetted, double-bagged in 6-mil poly and sealed. We hold the permit, book the appointment and hand you the paperwork. And if a house built before 1990 needs a building or demolition permit, the City will not release it until an Asbestos Abatement Information form has been filed certifying the asbestos is gone or was never there. That form is part of what you are paying us to deal with.

Two things catch people out on demolition in Calgary. First, disposal is usually the biggest single line after labour, and a bin of drywall and plaster goes over its tonnage allowance quickly — so compare quotes on whether dump fees are included, not just the bin price. Second, interior demolition does not need a demolition permit, but it usually does need a building permit: a City of Calgary residential improvement permit runs about $206, a basement or garage alteration under 400 square feet about $334, and alterations to walls need one whether or not the wall is load-bearing. Confirm who is pulling it before work starts. More on demolition.

General contractors and restoration firms: we also supply ticketed, fit-tested labour on an hourly basis for interior demolition and abatement support. Rates on request — get in touch.

Mold, water and fire

Mold remediation, water damage restoration and fire and smoke damage restoration are quoted after inspection, because the scope is almost never visible from the doorway. Where there is an insurance claim we work to the adjuster's scope and document accordingly. Mold remediation · Water damage · Fire damage.

Cleaning, hauling and moving

Published in full on their own pages. Calgary prices; travel outside the city is on each page.

• House cleaning — standard clean $129 (1 bed) to $269 (4 bed), from $329 for 5 bed and up; deep and move-out $189 to $419, from $489 for 5 bed and up. 10% off a biweekly clean, 5% monthly.
• Carpet and upholstery — two rooms $149 minimum, three $189, four $229; staircase $55. Sofa $89, armchair $45, mattress $69. $39 a room if we are already on site for another job.
• Junk removal — $119 minimum, quarter load $239, half $389, full $649. Tipping included and you get the scale ticket.
• Moving — $139/hr two movers and a van, $189/hr three. Two-hour minimum plus one hour travel. $149 flat for a single item or a few pieces.
• Post-construction cleaning — final clean before handover $0.35 per square foot, minimum $249; rough clean mid-build $0.20 per square foot, minimum $199; touch-up after the deficiency list $65/hr, two-hour minimum. A 1,200 sq ft condo final clean is $420.
• Commercial cleaning — per visit, under 1,000 sq ft $149, 1,000 to 2,500 sq ft $199, 2,500 to 5,000 sq ft $299, above that quoted after a walkthrough. One-off commercial deep cleans $65/hr with a four-hour minimum. Add 15% for after hours and weekends.

What moves a price

The short version is below; the long version, with worked examples and the warning signs in a cheap quote, is in our guide to how much asbestos removal costs in Calgary.

• Access. A walk-in gable door and a bedroom-ceiling hatch are different jobs on the same attic.
• Occupied or empty. Protecting a lived-in home, working around belongings and staging by room all add time.
• Disposal weight. Asbestos waste goes by the tonne to the only Calgary landfill that accepts it, by appointment and under permit.
• Condition. Friable, damaged or previously disturbed material needs more containment than material that is intact.
• Schedule. Work that has to happen after hours, over a weekend, or inside a 24-hour call-out is priced accordingly.

What every quote includes

A fixed, itemized price. Commencement and completion dates in writing. Alberta OHS project notification where required. Landfill disposal under permit with the manifest handed to you. Air clearance testing before the containment comes down. Proof of $5 million commercial general liability and $5 million contractors pollution liability on request, before you commit to anything — and our WCB clearance letter is yours to pull directly from WCB Alberta whenever you like.

Ranges current as of October 2026. They are ranges, not quotes. Call (403) 477-2281 or send us a message for a fixed price on your job.