Vermiculite and asbestos in older homes
By Dan Jones ·
Bottom line: looking is fine, disturbing it is not, and that distinction is the whole subject. Vermiculite in an attic and cloth-like tape on old heating ducts are the two places asbestos most often turns up in houses of this era in the South Okanagan. Intact and left alone, neither is doing anything. The risk comes from someone scraping, pulling, tidying or renovating. What changed recently is who is allowed to touch it: since January 1, 2024 asbestos abatement work in BC requires a licensed employer and certified workers, and the definition of that work includes identifying suspect material, collecting samples and assessing risk. So taking your own sample to a lab is no longer a sensible plan, and the practical step is hiring a licensed contractor whose licence you can verify on WorkSafeBC’s public registry.
I am Dan Jones, a REALTOR with Royal LePage Locations West in Penticton, licence number 1118346. I was a Red Seal journeyman carpenter from 1980 and built houses for twenty-four years before I was licensed in 2004, which is why I look at a furnace room before I look at a kitchen on a house of a certain age.
I am not an asbestos professional and I do not test anything. What follows is how to recognise it, what not to do, and what it does to a sale.
Vermiculite in the attic
You can usually see it from the access hatch without going in.
It is loose and pebbly rather than batts or blown fibre. Small flakes, grey-brown through to a silvery gold, slightly layered and shiny, poured in and sitting like coarse gravel between the joists. It is distinctive. Once you have seen it, you do not mistake it for anything else.
Much of what was sold in North America as Zonolite, from the 1920s until 1990, came from the Libby mine in Montana, which was contaminated with amphibole asbestos. Health Canada’s guidance is that older vermiculite insulation should be assumed to contain some asbestos unless it has been tested.
What matters is the state it is in. Undisturbed and sealed off from the living space is the lowest risk condition. So:
- Do not climb in, walk on it, or run a hand through it
- Do not use the attic for storage
- Do not tidy the attic before listing
- Do seal cracks, gaps and openings in the ceilings below, including around light fixtures and the hatch itself
- Do keep people out of the space
If work has to happen up there, a furnace vent, a bathroom fan, new wiring, that is when it becomes a project rather than a non-issue, and that is the point to bring in a licensed contractor.
Tape and wrap on the ducting
Go to the basement or crawlspace before you go up to the attic, because this one is at eye level and it is easier to disturb by accident.
On older heating systems you will see a white or grey cloth-like tape wrapped around duct joints and elbows, and sometimes a chalky white insulation moulded around pipe fittings. On old round gravity ducting it can run the length of a run. In houses of that era it may well contain asbestos.
Intact, it sits there. The risk is it being scraped, torn, knocked in a tight crawlspace, or pulled off during a furnace replacement.
Fraying, crumbling or hanging tape is the state to take seriously, because it is already shedding.
Do not pull at it, wrap it in new tape, or paint over it. If it has to go, that is abatement work.
What changed on January 1, 2024
This is the part most people have not caught up with, and it changes what an owner can sensibly do.
Asbestos abatement employers in BC must now be licensed, and anyone doing the work must be trained and certified. BC was the first jurisdiction in Canada to run a formal licensing program of this kind.
The definition of asbestos abatement work is broader than people assume. It includes identifying material that is or may be asbestos-containing, collecting samples, assessing risk, removing, repairing, transporting and disposing of it, and planning or supervising any of that.
So the old approach of taking your own sample and mailing it to a lab is not the route any more. Sampling is regulated work.
The useful consequence for you: WorkSafeBC maintains a public licence registry. Search “Find licensed contractors” on worksafebc.com and confirm a company holds a current licence before you hire. That registry exists precisely so that a homeowner can verify rather than trust.
Locally, firms that handle oil tank removal often do this work as well. Compass Environmental is one, and they handle vermiculite among other environmental items. I have used them on my own properties and referred clients to them because the service has been excellent, and I have no referral fee or arrangement with them. Check the registry regardless of who recommends them, including me.
Where else it turns up
Beyond the attic and the ducting:
- Older flooring and its backing, particularly nine inch tiles and the black mastic under them
- Some textured ceilings of a certain era
- Cement board and siding products
- Around older boilers and heating equipment
The same rule applies to all of it. Intact and undisturbed is not an emergency. Renovation is what turns it into one.
What it actually does to a sale
Less than people fear, and in a specific way.
Intact material that nobody needs to touch has limited effect on price. It is not a hazard sitting there, and a buyer who is not planning work is not planning an abatement job.
Where it costs money is when it sits in the way of what the buyer intends to do. Replacing the furnace and ducting. Adding insulation to an attic. Finishing a basement. Taking out a popcorn ceiling. Each of those becomes a larger project, and a buyer who works that out during subject removal comes back with a number.
So the honest framing for a seller is not “there is asbestos, the house is worth less.” It is “this house has material that makes certain future work more expensive, and that is priced into what the right buyer will pay.”
Disclosure
What you know, you generally have to say.
How it should be worded on a Property Disclosure Statement is a question for your conveyancer or a lawyer, and it is worth asking properly rather than guessing. An inaccurate answer creates a contractual problem that is larger and more expensive than the asbestos ever was, which is the same trap that catches sellers on buried oil tanks.
If you genuinely do not know, saying you do not know is a legitimate answer. Saying no when you have not checked is not.
What I would do
Selling an older house: look from the hatch, look at the ducting, do not touch either. If you need certainty, hire a licensed contractor to sample. Keep any paperwork from past abatement work permanently, because a buyer wants documentation rather than reassurance.
Buying one: ask about heating history and attic insulation before you write. Budget for abatement in any renovation plan that touches the attic, the ducting or old flooring. Do not let an enthusiastic inspection turn into someone poking at duct tape.
This is one item on a longer list that older Okanagan homes carry: what to check in an older South Okanagan home.
Licensing requirements above come from WorkSafeBC and are current as of September 2026, and the guidance on vermiculite comes from Health Canada. Confirm current requirements before acting, and verify any contractor on the WorkSafeBC registry.
If you want me to walk an older property and tell you what I see, email me at dano007@shaw.ca or call 250.488.0226.