Asbestos Removal in Halls, TN

Halls grew up around a crossroads

The community takes its name from the Hall family. Thomas Hall settled on the north side of Black Oak Ridge around 1796, and by about 1860 his grandson Pulaski Hall kept a store and inn at the junction of Emory Road and the road to Maynardville. That junction is still the center of Halls, which counted 10,341 residents in the 2020 census and remains outside Knoxville city limits. Beaver Creek runs through the middle of it toward the Clinch River.

Halls was farm country long before it was a suburb, so one road can hold an old farmhouse with sheds, a mid-century ranch house and a brand-new subdivision. Those need very different amounts of attention, which is why the first question is when the building went up.

What to look for on older Halls properties

In houses built before the 1980s, the usual suspects are sprayed or troweled ceiling texture, 9x9 vinyl floor tile and the black adhesive under it, drywall joint compound and wrap on old boiler or furnace pipes in a basement or crawlspace. Loose, pebble-like vermiculite in an attic deserves a test too, because much of the vermiculite sold in the U.S. came from a mine in Libby, Montana that was contaminated with asbestos.

Farm outbuildings are a separate question. Corrugated cement sheets on barns and sheds were frequently made with asbestos, and they become a problem when smashed or cut rather than taken down whole. Clearing an old lot off Emory Road? Get those panels sampled before a machine arrives.

Budgeting a Halls job

Halls is priced the same as Knoxville itself. Our Knoxville cost page lists the ranges: a test and inspection usually runs $250–$600, and a pre-demolition survey for a building that is coming down is $500–$1,500, depending on its size and how many samples it needs. If the work area sits at the end of a long farm lane or has no driveway access, mention it on the call so it is built into the quote.

Services available in Halls

• Asbestos testing and inspection — PLM sampling, TEM where it matters, written report.
• Asbestos removal — containment, wet removal, HEPA cleanup, manifested disposal.
• Popcorn ceiling removal — the most common job on pre-1980 stock.
• Floor tile and mastic removal — 9x9 tile and black cutback adhesive.
• Vermiculite attic removal — Zonolite fill, HEPA-vacuumed into sealed bags.
• Transite siding removal — cement-asbestos shingle, stripped whole and wet.
• Pipe and duct insulation removal — glovebag or full containment.
• Pre-demolition surveys — required before any demolition, asbestos or not.

Knox County’s own rules for demolition and renovation

Knox County is one of four Tennessee counties, with Davidson, Hamilton and Shelby, that run a local air program instead of the state’s, so in Halls the Knox County Department of Air Quality Management enforces the federal asbestos standard. It requires ten working days’ notice before a demolition, even when no asbestos is found, and before a renovation that removes regulated material at or above 260 linear feet of pipe, 160 square feet of other components or 35 cubic feet. Projects over the pipe or component threshold also carry a $100 county fee.

Most buildings need an asbestos survey before that work starts. The county’s exception is a single residential building with four or fewer dwelling units, so a homeowner redoing one house is in a different position from an owner clearing a vacant commercial site on Maynardville Pike. Call (865) 420-5764 and tell us which describes your project.