Meth Lab

[Josh Levitt]

What is the name of your state? Montana

My wife and I bought a house about 3 years ago. We just recieved a letter in the mail stating that our house was previously a meth lab. We now have a 5 month old baby and have been living there with any knowledge of this. It was never disclosed in our bye/sell aggreement. We have had the house tested and the tests came back with three possitive spots having meth residue. Our furnace, an upright freezer that came with the house and some of the door hinges. What would you do?

 

[HomeGuru]

What is the name of your state? Montana

My wife and I bought a house about 3 years ago. We just recieved a letter in the mail stating that our house was previously a meth lab. We now have a 5 month old baby and have been living there with any knowledge of this. It was never disclosed in our bye/sell aggreement. We have had the house tested and the tests came back with three possitive spots having meth residue. Our furnace, an upright freezer that came with the house and some of the door hinges. What would you do?

**A: have those items cleaned or removed.

 

[tryingtoplease]

HG, have you read the articles in magazines & newspapers about this problem? Basically the owners have had to resort to gutting or tearing down their houses. Bad situation. Bad drug. If it's in the furnace, it's probably in the air ducts which then distribute it through the vents, and on and on and on. Good luck OP. Rotten situation.

 

[ENASNI]

http://methfreemt.org/index.html

http://www.kci.org/meth_info/meth_cleanup.htm

 

[xylene]

What is the name of your state? Montana

My wife and I bought a house about 3 years ago. We just recieved a letter in the mail stating that our house was previously a meth lab. We now have a 5 month old baby and have been living there with any knowledge of this. It was never disclosed in our bye/sell aggreement. We have had the house tested and the tests came back with three possitive spots having meth residue. Our furnace, an upright freezer that came with the house and some of the door hinges. What would you do?

Who did you recieve the letter from?

 

[tryingtoplease]

Who did you recieve the letter from?

ooohhh, good question, xylene! According to E's links, it shoulda been either LE or County Health. Ether way, E's links are very informative. Yukkk.

 

[Josh Levitt]

We recieved the letter from the Montana DEQ. Since it was never disclosed to us when we bought the house we are going to get a lawyer.

 

[HomeGuru]

HG, have you read the articles in magazines & newspapers about this problem? Basically the owners have had to resort to gutting or tearing down their houses. Bad situation. Bad drug. If it's in the furnace, it's probably in the air ducts which then distribute it through the vents, and on and on and on. Good luck OP. Rotten situation.

**A: read the original post again.

 

[Josh Levitt]

HomeGuru-so you think that just cleaning it up would take care of everything. How would you like it if you bought a house and found out that it was formally a meth lab. Would you like to live in there with your family?

 

[HomeGuru]

HomeGuru-so you think that just cleaning it up would take care of everything. How would you like it if you bought a house and found out that it was formally a meth lab. Would you like to live in there with your family?

**A: did you actually READ the writer's post?

 

[tryingtoplease]

**A: read the original post again.

With all due respect HG, the only problems I see with Josh's post (who WAS the OP) is a slight typo leaving out the word "out" as "with (out) any knowledge". Granted, he said only three places came back positive but how do we know which surfaces were tested? Josh, let's throw this out. Did they remove a vent cover from any of the duct lines and swab there? Did they rule out the presence of any meth residues in all locations in the house? Hope this is what you were addressing with your "Read the original post" messages HG. If not, I defer to you for you answer to these cryptic messages.

A quote from one of ENASNI'l links:
• Ventilation system

Ventilation systems (heating, air conditioning) tend to collect fumes and dust and redistribute them throughout a home. The vents, ductwork, filters, and even the walls and ceilings near ventilation ducts can become contaminated. Replace all of the air filters in the system, remove and clean vents, clean the surfaces near system inlets and outlets, and clean the system's ductwork.

 

[Josh Levitt]

yes they did take the vent off and test the inside of the duct work. they took about 100 tests in our house. the house is about 1100 sq. ft. So to me that is alot of tests in that size of a house. Montana law says that to be clean it must not test over .1 micrograms per 100 sq. cent. The freezer tested like .3, the duct work tested like .48 and the hinges on the bedroom door tested .4 He also said that there was pressence of meth in other test locations but it was under the legal limit. I think the freezer and the duct work are the worse places to test possitive.