I Have This Brown Powder Dust In Attic

Typical fiberglass filters are rated 1 4.

I have this brown powder dust in attic.

The white stuffs turned to white ash after a fire test. It only shows up near areas of stucco damage on the exterior walls so i think it s from the old stucco perhaps a bad mixture here and there. The material in question looks almost like brown mulch or top soil. I found this light weight cellulose insulation material in a over 70 years old attic which contains some short fibers.

Buy air filters with a higher merv rating. The higher the merv rating the smaller particles it can catch. I have some white powder in my attic but nowhere near 4 deep and only in a few places. Does anyone have any idea what this stuff is.

Call an asbestos certified professional for assistance. The environmental protection agency provides ways to identify vermiculite on its website generally a pebble like material typically gray brown or silver in color. There is a layer of brown paper under it and the powder is about 2 thick. Attic is in a multifamily housing unit built circa 1994.

Before i go further there are power dusters and you could treat an entire attic much the same as with a fog machine. There are 2 inches thick light brown cellulose on top of the 2 inches thick white cellulose finer than the top layer but not in powder form. Do not disturb vermiculite insulation. It is spread out on the floor of the attic approximately seeral inches.

My hesitancy there is that this big cloud of dust doesn t dissipate like a fog and the powder settles on top of everything it touches. When we were removing the lath and plaster we found a white very fine powder insulation in the attic and sloped cielings. I have had an asbestos survey done with no asbestos found in the powder. It is made from a natural mineral material that is mined from the earth.

Vermiculite loose fill insulation is one of the most common household materials that contains asbestos.