Hi

Victorian semi built c1900 in London 

Almost 4 yrs ago we had a major kitchen renovation which involved a team of builders knocking down walls and tearing down lath and plaster ceilings at the back of the house. There was dust everywhere in big clouds especially on one particular day....I found myself spitting out pink/grey stuff and blowing similar out of my nose for some time afterwards.

Plumes of dust also rose up out of the floorboards above the rooms where the work was happening, and I was frantically trying to plug the gaps with blankets and plastic sheeting to stop it.

We didn't even consider for a moment that asbestos might have been present in any of the wall or ceiling plaster, although we werre almost certain there were no ceiling tiles or other very obvious items anywhere.

I've only this week, 4 yrs later, suddenly started looking into the possibility of asbestos being an ingredient in any of the plaster in our home.

The more I search online the more worried I become as it seems there's every chance some if not all the old plaster layers beneath the modern skim coat throughout the house (added by the previous owners) could have asbestos as a component.

My mind is now in an obsessive freefall of worry that myself and family have all been breathing in asbestos fibres for years all this time...I'm also quite a DIYer and have been merrily drilling holes for shelving etc in the walls over the past 25 years we've lived here and in our previous house a few streets away built around the same time.

I'm finding it impossible to rationalize any of this and am convinced we have handed ourselves a ticking timebomb death sentence.

I would appreciate any thoughts on how I might frame this whole situation in order to even begin to cope with it mentally.

I sure as hell know there's a significant risk of my worst fears being correct about the plaster content in our house and so in going to find it extremely difficult to be convinced there's nothing to worry about.

I've typed this at 3am having woken yet again in the early hours consumed with stress.

Thanks for reading.