My house was built in the 40s and had a front porch converted to living space in the 60s. The geniuses who did the conversion decided to "extend" the ceiling joists by nailing boards end to end, with a block connecting both. Amazingly, this has held up for the past 50 years.
While doing electrical repair last year the workers discovered vermiculite granules below the blown in insulation in the attic, around the area of the previous porch conversion. I'm not sure if the material is all over, but I did pull back a little insulation around the attic opening and did not find any vermiculite.
The plan was to just leave the vermiculite (likely from Libby) under the old blown in, and then add more blown in on top of that.
The bad news is that I just noticed a very narrow 1' long crack forming in the ceiling where the joist extensions are located.
I'm trying not to freak completely out. I've got some rough phone quotes of $5k to $10k. This is completely out of my budget, even if it means leaving the crack and eventually getting lung cancer from asbestos particles floating around. I just don't have that kind of money, nothing I have can be sold to come up with even a portion of that. There are rumors about budget (ie job) cuts at the company.
The crack concerns me greatly. If the joists were to give, I would have an entire living room full of insulation, and asbestos fibers would be released and floating throughout my small house.
I've read many threads here about asbestos removal - DIY is not recommended. If it weren't for the crack and weak joists I really wouldn't bother with doing anything about it. Since I don't have $5-10k laying around, what am I to do? Just my luck of the draw?