Did I just endanger my family with our new home purchase?
I (M27) and my wife (W27) just closed on our first home two days ago. Immediately got to cleaning, and even had our Church small group help us clean a big portion of the house before moving in. House is from the 1940s in the US Midwest , and definitely needs some upgrades and fixes before we move in next week. DIY is my longtime hobby, and I am really excited to figure out how to save costs and get our house feeling like a safe place for us to raise our kiddo (3months). Confident in my ability to do a remodel, as long as I have the right YouTube video and tool. And of course, ballin on a budget.
Last night, got to look at the shower tile of the bathroom. Was already breaking off from old grout. Peeled back the tile and the wall that the tile was on essentially fell out from around the lower part of the tub. Good amount of debris, vacuumed up a significant portion before the photos taken.
Immediately Felt like my tongue was itchy (I know I probably should have been wearing my mask, but intended to just look, not a full project). I know a big concern with older homes is Asbestos products, but I am not familiar enough to know what is asbestos, let alone what material this wall is made of.
Is this a larger project than just filling the hole with a new backing and retiling? Is there asbestos in these products? Any thoughts what to do with the wood? (More below)
Things I noticed:
- at least two or three layers of material behind the tile. One is for sure a paper material that when onto the rocky/muddy/idk material. The other is a thinner tile(??) the crumpled.
- the tub looks like it is up against the wood frame itself, not away and next to the wall like I would have imagined
- the frame is definitely starting to rot on the left piece of frame. The other two visible are fine and solid. The rot one is only spongy in a 2in diameter spot of the wood. I don’t think the whole board is bad
- the basement floor, directly under the tub, has zero signs of water damage. Looks like it is isolated to the 2in space of the frame
- there is a outlet on the other side of the shower wall (to a bedroom) that can be seen in the whole next to the water damaged spot.
-there IS asbestos tape on the air conditioning ducts
What do you think? Did I just condemned my family? Is the remodel a quicker fix or a larger project? Any recommendations welcomed!