Construction workers recently uncovered asbestos at Rooster’s Coffeehouse while completing renovations, which began May 23.
Carleton’s assistant vice-president (facilities management and planning) Darryl Boyce said the asbestos was already successfully removed and will not prolong renovations at the coffeehouse.
“We have an analysis done of all our buildings to identify areas that, to a certain degree, potentially contain asbestos,” Boyce said. “Our building-wide report indicated that our dry-wall compound—you know, that fills the cracks in drywall—could contain asbestos.”
According to Boyce, further tests at Rooster’s found demolition of the drywall had not contaminated the coffeehouse space. He said because of the café’s continuing renovations, no one other than construction workers were in the area during the demolition.
Rooster’s is located in the University Centre, which was built in 1970. Boyce said using asbestos in construction projects was common at the time the building was completed.
“In that era of construction, asbestos was sometimes added to a compound to make it adhere better or make it be stronger,” Boyce said.
“There are patches of it here or there, you know, depending on who did the drywall and the ceiling,” he said.
Rooster’s is scheduled to re-open in time for the fall semester.
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