ASBESTOS WILL KILL YOU!
Seriously, it will.. in about 40yrs and with prolonged exposure to airborne fibers. That said, I am of the camp that isn't really scared of Asbestos but strongly believes in proper abatement of friable Asbestos based materials. Now, for those not in the know, there are two types of Asbestos containing materials. There are friable materials that can easily allow the Asbestos particles to become airborne by just touching them and non-friable materials which contain Asbestos but are generally not going to release the Asbestos fiber unless you're grinding the stuff up.
All of that said, I am going to cover my A** and say that I am not an Asbestos abatement professional and anything I write here (or say in person) should be taken as pure conjecture and that you should consult an EPA certified abatement professional when dealing with any form of Asbestos or Asbestos containing materials. In other words.. I am talking out of my butt.
So... what does this have to do with our house? Well, when our house was built Asbestos was a VERY common material to use to insulate steam pipes. In the form of pipe wrap it isn't necessarily a huge issue. If the wrapping and underlying materials are in good condition you can just leave it be.
Unfortunately, our pipes looked like THIS
Unfortunately, our pipes looked like THIS
