Investing in or owning drug lab properties

Investing in or owning drug lab properties

Member since 2008 · 42 posts · 11 votes

As a property owner, you are responsible for 100 percent of the clean up! Cleanups of labs are extremely resource-intensive and costly. The average cost of a cleanup is about $5,000. This is if you are lucky!

Clean Up (includes the insides and the outside of a building)

Air out the building

Removal of contaminated materials:
Carpets, carpet pads, Linoleum, drapes and blinds, air-filters, refrigerators, range, water heater, all tenant clothing and their furniture.

Removal needs to be to a site that accepts contaminated product.

All people that remove these items need to be specially trained and certified.

Surfaces: Extensive cleaning and replacement if the cooking occurred on those surfaces. After extensive wash down with bleach and other cleaners, seal walls and floors to seal in any contamination.

Ventilation systems: Furnaces and heaters will either need to be replaced or cleaned throughout all ductwork.

Plumbing: You might need to replace sinks, toilets and other accessible plumbing due to methamphetamine odors since meth residual was most likely deposited down the drains.

Repainting: Make sure the walls, ceilings and closets are cleaned, sealed and then painted.

Windows: Make sure they have been cleaned as well as the tracks. If the unit was especially heavily used, replace all of the windows. Doors in and outside need to be painted and door hardware needs to be washed down.

Exterior: Does the yard need to be cleaned up? Is there methamphetamine debris in the yard?

Most states required a certified industrial hygienist to approve of the clean up, and most states require a certificate of occupancy permit

Contact your state department of health for more information on this.

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Lender · Grand Rapids, MI · Member since 2018 · 703 posts · 446 votes
7y

As a a contractor during the recession I did a ton of bank owned work, and it was a lot, thousand of properties we managed.

We have 8 meth labs that I remember and the company that came out charged over 50k for a meth lab clean up.  I was blown away at the first bill.

We had several dead bodies cleans up and even shootings and they where always in the 5-10k range.

Meth lab was no joke, and the bank I worked for took it super serious.  They would even fly a VP out on a corporate jet and I would pick them up and we would go to the property.  They didn't even do that for a dead body.

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  • Joshua D.Pro Member
    BiggerPockets Founder · HI · Member since 2008 · 16k+ posts · 5k+ votes
    21y

    Hey there. Thanks for the informative post. Its actually good information. I once had a condo and a neighbor was running a meth lab. After fixing the walls and floors that the Marshalls destroyed, the new owner had lots of other "clean up" to take care of. It was a costly situation.

    Good to know about!

  • Real Estate Investor · Rochester, NY · Member since 2008 · 32 posts · 0 votes
    21y

    Thats crazy Biggerpo. So the cops came in and destroyed the place?

  • Member since 2010 · 21 posts · 0 votes
    16y
    Originally posted by Darryl K:
    Thats crazy Biggerpo. So the cops came in and destroyed the place?



    its what they do.
  • Wholesaler · Colorado Springs, CO · Member since 2009 · 286 posts · 255 votes
    16y

    $5,000 is probably way on the low end. I've seen one of these meth houses after HAZMAT cleanup (yes, the guys wearing spaceman suits with a breating apparatus). The house was completely gutted: no sinks, no tub, no plumbing, no dry wall, no flooring, no ceiling, no light fixtures, no HVAC whatsoever, just studs, siding, some windows, and a roof.

    Not only do the HAZMAT guys charge a lot, you have to pay for special disposal of these demo materials, not cheap. Then you have to pay to get it tested before you can get a certificate of occupancy (that house failed after the interior demo by the way). Don't forget, if they dumped any of their chemicals outside you may have to excavate the contaminated dirt (and dispose of properly as well). And if you're on septic, well I can only imagine.

    I know in some states when you sell you have to disclose that it was a meth lab. Fantastic way to scare the crap out of a homebuyer, especially if they have kids.

    There are folks that specialize in these kinds of rehabs, certainly not a good idea for a first timer.

  • Real Estate Investor · Amarillo, TX · Member since 2008 · 547 posts · 214 votes
    16y
    Originally posted by Andy Jones:
    $5,000 is probably way on the low end.


    $5000 was probablly more realistic 5 years ago when this post was created!

  • Flipper/Rehabber · Sedro Woolley, WA · Member since 2017 · 6 posts · 0 votes
    7y

    I just got off the phone with a company called BIO Clean Inc that services our state with abatement and decontamination in cases of contaminated properties. This was with a complete gutting of the house as in removing absolutely everything you can imagine down to the studs including the whole HVAC system. All that would be left would be some plumbing (no fixtures), electrical, studs, exterior siding and roof. Not only that they also mentioned that a sample test would also need to be taken for asbestos. The strange thing to me was that they treated both of these separately and asbestos took priority over the meth. Seems to me that any asbestos would be yarded out with the meth cleanup anyway. Bio Clean Inc gave me an estimate on a 2000 sqft home of $50,000-$70,000

  • Lender · Grand Rapids, MI · Member since 2018 · 703 posts · 446 votes
    7y

    As a a contractor during the recession I did a ton of bank owned work, and it was a lot, thousand of properties we managed.

    We have 8 meth labs that I remember and the company that came out charged over 50k for a meth lab clean up.  I was blown away at the first bill.

    We had several dead bodies cleans up and even shootings and they where always in the 5-10k range.

    Meth lab was no joke, and the bank I worked for took it super serious.  They would even fly a VP out on a corporate jet and I would pick them up and we would go to the property.  They didn't even do that for a dead body.

  • Asheville, NC · Member since 2018 · 11 posts · 1 vote
    7y
    Originally posted by @Dustin Suiter:

    I just got off the phone with a company called BIO Clean Inc that services our state with abatement and decontamination in cases of contaminated properties. This was with a complete gutting of the house as in removing absolutely everything you can imagine down to the studs including the whole HVAC system. All that would be left would be some plumbing (no fixtures), electrical, studs, exterior siding and roof. Not only that they also mentioned that a sample test would also need to be taken for asbestos. The strange thing to me was that they treated both of these separately and asbestos took priority over the meth. Seems to me that any asbestos would be yarded out with the meth cleanup anyway. Bio Clean Inc gave me an estimate on a 2000 sqft home of $50,000-$70,000

    Currently looking at a meth house in NoCo - the quote from Bio Clean was strictly the clean-up? So you would also have to factor in redoing just about everything down to HVAC and plumbing and fixtures, correct?

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