Lafayette's Coal-Mining-Era Homes: What a Century-Old Cottage Means for Cleanup
Last updated 2020-09-05
A Town Built Around a Coal Camp
Lafayette started as a coal-camp town, and that history is still visible today in Old Town's rows of small, close-set cottages built for mining families in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The Lafayette History Museum itself sits inside one of these former miner's cottages on E. Simpson Street, a preserved example of the housing stock that still shapes many of the blocks around it. When a biohazard situation happens inside one of these century-old homes, the building's age changes how a cleanup actually needs to work, far more than most homeowners expect walking in.
Small Lots, Old Construction and What Containment Requires
These cottages were built on small, tightly spaced lots, often with original plaster walls, older subfloors and construction methods that predate modern building codes by well over a century. Containment has to account for that from the very first step, because older materials can hold contamination differently than newer drywall and engineered flooring do. Our technicians assess the specific construction of each Old Town home before beginning any work, rather than assuming a one-size-fits-all approach will hold up on a building this old. That assessment shapes everything that follows, from which materials need removal to which ones only need careful treatment in place.
Careful Treatment of Porous, Aging Materials
Porous materials age differently over a century than they do over a decade, and original plaster, wood subfloors and vintage trim in an Old Town cottage often absorb contamination more readily than modern equivalents do. Our crew treats these surfaces with extra care, testing before and after disinfection rather than assuming a single pass gets the job done completely. We remove contaminated material as regulated waste and disinfect thoroughly, protecting both the health of the household and the historic character of the home itself. Families in Lafayette's coal-mining-era cottages deserve a crew that respects both, and that balance guides every visit we make.
Respecting a Home's History While Getting the Job Done
Old Town owners are often protective of original details, whether it's a wood-frame window, a built-in cabinet, or trim that has survived since the mining era, and rightly so. We work around those features whenever possible instead of treating them as disposable, removing only what actually needs to go and preserving what can safely stay in place. That approach takes more time and more judgment than a generic cleanup, but a cottage this old deserves it. Once the job is finished, we walk the family through exactly what was done, so nothing about the process or the home's condition afterward feels like a mystery left unexplained.