[header] How to recognize asbestos [title] Date the material. [step] The date of the building or material can tell you a lot about asbestos risk. Buildings made between the 1940s and the 1980s are very likely to have used asbestos materials. 
Even still, asbestos was phased out in the 1980s, so some buildings built during that time could have still used asbestos materials. If the building was built after 1995, it almost certainly utilized no asbestos materials.