What Wisconsin requires
Read against NR 447 and NR 410 as published, September 2026.
The rules that govern an asbestos notification in Wisconsin, in the order people actually ask about them. Every answer names the section it came from, so you can go and check it instead of taking our word for it.
Does this apply to my job?
Two things decide it: what kind of building, and whether you are demolishing or renovating.
The DNR's rules cover what the code calls a facility, and that definition excludes residential buildings with four or fewer dwelling units. A house, a duplex, a fourplex: not a facility, and NR 447 does not reach it. Small residential work is notified to the Department of Health Services instead, under its own chapter and on its own form.
For a building that is a facility, the two jobs are not treated the same:
- A demolition is notified whatever the asbestos amount. At or above 260 linear feet on pipes, 160 square feet on other components, or 35 cubic feet, the whole rule applies. Below all three, only the notification part applies — but it still has to go in.
- A renovation is notified only at or above those same amounts. Under them, NR 447 does not reach the job at all.
That first one catches people out. Pulling down a commercial building with almost no asbestos in it still owes the DNR a notification.
NR 447.02(14) for “facility”; NR 447.06(2)(a) and (b) for demolition; NR 447.06(2)(d) for renovation
DNR or DHS?
They are separate rules with separate forms, and the DHS one is not a deadline at all. DHS asks to be notified before an abatement company sets up, and prices it instead of forbidding it: $50 when the notification is in two working days or more before the start date, $100 when it is later than that. A mailed one counts as the cheaper tier if it is postmarked at least four working days ahead.
So the ten working days below are the DNR's rule, on DNR work. They are not a general Wisconsin asbestos deadline, and reading them as one is the mistake worth avoiding.
DHS 159.20(1), (2)(a), (8)(a)1 and 2; DNR form 4500-113, DHS form F-00041
How far ahead do I have to file?
Ten working days before the work begins. The notification has to be in at least ten working days ahead, and the crew cannot start earlier than the date on it.
NR 447.07(1), (3)(a)
What counts as a working day?
Monday through Friday. Holidays count toward the ten, so Labor Day sits inside a September count without changing it. Only Saturday and Sunday come out.
NR 447.02(43)
The start date moved. Do I have to do anything?
Yes. A new start date is a revision, and the date on the notification is the only date the crew can start on. Move the job and the notification has to move with it, before anybody shows up. The code leaves no room in it:
In no event may an operation … begin on a date other than the date contained in the written notice of the new start date.
NR 447.07(3)(d)3
What does the state charge?
Between $135 and $1,325 for the notification, depending on how much asbestos is on the job. There are four amounts, and form 4500-113 prints them one per band: $135, $400, $700, $1,325. In the code each is a permit-exemption review fee and an inspection fee added together, except the smallest, which is the inspection fee on its own.
That is what the schedule says. What firms were actually charged is a different question, and the state's own record answers it.
NR 410.05(2), (3); form 4500-113
Does a revision cost anything?
There is one revision fee in the code: $100, when the amount of asbestos changes by 20% or more. Moving a date carries no fee. In the state's published record we have not found a notification that was charged the $100 — which is what the record shows, not a promise about your job.
NR 410.05(4)
What happens if I get it wrong?
Federal civil penalties run to $124,426 a day, per violation, and EPA comes after the contractor as well as the building owner.
42 U.S.C. 7413(b); 40 CFR 19.4, Table 1, for penalties assessed on or after 8 January 2025
One thing this page is not
It is not legal advice. These are the published rules and our reading of them, written down so you can find them in one place and check them against the code. Your lawyer's reading is the one that counts, and the sections above are cited so that reading can start somewhere.