The discovery of asbestos in the flooring of the City Council chambers at Honolulu Hale may have upped the price tag and stalled completion of the historic room’s first major face-lift in roughly four decades, but work has begun anew.

And while it’s a simple, $141,000, no-frills renovation project, Council Chairman Ernie Martin’s office is hoping to see a big improvement.

"The renovations were sorely needed," said Laura Figueira, Martin’s executive assistant. City Hall veterans estimate no improvements had been made to the chambers for at least four decades.

The carpet was faded and the metal shells of the auditoriumlike seats were starting to rust. Hunter green, velvet or velvetlike curtains that hung down from the tall ceiling along the glass doors of the mauka and makai sides of the building had become so ragged over the last two decades that they have been removed, leaving just a see-through liner.

The original contract issued to Bauske Environmental Inc. called for replacing the 128 auditorium-style seats, putting in new "industrial grade" ilima-yellow carpenting, upgrading the room’s electrical and audio-visual cable capabilities to 2014 standards, improving drainage along the mauka windows, updating light fixtures, treating the koa paneling and pillars along the walls for termites, refurbishing the fiberglass city seal, restoring the koa desks of Council members and staff members, and putting on a fresh coat of paint, Figueira said. The new curtains will be a standard beige color with liner.

"We went budget," Figueira said. "We didn’t go high-end."

Scheduled to last 45 days, the project was halted almost immediately after it started March 10 when asbestos was found during the removal of the floor tiling, said Chris Takashige, the city’s director of design and construction.

"So we’ve got to remediate first and then continue with the original project," Takashige said. "A lot of the old tile work in a lot of the old buildings are asbestos, so we’re just remediating where we can."

The extra work is adding about $52,000 to the overall price tag of the project, under an expedited bid contract issued to Unitek, Taka­shige said. There may be additional environmental costs tied to the asbestos depending on what the post-remediation tests show, he said.

As of Monday, the remediation work was nearly done and the framing, electrical and drywall work that was part of the original contract had begun, Takashige said. Flooring work is expected to begin next week, with further electrical work scheduled to follow, and then painting, carpeting and furniture, he said.

That will take the project’s completion date to the end of June, about two months longer than originally anticipated.

Martin’s office had originally scheduled meetings to be held outside of the regular chambers for three months — at the University of Hawaii-West Oahu campus in March, the Mission Memorial Auditorium next to Honolulu Hale on Wednesday, and Kapolei Hale on May 7. It will now need to relocate the June meeting, which isn’t a major inconvenience, Figueira said.

"We have contingency plans," she said.

Asbestos was used commonly in old-style tile flooring and generally is not a health issue, Takashige said.

"It comes up pretty regularly," he said. "Asbestos is not dangerous unless it becomes friable (or broken into particle pieces)."

Typically, homes and businesses put carpet over the tiling, a process called "encapsulation."

"It’s just that when we lifted up the carpet now, we decided to remediate, go take it out, before we put in any new carpeting," Takashige said.

Council staff members working in offices next to the chambers were told to work elsewhere the day the asbestos was found, but allowed to return the next day.

Those working on the construction site have been wearing safety gear.

Honolulu Hale was placed on the Hawaii Register of Historic Places in 1975 and the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. The chambers were part of the original building dedicated in 1929, according to a pamphlet commemorating the building’s 50th anniversary in 1979. The pamphlet was written by longtime city official Carol Costa.

The land for the structure was purchased from several owners for $243,791 in 1925, the pamphlet said, while the Territorial Legislature approved $750,000 for construction in 1927.

Ground was broken for the California-Spanish style building on Aug. 14, 1928, under then-Mayor Charles Arnold. The Board of Supervisors held its first meeting in the chambers on Dec. 17, 1929.

Einar Peterson, a Los Angeles artist, painted frescos in the lobby, courtyard and Council chambers, the pamphlet said. While the lobby and courtyard featured traditional southwestern U.S. designs, the Council chambers’ frescos depicted Native Hawaiians at work and play.

The frescos are being left untouched during the renovation.

Less than a decade after the original building was occupied, Honolulu officials began talking about an expansion that would increase the size of the building, primarily upward and along the mauka side, by about 200 percent.

At one time, the two sides of the public viewing area of the chambers also had balconies that have since been converted to badly needed Council staff offices. The possibility of restoring those balconies was discussed and nixed very early on due to cost and logistical considerations.

Discussion about renovations of the deteriorating interior of the chambers began shortly after Martin became chairman in June 2011, Figueira said. While previous Council leaders had discussed the idea of renovating the chambers, fiscal austerity and political realities stepped in the way, she said.

There are also efforts afoot to address other portions of the building.

Once the chambers renovation is finished, the committee room "is another thing that needs to be tackled," Figueira said. "It’s being discussed."

Council Budget Chairwoman Ann Kobayashi, who served on the Council in the early 2000s, said she has sought renovations to the Council’s other spaces for more than a decade.

"It was in terrible shape then," she said.

Kobayashi said she’s worried about exposure to asbestos and mold, especially in the second-floor offices of Council members and their staff. City officials have told her that carpet can’t be removed because of asbestos concerns.

Money for the current project is part of a $1 million allocation the Council put in its current year budget for general Council space renovations.