I would have thought I’m fine to crack on but no harm in asking. I want to drill into the soffits above the garage door to fit lights but the board appears to be some sort of man made material. House was built in 1998 by a relatively upmarket estate builder FWIW

immediate horrific death or crack on??

immediate horrific death or crack on??

Crack on and see how you feel in 30 – 40 years

Can you ask the house builder?

EDIT: There will be an asbestos testing lab near you somewhere. Send them a sample (they’ll let you know how to do it safely) and then you’ll know for sure. Quite cheap if you extract the sample yourself

Late 60’s, early 70’s I think. Anything put up in 1998 would be fine.

EDIT: A quick google confirmed robdob’s reply below. Having worked in house building since 1991 I don’t recall ever using any acms in modern houses.

Asbestos wasn’t banned completely until 1999 so there’s always a chance you could find it in a house that new but obviously much less likely than an older house.

You’ll never get immediate death from asbestosis anyway, it’s normally a horrific slow painful asphyxiation 20 years later.

Looks like Asbestolux, an replacement for Asbestos, which along with Artex for instance contains small amounts of Asbestos, if your planning drilling you need to ensure that no dust is produced.

At my place we had a “new” prefab garage installed in 2000, but it was manufactured in 1999. It had asbestos in the roofing sheets

Damp it down with a squirty bottle of water as you drill and just take your time and also were a dust mask and you’ll be fine

It’s more asbestos exposure over time from lagging that’s the problem rather asbestos boarding.

Well I’m glad I asked. I was planning to bore holes for downlights into it which will certainly create dust. I’ll investigate getting a sample tested

My guess is that it is Supalux which is an asbestos free material used in many applications where asbestos would have been used. Having worked in construction for over 30 years I can only remember using Supalux. By all means, get a sample tested.

It’s probably Supalux, not Asbestolux as this is asbestos. To check if its Supalux and asbetsos free shine a torch on it and it will glisten. Alternatively it possibly could be an asbestos cement based product.

P

Just get it tested and ignore dangerous nonsense from the likes of cannondaleking

We got a few bits tested before doing DIY in our house and it was £25 a sample with a 48hr turnaround so no reason not to get it tested

Yeah, ignore advice just to crack on. Get it rested.

They stopped using asbestos in the late 70s, but it was still used to a lesser extent into the early 80s.

The HSE have a decent bit on their website on asbestos, including advice for homeowners undertaking ‘minor works.’ Linky

I’d either treat it as asbestos, so get a disposable suit, proper mask (FP3 and make sure you’re clean shaven and it fits properly), and damp down, or for even more piece of mind, get a sample away for testing.

I’m currently working on a massive site contaminated with incredibly low (<0.1%) levels of asbestos in the ground, however everyone has to be suited, booted & masked – in my mind it’s not worth the risk for a tiny bit of inconvenience.

Around 1.5 million tons of asbestos is still being mined each year, mostly in Russia but also in China and Brazil; does make you wonder what its being used for, and where its ending up. Was involved in a small research project a couple of years ago looking at construction materials being used in Laos and parts of NW Vietnam; samples collected from new-from-the-factory-in-China corrugated roofing sheets contained asbestos, and the locals who were using the sheets were blissfully ignorant of the risks.

It’s probably Supalux, not Asbestolux as this is asbestos. To check if its Supalux and asbetsos free shine a torch on it and it will glisten. Alternatively it possibly could be an asbestos cement based product.

It does sparkle under torch light

It does sparkle under torch light

Well that’s fine then. 😯 Crack on. They’re your lungs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesothelioma

A bit of outdoor work on asbestos won’t do you any harm. I bet the radon inside your house is a higher cancer risk, as is the bacon butty you’ll have when you finish. Honestly, the paranoia over this is bizarre. It’s an industrial disease of people who work with the stuff day in day out. Or rather, people who used to work with it day in day out, in dusty environments, before the danger was understood.

A bit of outdoor work on asbestos won’t do you any harm. I bet the radon inside your house is a higher cancer risk, as is the bacon butty you’ll have when you finish. Honestly, the paranoia over this is bizarre. It’s an industrial disease of people who work with the stuff day in day out. Or rather, people who used to work with it day in day out, in dusty environments, before the danger was understood.

…..tell that to the guy I met in hospital who was a steward on the QE2 and hung his white jacket on a coat hanger over the asbestos lagged pipe in his cabin.
Or the numerous women / children who inhaled the fibres from their husbands / dads overalls when he came home from work at night.

Aw wait a minute, You can’t tell them. They’re all dead.

There’ll still be people dying 30 years from now from minimal exposure in supposedly safe environments, 60 years after the “danger was understood” because they took advice from strangers on the internet, shone a torch on their sparkly board and then attacked it with a drill.
It’s banned for a reason. It’s because it can kill you.

+1 percypanther

There is no conclusive proof that the effects of asbestos exposure are only as a result of repeated exposure. And plenty of the HSE advice is clearly based on single exposure risk – look at what they say about working on Asbestos Insulating Board (trade name: Asbestolux), which loads of houses have in their garage ceilings, boarding in boiler pipes and soffits….

Someone may have already have posted this but its useful:
http://www.hse.gov.uk/asbestos/

pp, that’s not minimal exposure, that is precisely the sort of long-term regular exposure that is well known (now) to be dangerous. The OP was talking about a one-off bit of work, outdoors. Consider the risks of a regular smoker vs someone who once had a fag (which I imagine most of us have done, pure tobacco or otherwise…).

If you are happy taking the sample we use a lab called Chemtest for all this sort of thing. Alternatively you can have a firm come out- we use Redhills or Ideal Asbestos Consultants.

pp, that’s not minimal exposure

It’s exposure though. Every Asbestos course i’ve ever been on (and there have been a fair few over the last 20 years working exclusivly on refurbishment projects in the construction industry, at least one Asbestos awareness each year plus Duty to manage asbestos every 3 years) have included a variant of the following sentence “Even a single fibre has the potential to kill you”.

but, as previously stated, they ain’t my lungs. So fill yer boots.

The bloke who taught my last asbestos course had been in the MOD since before legislation came in and has been involved at a high level for decades in asbestos work. He was saying that we have already seen the peak of deaths from people who manufactured and installed asbestos products. He said that research suggests that in the next 10-15 years we will start seeing people dying (Slowly and painfully) from asbestos exposure who were the sort of people who removed and disposed of it (incorrectly). That could be builders/demolition experts but also DIY work renovating houses. He said the research suggests that the amount of deaths from this group of people is likely to be a lot more than the people who manufactured/installed it as there as so many more people doing it with very little or no understanding of the dangers of it, not using the correct procedures to handle/dispose of it or even much knowledge of how to spot it in the first place.

We were shown pictures of all the items you can find asbestos in and it scared me witless to be honest. I’m no doom merchant either.

The bloke who taught my last asbestos course had been in the MOD

Asbestos is very serious and everything but I have experience of this type of chap and wonder- where do they find all these Steve Coogan style characters to do asbestos courses? They’re very difficult to take seriously when they seem like a parody!

I plan on doing some DIY that may involve asbestos this weekend, got to remove some artex which may or may not have asbestos in it. First attempt will be to use a steamer to remove it, otherwise the whole ceiling will be coming down. I simply plan on using a disposable suite, goggles and a half mask P3 respirator. The carpet in the room will be getting binned at the end of it all, lots of plastic bags to bag everything.
Damp rags to wipe all the walls after, and the steamer will be left going anyway to keep the room humid.

Why not get the Artex skimmed with plaster? Less risk and less mess. Had it done in our bedroom and result is good.

My ’75 built house and attached garage was lined with insulation boards which sparkled. Three builders told me it was probably not asbestos but probably supalux or similar because of that.

It was asbestos, the nasty stuff too – had it tested.

If in doubt, just get a really old bloke to drill it for you

Not even worth joking about.

I’ll certainly be getting it tested. Can anyone point me in the direction of a suitable service? Quite happy to take my own sample and double bag it.

I used these guys

Home

Fast service and a clear report

Why not get the Artex skimmed with plaster? Less risk and less mess. Had it done in our bedroom and result is good.

We had an artex ceiling which was repaired under insurance. The insurance chap who came out said they wouldn’t cover repairs done that way as the artex and plaster expand and contract (with temperature and humidity I guess) at different rates. Sometimes the new plaster then develops giant cracks and drops off.

(Our artex turned out to be free of asbestos).

mick_r – Member
Why not get the Artex skimmed with plaster? Less risk and less mess. Had it done in our bedroom and result is good.

Plasterboard over it is another way. Had that done in my kitchen. Very quick.

Got artex all over the house and not touched it. Didn’t know it could contain asbestos though. Good job I hadn’t decided to scrape the stuff off!

What’s loft insulation usually made of? The fibre looking stuff. My house is over 100 years old and loft has had insulation put up probably 60s or 70s. It’s falling down and gone black in places (I guess probably due to slate roof and moisture or the black soot that seeps into the house from the busy road outside). I do worry what the stuff is made of though. I guess just fibreglass but did they ever make the fluffy fibre kind of loft insulation out of anything more nasty? Even fibres from fibreglass I guess aren’t going to be good if breathed in.

I work in construction and just re-did my Asbestos Awareness training and to be honest, I’ve already forgotten a lot of the information that was discussed! But, as already mentioned in here as your house was built before 1999/2000 then there is the possibility it will contain asbestos containing materials (usually white asbestos, the blue and brown types stopped being used in the 80s/early 90s I believe).

To be honest, unless you’re planning on getting someone else to do the work, I’m not sure of the validity in getting a sample tested – if it comes back as an ACM does that mean you’re not going to drill it or will you go ahead any way but with some suitable controls in place?

ACM in recently built houses should be relatively inert as long as you don’t disturb them (drill, cut, scrape, etc.). Earlier houses may have lagging around pipes and in electrical boards that may have deteriorated, so I’d be much more cautious with this kind of thing.

As far as drilling is concerned, I saw someone had mentioned a face mask and also damping down the drill area – I’d only use a face mask if you’re sure you can get a good seal as the fibres are very fine and could get through any gap between your skin and the mask – make sure it fits perfectly basically. Also, I can’t remember whether they fibres can be absorbed in other ways and if this can cause a problem (maybe not on the lungs, but elsewhere) so I’d double check that as well.

Also, your average domestic vacuum cleaner won’t be fitted with suitable filters to contain the fibres and if you’re using a bag, the problem is still there when you empty the bag and residual fibres in the machine for exposure another time.

As mentioned, it won’t affect you today, but it could affect you in 20 – 30yrs time or later and I’ve heard it’s horrendous so I wouldn’t be gungho about it now for the sake of a little prep work up front. This isn’t the HSE nanny state mentality, it’s just about protecting your health from a known hazard.

I’m sure google will help with suitable precautions for drilling as well. Damping down with a spray or similar will probably be one of the best ways to prevent airborne dust if you drill it slowly and have someone else spraying it, just don’t electrocute yourself!

Also, for people who smoke as well, that activity exacerbates the effects of breathing in asbestos fibres by about 50 fold, so I’d be even more careful drilling it if you smoke!

Sorry last post! My understanding is that you only have to be exposed to it once for the problem to arise in the future, it’s not one of these things you need to be repeatedly exposed to for it do you harm. Someone linked the HSE page on here, I’d check it out, should offer some sound advice, not the musings of the internet crowd!!

Of course, for balance, there’s no telling how many lives have been saved from the flame retardant benefits of asbestos. I bet it’s far and away higher than lives lost through asbestos related disease.

And from my understanding, yes a single exposure to an asbestos fibre “could” be enough to give rise to pleural plaques, which are in themselves not dangerous, and less likely, methosliomia, in much the same was as a single benzene ring could give you lung cancer, from your first ever cigarette. But in repeated exposure to both, your risk soars. The analagy to winning the lottery isn’t totally unreasonable. You could win with one ticket. But with 1000, your chances are so much better.