There is asbestos in the basement of our building. The building management has got a quote for removal but it seems quite exorbitant to me but I don’t know what the key questions I need to ask are. Apart from just getting quotes from different companies is there anything I need to know? Any experts in the house?

It will depend on what asbestos and material it is, how much there is and whether its non-licenced asbestos (ie floor tiles, cement, gaskets) or licenced asbestos (insulation material, insulating board materials etc).

Definitely worth getting a number of quotes in as prices can vary widely in the asbestos industry.

What type of asbestos has been discovered? Where is it?
Some installations can be left and marked if unbroken or sealed in. (Concrete boarding for first type, floor tiles for second type).
If it is an unsafe install, asbestos fibre board ceiling for example, that’s a full negative pressure enclosure strip out and decontamination job. It will be expensive. (Make sure the operatives are using the cleaning facilities supplied for them or else they’ll move the problem around).

Thanks folks – as always STW is the ultimate fount of wisdom!

Time for some thread resurrection.

We want/need our kitchen floor tiled. We previously whacked some laminate down on top of some pretty horrific looking Lino.

The laminate is now up. Under the Lino there are some old tiles and in a few places some even older Lino.

This has all been tested. The ‘new’ Lino is fine, but the old tiles and old Lino (including the ‘paper’ backing) contain Chrysotile. 🙁

Now, we have some options. One is to remove the ‘new’ Lino and tile over, but that’s bound to disturb the old tiles / lino. Which leads us to option two which is to get it removed by a specialist.

The area is approx 3.7m x 2.3m. Does anyone have any idea what sort of cost we are looking at for when the quotes come in? We’re in the SE (Essex) if it makes any difference.

Thanks