Oh my word. My hands are shredded, ripped, tattered and very sore. 😐

Gloves?

don’t you have a dishwasher?

wankathon?

What a ponce you truly are. I hope Binners gives you a bitch-slap next time he sees you.

What have you been doing? Sorting out some paper?

Gloves? Wierdly I prefer without them. For that ‘real-feel’.

Just dissembled a large circa 70’s slate and mortar fireplace with a sledgehammer and flat-headed screwdriver (Chisel couldn’t quite get under and between the brick plinths to mortar to hammer the layer out)…in one sitting (an hour).

The neighbours must think I’m never going to stop banging and smashing 😆

With you there hora – never liked them and get looked at funny every time I say I don’t want to wear any. And I drive a TT – how much do you think I mosturise 🙂

What a ponce you truly are. I hope Binners gives you a bitch-slap next time he sees you

Funnily I bumped into him on my ride upto the house this evening and he forebode ‘dont bother, get thee to a hire place’ (and spend money on a drill).

**** that!

A whole hours work, good effort that man!

The neighbours must think I’m never going to stop banging

🙂 neighbours have the same problem at mine! 8)

Last week my hands were literally dripping with bloody from removing 6inch nails holding box-section alcoving (plastered in), fitted cupboards (with 6 inch nails again) and the firmest-fitted wadrobes that I’ve ever seen.

Have you heard of such a thing as a crowbar? 😆

Some of its super70’s mdf that flexes like crazy! 😆

There was no mdf in the 70’s.

Your right- its chipboard with one laminate sandwich on both sides.

it was probably asbestos, say goodbye to your lungs in about 20 years 😉

Sneaking suspicion actually.

The mantle was made up of a Wire cage with two pieces of bridging planks of wood with the the wire cage rolled over/around it and filled with what looks like lumps of concrete (feels and crumbles like concrete) – before this point though I had donned a mask for the dust.

It’d make sense using asbestos in the mantle wouldn’t it- to avoid heating up the mantle surface to the touch/ornaments?

I think I’ll take council advice on a piece of it. Its too late for a removal team anyway- its already out.

disposal will be expensive though you “might not” want to report it 😉

FFS. The alcoving I smashed out- I thought it was mainly plasterboard/cheap wood with plaster.

However that could have included…..? Looks like it was put up in the 80’s. As it looked like plasterboard I didn’t give it a thought- can’t remember if I wore a mask at that point.

you can pretty much tell plasterboard from asbestos, if it looked like plasterboard it probably was, you have to inhale it over many weeks/years etc for it to be really harmful, i’d not worry

Yes – there were two pieces of plasterboard circa 1/2m square within the two alcoves as false ceilings. I had to ram the sledgehammer upwards to punch a hole/loosen the wooden frame above then yank down with a claw hammer. I had to be directly underneath to see but I’m *sure* I used a mask (not 100% though as the mask was misting up my glasses).

So depending on the type – that was my exposure along with the sweeping up. Great.

Its not beyond the realms of possibility that a fireplace is constructed partly with asbestos.

No point worrying about it now. If it was asbestos, the damage will have been done. Unless you had a face fitted P3 spec particulate mask, you may as well have not bothered with a mask at all.

Your room is likely to be festooned with asbestos fibres (if it was asbestos). Best thing you can do to limit exposure to your family is open all the windows and beat everything to lift the fibres and hope the wind takes most of it out. Although, to be sure you’d have to spend alot of money on a cleanup team, or chuck all your possessions in that room out.

Hora eh? 😯 🙄

Its a totally empty room. As in no wallpaper, carpet/textiles- nothing. The house isn’t inhabited yet either.

I am now getting psychosomatic symptoms (cough). 😐

well, thats one good thing.

If you’re worried, swab all surfaces of the room with a damp cloth. Rinse it in a bucket of water frequently to prevent build up, and don’t let the rag dry out.

Oh, and change your clothes asap. Put the potentially contaminated ones in a plastic bag and put them in the wash by themselves on the longest cycle you can find. You’ll also need a long shower.

Thats a point, I’ve been using an old cycling top (left at the house) to wear over my tshirts whilst working. I’ll bin it.

Why not just put your mind at rest by getting a reputable builder in to determine what you have.

Why not just put your mind at rest by getting a reputable builder in to determine what you have.

Thats alittle too late sadly.

Going forward structural stuff will be done by the professionals.