Good Morning.
My new house has a garage with a corrugated asbestos roof. A new roof has been placed over the top of it so the asbestos is not subject to degradation by the elements, however it is still ‘open’ inside the garage. In general it appears to be in good condition but in a few areas it is starting to deteriorate and it is flaking.
How dangerous are we looking at here?
I know that in stable asbestos cement its not as dangerous as one might initially think. I’m thinking of getting a specialist company to look at it but I assume they will advise me to remove it.
Does anyone have any expedience of this, can the flaky bits be sprayed to stabilize them? Or is it really a case of bite the bullet and get it removed, anyone an idea of rough costs?

We got ours removed. It had a hole in it, was otherwise stable and safe, but something had to be done with it. In the long term, removing it now saved a future potential buyer being put off buying the house in the future, and I guess the cost of removing and disposing of it will only go up.

Luckily, the roofers removed it in intact panels and double wrapped it for us. Unfortunately, the panels were too big to be disposed of at the local tip, so we had the option of breaking it up into smaller pieces (d’oh!) or getting a proper contractor to take it away for disposal, which only cost us a couple of hundred quid.

The victims of this disease were employed in actually manufacturing asbestos from the fibre into solid products – sheeting etc.
There was no health and safety. There was no dust extraction used. Every surface was inches deep in the finest of airborne particles.
The workers breathed that in day in and day out, likely 8-12 hour shifts.

Finishing- And i know as ive worked in furniture workshops without any and its in your hair, eyebrows, beard cloths, shoes etc.
That was what the asbestos workers were working in. A constant stoor. You’d be patting dust off your cloths and hair upon leaving.
It would go home with you and contaminate all the soft furnishings, with the inefficient hoover making sure it all stayed airborne.

Breaking some pre made sheeting into chunks isnt going to harm you in the slightest. Its’s just the fervour about it, but not actually taking into account the years those affected worked in dust clouds.
Only problem you have because of this hysteria is disposing of it. Everyone wants too much money to dispose of it legally.

Keep a bit of it as it is fireproof and handy to place things on when you’ve the blowtorch out.

I know a chap who got mesothelioma and died from very low exposure to asbestos. If you are unlucky one fibre can do it

He got it from dragging cables thru a duct. Thats all he did.

The victims of this disease were employed in actually manufacturing asbestos from the fibre into solid products – sheeting etc.
There was no health and safety. There was no dust extraction used. Every surface was inches deep in the finest of airborne particles.
The workers breathed that in day in and day out, likely 8-12 hour shifts.

Finishing- And i know as ive worked in furniture workshops without any and its in your hair, eyebrows, beard cloths, shoes etc.
That was what the asbestos workers were working in. A constant stoor. You’d be patting dust off your cloths and hair upon leaving.
It would go home with you and contaminate all the soft furnishings, with the inefficient hoover making sure it all stayed airborne.

Breaking some pre made sheeting into chunks isnt going to harm you in the slightest. Its’s just the fervour about it, but not actually taking into account the years those affected worked in dust clouds.
Only problem you have because of this hysteria is disposing of it. Everyone wants too much money to dispose of it legally.

Keep a bit of it as it is fireproof and handy to place things on when you’ve the blowtorch out.

Posted 16 minutes ago

This is totally the wrong way to look at it!
Asbestos bound with in cement boards isn’t inherently dangerous, but it still can be. Breaking in to “chunks” is dangerous and will get you a hefty fine from the hse even as a non commercial entity.

There are documented cases of people dying from just one exposure to asbestos. Having said that asbestos cement board if one of the safer varieties.
But you won’t know for certain for maybe thirty years…

Did asbestos training many years ago when carrying out repairs on a council’s housing stock and they said corrugated roof sheets were made of white asbestos which is safe to handle. Something to do with the fibres not having any barbs??

It’s the least dangerous type to handle rather than safest, if that makes sense? PF3 mask, coveralls and gloves rather than full air fed mask,decontamination booth etc…

Its still capable of being hazardous especially if broken although when in good condition it ‘should’ be absolutely fine to handle with the relevant precautions.

Tou May never be affected by it, you may end up screwed after one exposure and you’ll not know for years. Up to you but I’d play it safe myself…

Nothing like an STW asbestos thread to bring out the ill-informed bullshit.

The only way to know how to dispose of it safely is to first know what it actually is.

Get it surveyed and tested by a licensed asbestos company. It’s not expensive.

The results of that survey will determine how it needs to be removed and disposed of.

Don’t rely on internet “experts”.

I wouldn’t remove it myself. I’ve had extensive asbestos management training and  watched too many people die of asbestos related illnesses to take a chance on it.

Get professional advice.

As Perchy says get it tested as the cost of this is quite low. Then form a plan. How much is your life worth to you and your dependents?

OP if you want to secure things while you wait spray PVA onto the flaking surface to secure any fibres. (Low pressure spray not compressed air).

Nothing like an STW asbestos thread to bring out the ill-informed bullshit.

Mine isn’t ill informed. Pretty accurate I’d say.

Just had a quote to remove internal asbestos roof panels in garage and was 3.3K. Temporary structure around garage door, internal cctv, pressurisation….

You can do online training to get yourself better informed we had to use ‘ ukata’for work.
get it tested for not too much then can find suitable contractors
Eskay that sounds a lot was it for a notifiable board or something and full containment

If it wasn’t licensed work they are having your pants down and going in dry 😳

We had the corrugated asbestos/cement roof removed from our small garage and replaced with a steel box section one for less than £1500. All done in a day by a company that does that sort of stuff for farm and industrial buildings and had realised that there are loads of domestic garages around here with failing asbestos roofs.

Apparently it is notifiable and that is why they have to have CCTV internally (so that HSE can inspect work if they turn up). Also needed washdown cubcile and some other gubbins. Really struggling to get anyone come out do do a comparative quote,

Hey there,

We had an asbestos garage in our last house. I read all the posts so far and intrigued. The garage is probably made from concrete asbestos. I actually removed mine myself and took it to the council tip directly. I did wear proper masks and actually spoke to the environmental health officer at the time who helped me identify it and inform me how to safely remove. You definitely do not break it up or such like and I damped it down before I even attempted to disassemble it, by undoing the bolts that held it together.

Check first for sure but I’d say but the concreted asbestos is pretty safe if handled with care.

JeZ

I’d take a sample and get it tested independently then. AIB yes we need to be careful, modifiable etc, standard crysolite cement bound board then no. If they’ve made the decision of positive pressure and full decontamination then the original quote sounds cheeeep. Spidey senses tingling a little bit on this one.

I had the board independently and it was identified as chrysotile amosile.

When he came around to look at the job he also said they need to drill out every hole that has had a nail in and vacuum as they drill to remove any material still in the joists.

Sounded like a lot of work but would still like a comparison quote.

When he came around to look at the job he also said they need to drill out every hole that has had a nail in

Would the installers have driven a nail through the asbestos sheet rather than through a hole in the sheet?

Would the installers have driven a nail <em class=”bbcode-em”>through the asbestos sheet rather than through a hole in the sheet?

Yes they would, although it’s more likely to have been screws than nails.

There are very few building materials that come pre drilled with holes in the right places.

If it was a relatively brittle asbestos board then they’d have drilled the holes on site and screwed through the holes, carrying the dust with them

chrysotile amosile

Isn’t that a mixture of white (Chrysotile) and brown (Amosite)? If so, nasty and I can see why you need it removed and the cost is seemingly high.

Hmmm this makes me think I should get my garage roof tested. Pretty sure its the corrugated asbestos stuff that is generally regarded as okay if left alone. The plan is to knock the lot down at some point when we extend.