I have an old’ish concrete sectional garage full of clutter and bikes.
The roof is constructed from corrugated roof sheets, probably asbestos cement.
Now I understand these things are fairly inert if left undisturbed but I need a new roof so I am getting some pre-insulated steel panels, each one the entire length of the garage so hopefully no more leaks.
I am not planning on removing the old ones myself and I have had a couple of quotes from sectional garage companies who can offer this refurb.
However, a quick google suggests that the area should be plastic lined and all contents well away to stop the fibres hanging around and be disposed of entirely.
Now, from the price quoted I can’t see them doing that so are they intending leaving me a death trap (in 30 odd years)?
I was thinking of asking them for a full method statement for how they intend to work so what should I expect, as a minimum safe method.

You can remove asbestos DIY safely if you do it properly. Worst case scenario is you get someone in, who either doesn’t know or care and they smash them up and shove in the back of a lorry, liberally spreading asbestos dust all over your property….

PDF on how to remove it here: http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/guidance/a14.pdf

The main precaution is to wait till it is dark before you dump it in a layby. 🙂

The worry is that any bad workmanship might only reveal itself in 30 years time. I’m presuming that companies that refurb/remove these must have an asbestos license?

Ours were removed by the roofers – sprayed them to minimise dust, currently wrapped in plastic sheeting in the garden waiting fo me to get enough sheeting and a long enough vehicle to get them taken down to the local council tip, who will take them if double wrapped in heavy duty plastic.

Sorry to butt in, I have the same problem…asbestos cement roof, most of which has become porous so I have rows of droplets under each channel 🙁 Only took 10 days in my new place before the problem showed itself.

What are these insulated panels you are looking at? Got a link? They sound perfect as long term I’d like to add a few courses of bricks to increase the height, so its a bonus if I can put a new roof on now, and then remove it temporarily when I do the brickwork…

Hoping to turn it into an overhanging roof so I can season/store firewood under the overhang!

Edit: Just read on a website that the HSE are likely to make removal of low risk asbestos roofing ‘notifiable work’ sometime during 2012, I guess that didn’t happen as I was under the impression you could still double wrap it and take it to a tip with the right facilities.

sort of like this, but less insulation thickness on the garage roof version.
I was warned against a single steel skin as it causes condensation problems and is noisy in the rain.
The other option is single skin with aftermarket insulation between the joists.

http://www.rollaclad.com/insulated-box-profile-roofing-sheets.html

I have a mate in the insulation business who might be able to arrange for a loosely lashed load to pass by my drive!!

This is exactly the next job I’m specing at home. My plan so far is, remove old sheets using bolt cutters, spraying them all with watered down PVA, double bagging them in these http://polystar.co.uk/store/Asbestos-bags/prod_3.html then disposing of them 10 sheets at a time in our local council tip. Fit a new roof deck using osb3 18mm then fit either Coroline or Onduline bitumen sheeting panels. Then get king span seconds from http://www.secondsandco.co.uk to insulate the roof then batten the damp single skin walls and fit the insulation and plasterboard the lot.

Those prices from roll clad look OK but as soon as you add the insulation they get expensive.

Mmm, think I have this straight in my head unless I can find those sheets somewhere cheaper.

Did our garage roof a couple of years ago, in terms of danger, you’ll be fine as long as you stick to precautions and don’t do anything daft. It was summer so we chucked the contents of the garage on the drive while we did it.

As long as it’s double-bagged the council tip will take it, you’ll need to book with them to drop it off though and if it’s like ours you may have to check the sheet limit per visit.

Your lucky your local tip will take it, ours won’t, so I’m looking at £700 for a skip!

If your laying exterior grade OSB would it not be cheaper to felt the roof or even EPDM? I ask as I need to fit a complete garage roof soon.

As long as it’s double-bagged the council tip will take it, you’ll need to book with them to drop it off though

My experience with my local council is that a) it has to be double-bagged with their provided bags, and b) no pre-booking was necessary. I’d guess it’s council / tip specific.

Our local council tip (recycling centre) will take asbestos as long as it’s bagged, or ideally wrapped in plastic. You need to let them know when you get there and put it in a dedicated enclosed hopper.

Composite panels is what they’re known as in the trade. 2 skins of profiled steel with rigid insulation on the inside. Loads of different makes, search Kingspan composite and I’m sure you’ll find plenty of local stockists. As for removing the sheet it really isn’t that complex. Usually cut off the u bolts with crops then lift the whole panel away. Iif doing it properly lads should be wearing disposable paper suits and fffp3 dust masks.
If they fire up the grinder or hammers then you’ll have issues!

A couple of points to consider
1 Is the roof asbestos ? Local councils often have a local lab where samples can be taken to be tested, this usually costs £14 – £22 per sample. Often garage roofs in very bad condition ie splits along the valleys are not asbestos cement based.

2 If you or anyone else is going to remove the sheets then spray with a PVA solution and continue to do so as the sheet is removed paying attention to the overlap

Qwerty, know what you mean about felting or EPDM but I have zero experience of doing either of these. I could give the EPDM route a go but the kit alone would be about 650 and wouldn’t have a clue where to start with felting.

Of course will buy a cheap P3 mask and use disposable coverall and store everything currently in the garage in the tent out back. This place sells kits,http://www.online-buildingproducts.co.uk/c/287596/1/garage-roof-kits.html

Me, removing the shed roof two summers ago:

(I was wearing a mask and had sprayed water around, honest!)

I’ve just got rid of my old (40 yrs+) garage in preparation for a new man cave 🙂

I’m in Leicestershire and there are 5 tips in the county which take cement bonded asbestos, you need to apply for a permit but they don’t require the sheets to be wrapped if they are more or less unbroken.

We damped down the panels inside and out and eased the nails out using pry bars and blocks of wood to spread the load. It took two of us half a day to do being very careful, I had been quoted around £800 for it to be professionally removed.