Asbestos in extension (pics inside)

Manbatius

Manbatius

Manbatius

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Hi all,


Just wanting to get your opinions, we moved into our new place in December and one of the things that on the survey was asbestos in the garage (it’s an extension built in the 1970s).


The surveyor said, as a minimum the holes should be repaired with fire line boarding. He noted to us the room above seemed quite cold and it may benefit from being insulated if we plan on staying there a long time. To do this the current ceiling boards would need to come down and our quote to remove the asbestos and replace the fireboarding is £3500. (that doesn’t include insulation)

hole made for light
IizE86e.jpg


Can only just see the top left holes in the boxing, it looks like there was a pipe added here at some point (it runs to nothing though behind a bench)
ExmXXMs.jpg


Legendary lighting
FcZmjRX.jpg


Internal door
RFozXtQ.jpg


The room above is cool, but seems to partly be as its wood flooring, we have the thermostat in that room and set to 17.5 during the night. Less during the day, the heating does kick in during the night but not a lot (unlike our last place). I find it to warm during night in there!

So we are trying to work out If its worth doing, as the outlay is a lot and our other list of things to do is extensive. I was working in the garage the other week and the cold/ draught coming in from the garage door (I can see daylight) was quite bad, so it seemed silly to get the above done without perhaps looking into this as well.

Opinions on what others would do will be appreciated!


TLDR: would you pay £3500 to have this removed and add some insulation, or just leave it be.
 
You can remove it DIY but if not confident with that, get it removed and do the rest of the work DIY.
 
Board over the top and forget about it?
Take it down yourself and take to tip(use a proper mask) bit iffy if they inspect your rubbish at tip
Take door off and do above and replace with a proper fire door

If done in the 70`s it is PROBABLY not Asbestos but `masterboard` or similar.You can have this tested if you are still nervous
My option would be no1
 
ANDARIAL said:
Take it down yourself and take to tip(use a proper mask) bit iffy if they inspect your rubbish at tip
Bit of a ridiculous idea. Also not exactly fair dumping your crap on people who will be blissfully unaware. Then when other members of public start throwing their items on top of it and it all breaks up, they get to inhale some lovely asbestos too.

Sweet
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Click to expand...
 
Not quite what i was meaning,my fault for insufficient info :o
I should have said take it down,bag it and take to tip (and put it into `proper` bins ):o
 
Just remember that you have an obligation to protect any workmen, working on your property on your behalf. If you expose them to asbestos, knowingly, you are potentially liable. So any work, such as plumbing or electrical etc would be included in this. I would suggest that you have a professional asbestos company in to test the material. They will then advise what type of asbestos it is, amosite, crocidolite or chrysotile and how best to manage it, whether you should remove it or encapsulate it.
 
Looks like abestolux. I have same in 70s build.

I plan to frame around the edges, and put in cross beams resting on the edges, celotex behind and then plasterboard over... No point removing it unless it's damp and breaking down.
 
Thanks to the advice guys.

Regarding it being tested, the company we used did us no favours on this front.
They tested the kitchen ceiling which was fine, but just said the garage was asbestos, which the seller wouldn't believe without a test. We didn't have time to retest due to our sale.

Will likely board over it and forget, too much stuff in their at the moment, need loft boarding out before anything. Just needed info.

Sorry for the late reply, had one of those weeks at work and little one was not well, the replys are appreciated!
 
I note you are in the north east, there is an independent asbestos testing lab at the team valley that charges £80 to test a sample. They give you a bag to take a small sample and you get the results in a few days. Might be worth it to at least establish if it is asbestos.
 
Mark M said:
I note you are in the north east, there is an independent asbestos testing lab at the team valley that charges £80 to test a sample. They give you a bag to take a small sample and you get the results in a few days. Might be worth it to at least establish if it is asbestos.
Click to expand...

That is good to know, cheers, will likely do this team valleys not far.
 
Asbestos should not be taken lightly or done 'DIY' style. My grandad passed away from mesothelioma and it was a horrid illness that turned him into a living skeleton slowly being asphyxiated by his lungs unable to inflate due to the pleura turning thick, cancerous and non-elastic, as well as fluid filling up the chest cavity around his lungs.

Absolutely observe correct safety process for asbestos, get professionals in, and make sure they extract all the fibres from the garage once they're done.
 
Especially if the asbestos was accomodated in the purchase price, sound better to fix this, and the (unknown performance)insulation, fireboard integrity, and air-gap, as a priority.
 
Believe it or not, they even used to make asbestos filters for cigarettes - hell there was even a comic strip hero called ‘asbestos man’

Dreadful stuff - brilliant at doing what it was designed to do, but also brilliant at killing you.
 
Get rid of the door. Its going to be banged around and knocked and potentially release fibers all over the place. I would potentially gloss paint over the stuff in the garage to ensure the edge are sealed but I would leave it at that to be honest.
 
Asbestos should only be left in a property if you're not going to disturb it, for example we have it under our floors. If we have to do works that disturb it we have been advised to remove it, but putting down a new floor on top of the current stuff should not be an issue (it's under the floor boards is our place).

In your case - if you can board over it then your should be fine. If that door contains it - just get rid IMO

It's a fairly safe material unless your messing about with it - it's the dust and fibres it produces that are dangerous, as in very dangerous. Unless you cut or drill into it it's fine to leave. Complete removal is not a waste of money though - as when you sell the house it won't come up for the next purchaser.

Always use a licenced firm for asbestos removal - or make sure your contractor uses one
 
Lots of bad advice in this thread, if its insulating board then removing it will lead to a hell of a lot of breakages, spreading millions of fibres across your home (upto 25 million per cubic metre of air during poor removal techniques).

Get it tested to make sure of what it is, its impossible to tell from blurry pictures, if you can get a decent focused image of the broken section of the door it would be easier to identify. I would personally leave it in place, if you must insulate then just board over it (without drilling into it).
 
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