Hi,
I have a pitched roof garage built during late 80's. I want to replace soffits and fascias with UPVC. The fascias are painted wood and soffits are an asbestos like board. I have heard that these are likely to be 'Asbestolux' It is smothish one side, dimpled on the other and nailed into position.
My questions are.
How can I tell if it is asbestolux ? Is it dangerous to remove ? Could it be asbestos ?
Any answers gratefully recieved. Cheers Stu
Never heard of this but it sounds the same as loads of us have on our homes. I am looking at acres of it on garages and roofs.
Not really, but the rule is leave it alone if it isn't causing any trouble. I am going to remove mine in the summer because it is degrading. Pick a very still day to avoid sharing the dust with neighbours. Remove it by removing the fixings, avoid cutting and drilling it, breaking it is better if you have to. Wear a decent face mask, remove your working clothes outside, and shower immediately to remove any dust in your hair.
If you have a semi, you will have to cut it on the join with your neighbour. Ask them to join with you in removing it so it all goes.
Before you do anything, find out if your council tip accepts it and in what form. Their response varies from "chuck it in the bin mate", to "Oh my God! ASBESTOS RUN FOR YOUR LIVES".
Then, to be honest, you are probably not the best to judge. Asbestolux was a trade name, but quite often used as a generic term, like biro.
Have a look here:
And neither are you. I have lived with the stuff for 30 years, freaked out over it when the scares started, investigated the situation in great depth, and formed plans of action that agree with the best informed opinion available, (including the ones that I trust in here).
Trade names are immaterial, but thanks for the link, I will digest it in due course.
The OP asked for advice, I consider myself an expert, having been there, and on previous performance, he was unlikely to get much of a response beyond "google, it's been done to death many times".
He came for an answer, and was provided with one. I naturally expected to get kicked to death as a result. The resulting replies are for the OP to consider and make whatever use of he wishes.
:))
And you haven't heard of Asbestolux?
Goody! Now we can play "Last Word".
Over to you.
It is concrete asbestos and pretty safe in the scheme of things. Our council lets us dismantle and dispose of it ourselves FOC by taking it somewhere by appointment!
-- Mike W
As a precaution 'encapsulate' it with a coat of PVA adhesive watered down.
I don't really know what goes into Asbestolux, so I don't know how dangerous it is. The name seems quite indicative though. I've worked in places where it was used as an alternative to traditional asbestos sheets. When I was some way past the usual apprenticeship age, I decided I wanted to be a carpenter/joiner, so I went to the tech college on a course and looked for a joinery related job to get some experience. There was a well known pottery that needed a temp "joiner's mate", so I applied. When I got there I was surprised to find several joiners with a full complement of mates, hanging around with little to do. Next day I was told that the new lab needed to have an Asbestolux ceiling installed and that I was the boy for the job. All the cutting lifting and nailing in place of the sheets was done in situ by me alone. Some managers and building maintenance staff would occasionally put their heads quickly around the door to check on progress and then disappear again fast. Just over a week later, when the job was finished, the management suddenly realised that there were already far too many joiners and mates and told me that my temp job had come to an end. In retrospect I guessed that there were some people who weren't too keen on working with Asbestolux, no matter what it's made from. :-)
On the site previously mentioned (alc.org.uk) and others, Asbestolux is listed as containing up to 30% brown asbestos, a form of asbestos considered more dangerous than white asbestos.
Thanks for all your help ! I think I'll leave it in place and clad over it now ;-)
The message from "Bookworm" contains these words:
Or any old paint you have lying about.
Asbestolux is a softish low density board used for fire protection and heat insulation. It wouldn't have been used for this application and wouldn't have been available in the 1980's.
You have fully compressed flat sheet - a hard asbestos cement sheet about 5mm thick. It contains about 10% chrysotile and is pretty harmless.
If it is a soft board it might be (but the dates are completely wrong). If it is a very hard board (it almost feels like metal sheet if tapped) it is asbestos cement board.
No.
It could, in asbestos cement form.
I was using it in 1975, so did it go out of production during the
1980's for some reason?
Rather confusingly it is still available - but now in an asbestos free formulation. Import of Brown asbestos effectively stopped in
1980 and became illegal in 1986 (including products containing it) so it is most unlikely a late 1980's house would contain the brown asbestos "Asbestolux" board. It isn't the sort of board which would have been used in this sort of application in any case.
That's true, I've come across the rigid sheet stuff that's dimpled on one side quite a lot when repairing soffits. It's definitely not Asbestolux.
I was a bit confused by that. I had alway thought that asbestolux was a hard asbestos cement type of material - often found on property exteriors as soffits etc.
The description given there however suggests it is a low density fiberous material (i.e. like an insulating board like used for ceiling tiles etc)
Which is correct?
Which probably answers the question I just posted higher up the thread! (note to self, must read the whole thread first!)
It's half hard, say much the same as MDF.
replying to GG, rolfens wrote: Asbestos fibers can be very small (mostly invisible) and the amount of exposure to a particular size and type of these fibers is directly related to a cancer decades later, with a very poor prognosis. You can sample and test it to know for sure. Whatever you do be very careful and educate yourself first.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.