hi, am new to here - hope you dont mind my first post being a question.. we're looking at buying a house with some old chicken huts in the back garden. They're nissen-hut type shelters, about 6' tall and 20' long. They're made of what looks like corrugated concrete, but I wouldnt be surprised if they also contained asbestos.
If they do, will it cost be a fortune to get them taken out? How much should we negotiate off the price of the house? (there are 6 of them)
many thanks for the help mike
Its is likely to be asbestos cement.
If you have it done by "professional" asbestos removers they will charge you a considerable sum, it is the latest form of legalised robbery. If you do it yourself it will cost you next to nothing and is perfectly safe to do. Search for one of the many threads on this subject in the last year to find out the details. The best solution is the leave them be as long as the sheet is not powdering/fragmenting.
If I was the seller I'd take nothing off. They are harmless if left alone and harmless to remove.
If you take them down yourselves, they have to be disposed of at an authorised waste disposal dump...my local council dump takes them but insists they are double wrapped in at least 500 gauge polythene like Visqueen... the polythene will be your major expense...and gaffer tape.
A farmer up the road recently pulled down a large asbestos cement shed - it was around 400 square meters of sheet. If you priced up "professional" removal for an area that size, it would probably run into several 10s of thousands of pounds.
Surprisingly, this was not the method he employed. He used a large digger to pull the shed down, dug a big hole, and burried the lot.
While that may seem an awful thing to do - just think what happens if someone digs it up in 10 years time - I can see it from his point of view; paying for disposal was just not an option, and the shed was going to fall down if it wasn't pulled down.
I wonder how much the fine will be if the Environment Agency find out?
Well, yes, there is that. He seemed to think it's very common practice.
I'm not condoning his action - but at the same time I can see he was in a very difficult position. I personally hope he doesn't get fined, because he'd almost certainly lose his farm if that happened.
Makes corrugated iron roofs look very appealing - you can actually get a few quid per tonne for scrap iron.
Can you imagine what would have happened if he'd have tried to bury his herd of cows during the last foot and mouth epidemic by digging up this asbestos-ridden ground? He'd never have been able to set fire to the carcasses!
PoP
What do you really think most of the "authorised" removers do with harmless asbestos cement?
If you want an alternative perspective from where the stuff is very commonly used: Many houses, barns & sheds here are roofed in asbestos-reinforced corrugated cement sheeting. When it is removed for a new roof covering it is treated with virtual contempt. When it reaches the local council recycling yard it is thrown into a labelled container. I've yet to see even a simple dust mask worn by anyone in more than 5 years. Either in the yard or near the container. I took my own similar roof off myself and trailered it to the council yard and chucked it into the container with the wind behind me. Most don't even bother with that level of safety. The local kids were playing on a huge mound of the stuff taken off a farmhouse. Eventually a large lorry with a bucket grab on a small crane came and dumped it into the open lorry. Producing great clouds of dust. He didn't wear a mask either. If you really want to remove the sheets (perhaps to take the sheds down) and the council insists on expensive wrapping/handling. Then I would make a nice neat pile of the sheets (laid properly together, the right way up) in a quiet corner of your property somewhere and try to forget about them. They don't take up much room that way. BTW: Roofers here use an old spring mattress to toss the sheets down onto from the roof to save breaking them. You obviously need someone on the ground to lift the sheet off the mattress each time. Use gloves as the sheets are hard on the hands.
Chris
Well it does not reduce the level of responsibility for his grossly irresponsible behaviour.
Not for rusty galvanised though. Scrap prices are through the floor, even for good stuff.
-- Die Gotterspammerung - Junkmail of the Gods
A couple of years ago we pulled down several sheds, all of it rusty galvanised, and we got ~£4/tonne. We had 4x silage trailer loads. Didn't *quite* pay for the fuel cost to get it there.
That's about my only experience of selling iron, so maybe it was a fluke!
I hope nothing. Its his lungs, and once underground its back where it came from. It represents no threat to anyone, since its not poisonous in the accepted sense. The biggest danger in dust inhalation, and thats covered by burial.
What do you think the council does with it anyway?
You do sound a prat.
Asbestos is dangerous only to those exposed long term to the dust in mining processing and using it.
Asbestos was used extensively in car and other brakes for many many years, and those used to get blown out with compressed air on a regular basis. Anyone living in e.g. London in the 60's would be likely to have inhaled a few pounds of brake dust. I did, I am still here. There isn't a rash of silicosis amongst ex car mechanics either.
AND asbestos is a totally natural substance, dug out of the ground.
Perhaps you had rather better fine God, or Slartibartfast, for putting it there in the first place, rather than some poor farmer who is merely returning it to its original position.
Like Steve McQueen and Warren Zevon ? Both died of mesothelioma
-- Die Gotterspammerung - Junkmail of the Gods
Taken from
Taken from
and (which was taken from Penina Speigel's book but on same site)
"Steve had been peculiarly surrounded by asbestos all his life. It was often present in his place of work during his itinerant years when be picked up odd jobs-at construction sites, for example. Asbestos was used in the insulation of every modern ship built before 1976; it is found on sound stages, in the brake linings of race cars, and in the protective helmets and suits worn by race car drivers." (which was taken from Penina Speigel's book)
"Steve had been sentenced to six weeks in the brig. He spent the time assigned to a work detail in the hold of a ship, cleaning the engine room. The pipes were covered with asbestos linings, which the men ripped out and replaced. The air was so thick with asbestos particles, Steve told John Sturges, that the men could hardly breathe"
So - as he said - long term exposure.
D
But that isn't long term exposure in the same sense as someone who was a boilermaker all their working life. Both clearly died of asbestos exposure, as there's nothing else that causes mesothelioma. But to see that their (really pretty casual) exposure to it was enough to kill them indicates just how little exposure can trigger mesothelioma - unlike asbestosis.
I've also never seen an asbestos insulated race suit. Fireproof yes, but they're not meant to be an insulator (if it's hot, you get away from it). Any drivers from the '50s around here ?
-- Die Gotterspammerung - Junkmail of the Gods
Yes. Exposed long term using it. see below thoughtfully provided by someone else...
It is precielsy teh same - Steve worked and played around the stuff for years.
They are indeed insulators. Starngely, thats part of what 'fireproof' means - that things the oher side of 'fireproof' don't catch fire because they are - er - insulated?
The stuff modern suits are made of is broadly similar to a plumbers heat protection mat. It both doesn't burn, and insulates.
Racing in the USA has always used methanol - a particularly dangerous fuel since it burns witha clear flame and many drivers remained unaware they and their cars were on fire until rather too late for comfort. I suspect they used fireproofing somewhat earlier than the UK racing scene.
The very fine, and the large dust is not dangerous, its the in-between size bits, that get stuck in your insides. Despite what others have said I would take reasonable precautions, overalls, masks, gloves etc ....
Personally I would get a quote from someone, and them try it on with the seller. I would not admit to anyone official that this stuff is there, just incase they made you pay for it to be done correctly at some time in the future.
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