Asbestos Cement Watertank

[charles]

In our previous house, I hired an industrial quality jig saw and chopped up the old tank into pieces small enough to go through the hatch.

[newshound]

For quite a long time after the general ban MOD had a derogation to use it on the brakes of (I think) the Challenger tank. It's quite true that you can replace it with other materials (I am thinking of the carbon brakes on F1 cars) but *not* necessarily on the same geometry. I once worked on some industrial centrifugal clutches that would only tolerate one fault condition with asbestos linings. Asbestos has a relatively high friction coefficient and, while there are alternative materials, these would not survive the fault condition (which took the drum up to a dull red heat). We were able to keep the plant on-line by improving maintenance, which prevented the fault condition from arising.

[Robin]

I did much the same in 1979 but with a B&D drill with a jigsaw attachment. But I'm not sure any of us were ever the same afterwards.

[charles]

In my case, it was few years earlier - we moved in 1977. So, I've had longer to recover.

[David Reid]

Just wanted to say we got the tank out of the loft in one piece. With changing the loft hatch over fairly recently and with the old hatch removed giving enough space (65cm3) to lower the tank intact we decide this would be the safest option seeing as the tank was in excellent condition posing no real danger in its current state. Purchased a BIG bag asbestos kit allowing us to wrap the tank in two high grade poly bags and then a strong hippo style "asbestos warning" outer bag. Then it was just a case of safely tying a rope to get the weight even and then another to give enough length to lower it down for a safe landing. Got to admit it was a little nerve wrecking sending that thing out over the edge but went really well and hopefully get a free collection at some point to be rid of it for good.

Anyway just thought I would update. Now onto my next problem. :P