Asbestos removal costs?

[S Viemeister]

Not really d-i-y... We're doing a garage conversion. The old roof needs to be removed - it leaks and it contains asbestos. We've received two quotes, one for just over GBP1300, and the other for just under GBP3000.

It's a fairly large two-car garage, with a single-pitch corrugated roof.

The price spread seems extreme, with the higher one being more than twice the lower. We're in the far north of Scotland, so there aren't many properly licenced businesses to choose from. Both are in the same town, so there's no difference in travel time.

I have no idea what sort of price to expect - any comments from people here who've dealt with this?

[John Rumm]

Have you checked with skip hire places if they will take it?

[Andy Burns]

Asbestos, or asbestos cement sheet?

Last time I checked most waste tips will take the latter provided it's double-bagged, you might need a free permit

[nothanks]

It's most likely to be asbestos cement sheet, which most larger recycling centres will take providing that it's double-bagged (ironically the sharp corners always seem to poke through the bags but nobody cares), check the website and ask where the special skip is. If it *is* asbestos cement then it's a DIY job if you take sensible precautions (wet the sheet first, use a disposable mask and overalls, don't create dust) and have the means to take it to the recycling centre. There's lots of guidance on t'web, as well as people selling

1000 gauge bags.

[tabbypurr]

I'd expect a piss taking price like 1.3k or 3k. It's one reason we diy. DIYing it'll cost you petrol to the nearest tip & some rubbish bags.

NT

[newshound]

The lower price doesn't sound so bad to me. Remember that the contractor will have to pay a disposal charge as well. (Or at least, they would in England).

[Tim Lamb]

I skipped a barn roof of big six cement bonded asbestos. Long way South of you but there is a tip near Hitchin which is allowed to take the stuff.

If you can't get it gone through the domestic waste sites you could consider if a special skip hire would cost less than the quotes. As others have said, with sensible precautions, handling roofing is not dangerous.

[tabbypurr]

DIYing it'll cost you petrol to the nearest tip & some rubbish bags.

OK, I can come rip your garage roof off & drive down the dump in one day fo r £1300. I'll even bring a halfwit.

NT

[dennis]

ooh a wholewit doing the job.

[Brian Gaff]

Often it depends on what they themselves do with the stuff, Mostly its double bagged labelled and taken to an authorised disposal site which in itself can charge. I find it rather amusing that it is in fact buried, as there is no way to get rid of it. Obviously asbestos cement is not as dangerous as fibrous stuff used for lagging and fireproofing in the old days, often called blue asbestos When they did my garage, completely made of asbestos cement and steel girders, they did it on a damp day all workers wore some form of boiler suit and face masks and cleaned up the site with water and sucked up as much of the dust as possible. However I'm not aware that in reality, that the cement is really dangerous unless you start grinding it into dust or something else rather silly. I think the lower price or maybe a bit more is realistic down 'sarf' where I am, but one must make sure that the company is licensed to do this work so if things go wrong and its fly tipped or dumped badly, your name is not in the frame for it. Brian

[Martin Brown]

The lower of the two probably isn't all that outrageous if they are doing it safely. You only get a pair of lungs and dying of asbestosis or worse mesothelioma is extremely unpleasant. The risk from asbestos cement board is much less than from fibrous lagging but still not zero.

It cost Malcolm McLaren his life. How lucky do you feel punk?

I would be prepared to DIY but I have access to a disposable boilersuit, respirator and know how to do it. I wouldn't recommend it for DIY.

Even with DIY you will have to double bag in approved pink bags and pay per bag at the tip for asbestos waste unless you intend to fly tip.

[PeterC]

no, no, no! this is halfxhalf=quarter!

[Peter Parry]

Removal of asbestos cement does not require an asbestos licensed company.

[S Viemeister]

We're checking out skip hire - but neither one of us feels comfortable clambering about on roofs, and there's enough other stuff needing doing on the conversion, that we'd rather put our energy into that.

Our local tip does not appear to take asbestos waste, and we'd need to rent a suitable vehicle to carry it.

The garage is to have a fully handicap-accessible shower room, a utility area, and a workshop, which can later be turned into a bedroom should we need live-in carers in the future. The floor will be raised to the same height as the main part of the house (it's an attached garage), so that walking frames and/or wheelchairs can navigate without obstacles.

[tabbypurr]

With cement board that's not disintegrating it's as near to zero as it gets.

your link gives no evidence whatever that it cost him his life. Just someone's guess.

which costs next to nothing.

NT

[TimW]

corrugated roof panel type asbestos is a very low risk thing. You may not even need to remove it from the site. When I had that problem on a shed it was alright to carefully break it up and then put it under the floor and pour the new concrete slab onto it. TW

[S Viemeister]

There will be a floating floor type construction over the existing concrete floor of the garage, to raise its level to that of the main house. That means of disposal could be a possibility for an old shed with a similar roof - it has a perimeter foundation with gravel flooring, and we are considering pouring a concrete floor there.

[Tim Lamb]

Umm.. I wouldn't. Another traditional disposal is the rainwater soakaway.

When you come to sell the property some legal executive will enquire if there is any asbestos on site.

>

[Huge]

When the farmer next door had an asbestos cement board barn taken down by specialist contractors, the guys doing it wore respirators and Tyvek suits, but they stacked the board on pallets and took it away on a standard open truck.

[Huge]

Don't know. Don't care.

Seems unlikely since the work was actually being done by the property developer to whom he had sold the barn, and since it was adjacent to our house, I checked it was being done by a pukka asbestos clearance company.