Asbestos test?

In message , Dave Rove writes

This place does it for £25,

Or £36

Or £18:

Chris

Excellent. Thanks. Evidently I didn't persevere enough with my Googling.

And then what? You spent ?5000 getting it removed? Some things are best not to know, this is one of them.

"Many thanks for your reassurances and the article. We will learn from this - a £175 lesson that sounds like it could have cost more! Thank also for your most informative website and your prompt reply. It was much appreciated." -- Chris A

Hmmm. So there's untrustworthy services and there's expensive services?

If it's asbestos, I'll board it over. If it's not, I'll scrape it off and re-paint (and maybe re-paper) the ceiling.

Re-boarding sounds like a challenge for the DIYer but if that's necessary, then that's what I'll try.

It is fairly simple, if you hire a plasterboard lift. This one has a lower platform to stand on while fixing the sheet, which not all do:

I thought I was the cynic around here? :-) I think if they did not work they might have been taken to court by now. I I do wonder what they do though. The only real way to figure this I'd have thought would be mass spectroscopy. Be interested in the outcome, as my gut feeling is that its not asbestos. Brian

On Fri, 19 Sep 2014 08:45:17 +0100, Nightjar It is fairly simple, if you hire a plasterboard lift. This one has a

I see. But as a DIYer, I'd be working on and off, redecorating one room at a time, walls and ceilings, so hiring equipment would be expensive.

Googling for plasterboard support suggests that DIYers could struggle on with a couple of props like this:

These are much better

For not a lot of money you could get something like

A bit wobbly, but it does work, and packs into a fairly small volume.

I think those who suggest you could get by with something like that haven't actually tried it. If you have a couple of people to lift the board into place, then a couple of props (traditionally timber T pieces) are useful to take the weight while fixing. If you are working alone, you really need a lifter.

You could buy a simpler lifter, such as this, and sell it when you have finished:

You will often find this. A company will offer a service and price it to make a reasonable profit. Another may sell a similar service at a loss, using it as bait to give it an opportunity to "up sell" an associated (and very much more expensive) service.