A survey has revealed that the ceilings in my house, constructed in
1926, contain asbestos. The ceilings were plastered over in the early
80's so there is no immediate risk. I am planning on adding extension onto the back of the house which will presumably mean disturbing the ceiling and therefore incurr the cost of removing the asbestos.
I was wondering if anyone knew when (or if) the more dangerous blue/brown asbestos was phased out and replaced by the white asbestos. The house is in Hove, East Sussex.
I have been quoted =A37500 to remove (but not make good) all the celings. The house is a medium size suburban three bed detached, with hall, living room, dining room and kitchen downstairs. Does this seem a reasonable price?
Do you know more details than just the "contain asbestos"? Could the asbestos be restricted to a layer of relatively recently added Artex-type stuff, for example? (which may or may not help, I don't know!)
You can get it diagnosed by firms who come out and take samples (which I would have thought was necessary before you can get an accurate quote for it's removal?)
Why do you need to do all the ceilings? If they are plastered over and not shedding dust or debris, there shouldn't be any need.
Try googling the archives of this group for lots of advice and info on asbestos (there's a lot of unnecessary hysteria about it, as you're probably aware).
I was wondering if anyone knew when (or if) the more dangerous blue/brown asbestos was phased out and replaced by the white asbestos. The house is in Hove, East Sussex.
I have been quoted £7500 to remove (but not make good) all the celings. The house is a medium size suburban three bed detached, with hall, living room, dining room and kitchen downstairs. Does this seem a reasonable price?
If you contact these guys:
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they'll check out samples for £20 a go and offer advice
Read the other posts in the thread and search the archives as they suggest - this has been discussed at length fairly recently.
However, our late 1920s ex-council house also had asbestos ceilings. Effectively they were using asbestos cement sheets in a similar way to the way we use plasterboard these days. The alternative at the time was lath and plaster which presumably took far longer to do than nailing up a few boards, battening to make it look "nice" and then papering.
In addition one of the ceilings was very heavily Artexed. Artex pre the
1980s (ish - see other threads) contains small amounts of asbestos.
Both these sources contain white asbestos, and in small quantities. All the advice I have seen anywhere says that this type is completely safe if left undisturbed, and only requires minor (facemask / dust) precautions to remove.
The bloke I contacted from the council, and who paid us a visit, was quite happy for us to take the ceilings down ourselves, and his men came along later to bag it up and remove it at £15 a bag. We removed the ceilings we needed to (we were doing major renovations at the time) but left two large ceilings which weren't going to have holes knocked in them anyway.
Three £15 bags took the waste from a 3m by 3m ceiling IIRC (it was 18 months ago!), and we didn't need to involve specialist contractors at all. Get yours checked by someone who knows what they are doing and isn't connected with an asbestos removal company. On our experience (local authority is Caerphilly) I suggest contacting their Environmental Health people first. If yours turns out to be white asbestos cement sheet then removal may be much cheaper than you fear.
Amphibole (Blue and Brown Asbestos) was mainly used for insulation, usually sprayed or in the form of soft wadding, not as cladding material. Chrysotile (White Asbestos) cement containing about 10% White Asbestos was used as cladding.
No - it sounds like the typical asbestos cowboy ripoff scam. As Jim has suggested talk to
A survey by who? Ensure your tester doesnt do removal work, as false positive results abound.
they were around at same time. Domestic asbestos is almost always white, which is harmless.
Oh yes... I could do it for =A37000 ;) C'mon, you tell me how long it takes to smash down your perfeclty good ceilings? And stick the debris in plstic bags, hoover up and take it to the tip. All for nothing anyway.
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