Re: Is this asbestos in my house?

[EricP]

Hi, can anyone advise from this really bad photo in dim conditions whether

>this is asbestos panelling in my basement? > >It is under the stairs in the cellar. It could be there because the boiler >room is next door, or it could be some other material altogether and not >asbestos. > >It is about 0.5cm thick and looked like wooden fibreboard, so I proceeded to >move it. However when I had disturbed it and lots of fibres had come off >when it broke, I noticed it sounded more like *metal* when banged - yet it >is a wood-coloured fibrous material, painted white. :-S > >Pics: >Any help appreciated - only slightly concerned, was only there 10 mins., and >did where a cheap little face mask, but still... > >Thanks. > >Tom >

Impossible to tell from the pictures.

Household asbestos is usually a dirty white colour, very hard but very brittle and will break with a light knock. Looks a bit like a badly made cement sheet.

The white stuff is largely harmless. Your use of the words "wood coloured" have rang some alarm bells as the really deadly stuff is blue or brown.

If it isn't white, I would get someone who really knows what they are looking at to view it.

Meanwhile leave it alone and stay away from it.

[Tom Sandersper]

Well it's not dirty white - looks like that thin wood fibreboard you get.

Is the brown stuff also "very hard but very brittle"? Here's how I'd describe it's strength:

Some chunks ripped off like thin fibreboard They didn't snap off in a brittle way, they more 'tore' off like tearing a wad of paper Inside looked like fibreboard It just doesn't act like wood when hit or wobbled - sounds like a sheet of metal

Does this fit asbestos, or is it some other harmless material?

Thanks.

Tom

[Malcolm Race]

First of all, stay out of the cellar and call an analytical chemist to check it. If you need to employ a contractor to remove it it will cost big time. If the sheets are asbestos cement _and_you can remove them wothout creating dust, you may be able to remove them yourself and take them to an appropriate tip - some have special skips for the purpose. Take care - this is covered by heavy H&S legislation.

Malcolm

[Peter Parry]

But it doesn't look blue or particularly brown.

No, the Amphiboles (Blue and Brown) when used as insulation were largely used as wadding type insulation around very hot pipes or chimneys, mostly in industrial settings.

Asbestos cement sheet is hard, a dirty white and doesn't break easily. Chrysotile products used externally which have weathered for

50 years or so can break quite easily.

Sounds more like some form of fibreboard. You have a choice, remove it yourself which carries a negligible risk no matter what it is or call in the Asbestos Cowboys and expect a bill of several thousand pounds (no matter what it is).

If you find that decision difficult try

at least it is not replete with the hysterical overreaction you usually get when you mention the A word.

[Steven Briggs]

In message , Tom Sandersper writes

I don't think you'd be able to tear asbestos-cement products, so it does sound like a wood product. Try burning one of the little bits you've pulled off (outside, with face mask on just in case).

Also you said earlier 1/2" thick - again I believe the common asbestos sheet used way back was more like 1/4" thick.

[Martin Angove]

We had (well, there's still a little left) white asbestos cement sheet ceilings here and decided to get rid of them while renovating. We found the council's environmental health bloke extremely helpful (came around to identify it for nowt) and on top of that the council offers a "bagging" service for this stuff. Rather than hire a specialist skip (several hundred pounds) or a specialist company (several thousand pounds) we removed it DIY (paper suits, dust masks and goggles) and left it stacked in the front garden. A call to the council and some blokes came around and bagged it at £15 a bag (early 2004), taking about 3 bags to remove the remains of a 3m by 3m ceiling.

Since the skip people will only hire you a complete skip, if you don't have tons and tons to get rid of (we ended up with 12 or 15 bags IIRC) this can work out a lot cheaper. Of course, this white cement sheet stuff is the least dangerous of the asbestos products you might find, but the EHO was quite happy with what we did.

I don't know if this is the case for all councils. Ours is Caerphilly, South Wales.

Hwyl!

M.

[Tom Sandersper]

Was the texture of that stuff like I described the stuff I have?

Fibrous, breaks quite easily like fibreboard, but sounds like metal when banged? Also was it light brown and 0.5cm thick?

Mine isn't white, it's just painted white!

Thanks.

[Tom Sandersper]

1/2 centimetre not 1/2 inch. So yes, more like 1/4 inch.

If it explodes it's asbestos, if it burns it's wood?

[Mike Dodd]

I helped a couple of friends demolish an old garage which was clad in white asbestos sheet, towards the back end of 2004. One of the couple was a civil engineer who knew her stuff, and wanted shut before some new environmental code (law?) was brought in that would further restrict what support the council could offer.

At the time, the council tips would accept 2 bags/property (which they provide upfront) of asbestos, which had to be filled such that a single person could carry them, and each bag was registered against the property to avoid misuse of the service - and signed for when the filled bag was returned to the tip (hence the request for help - it's amazing how many people who knew each other turned up at the tip that day with asbestos in the back of their cars).

So, what I'm trying to get around to saying is this: Whilst prior to late 2004 the local council would take a limited amount of asbestos, free-of-charge, I do believe that now this has changed to be more restrictive (I don't know the details, according to my local councils website you'd need to contact individual tips to determine their procedure and quantity that they'd accept), but the bias on the website seems to be towards licensed contractors (£££).

[Martin Angove]

[...]

It's the same stuff you see on garage roofs and Scout huts. It is natively grey-white and fibrous when it breaks. It doesn't really tear. Yes, if you hit it it does sound more metallic than wooden, but I wouldn't say it rung like a bell. It is quite brittle, but needs a bit of force to break it. It was certainly no more than 5mm thick, possibly less. One side was smooth(ish) the other slightly textured (like the back side of hardboard).

Have you just got hardboard? :-)

Don't know if all cement sheet is like this, but that describes ours.

Call the council. Even if they don't offer a cheap removal/disposal service they're probably obligated to send someone around to diagnose. You can't lose by asking, can you?

Hwyl!

M.