House Moves Asbestos GRRRRR!!

[Rev Jules]

Bleddy Asbestos , buyer had a survey done on our house and the report came back suspect asbestos, even the report on the place we are buying reported suspect asbestos, I think every surveyors report on a residential building will come back with suspect asbestos, are they covering their backs because they are not qualified to identify this product, so know we are having to fork out money to state the bleddy obvious we have no asbestos.
Are there any people on here who have had a survey done on properties and have had the infamous suspect asbestos on it.

Rev

[ratchet]

yep - on a corrugated shed roof...... in fact I pointed it out to the surveyor, and made all potential buyers aware of it.

The sale went through without any problems. Presumably because it was not in an inhabitable area. The buyers paying in cash may have also made the sale easier to complete.

[AndyN01]

Sounds like a "back covering" or avoiding getting sued exercise to me. It would be helpful if they stated which type of asbestos. Some is significantly worse than others (I think it's "blue" that is the really nasty one?).

I think pretty much any house which is 40/50/60 years old might have asbestos. As I understand it providing it's encapsulated so there's no fibres getting into the air then the chances of it causing lung damage/cancer are microscopically small.

Happy to be educated if I'm off target.

Andy.

[another_clean_sheet]

Originally Posted by AndyN01

Sounds like a "back covering" or avoiding getting sued exercise to me. It would be helpful if they stated which type of asbestos. Some is significantly worse than others (I think it's "blue" that is the really nasty one?).

I think pretty much any house which is 40/50/60 years old might have asbestos. As I understand it providing it's encapsulated so there's no fibres getting into the air then the chances of it causing lung damage/cancer are microscopically small.

Happy to be educated if I'm off target.

Andy.

You are correct. Asbestos sheets are not a problem unless you start drilling them. The same for asbestos cement used for insulating pipes.
The problem is asbestos "wool" where you microscopic fibres can get in the air.
Surveyors are back covering. Generally they should be able to identify where it is.
In older houses asbestos sheet was commonly used to box in the internal sewer pipe where it came down stairs into the kitchen.

[macafee2]

Did they use asbestos in Artex years ago?

macafee2

[another_clean_sheet]

Originally Posted by macafee2

Did they use asbestos in Artex years ago?

macafee2

Yes. That is why you should never sand it down. An artexer friend of mine died from asbestosis caused by mixing up artex over the years.

[Rev Jules]

Originally Posted by AndyN01

Sounds like a "back covering" or avoiding getting sued exercise to me. It would be helpful if they stated which type of asbestos. Some is significantly worse than others (I think it's "blue" that is the really nasty one?).

I think pretty much any house which is 40/50/60 years old might have asbestos. As I understand it providing it's encapsulated so there's no fibres getting into the air then the chances of it causing lung damage/cancer are microscopically small.

Happy to be educated if I'm off target.

Andy.

Hi Andy the thing is they don't know or can recognise what type of Asbestos it is,
Back in 87 we had an extentsion added a bedroom with a garage underneath, the inspector stated because of living quarters above it the ceiling of the garage had to fireproof and all joins completely sealed, and would be capable of holding back a fire for at least 30 minutes, I have tried to trace back the name on the boards Cape Boards B104A, because of their age no luck.

Rev

[Mr Bone]

Originally Posted by another_clean_sheet

You are correct. Asbestos sheets are not a problem unless you start drilling them. The same for asbestos cement used for insulating pipes.
The problem is asbestos "wool" where you microscopic fibres can get in the air.
Surveyors are back covering. Generally they should be able to identify where it is.
In older houses asbestos sheet was commonly used to box in the internal sewer pipe where it came down stairs into the kitchen.

Any form of friable asbestos is a very bad thing, so if insulation or panels have any area that isn't solid or a hard unbroken surface it will need to be encapsulated and removed by speciallists. Some types are worse, brown or blue are the very high risk and notification must be made to the HSE 2 weeks prior to removal. White asbestos, while not being as big a risk to handle as previous, isn't the healthy option....there isn't one.
Get an R&D Survey done by a specialist, this is the only way to determine what you have, and if a prospective buyer is prepared to take any removal on at their cost at least they (and you) know what you are dealing with.
The surveyor may even be proved to be wrong.


In the past year I've spent £83k removing asbestos from a hospital during a power & heating upgrade, there is only one way to deal with it....properly.

[Dallas]

Properties built before the year 2000 can contain different types of asbestos in many materials used. We had a survey done and we have it in several places, vinyl floor tiles, insulation board (boxing-in), roof fascia at eaves, gutters and asbestos cement downpipes which have now been removed.

We also had air tests done, leak air tests and background air tests, all fine thankfully.

[buckyhill]

Asbestos killed my dad, he worked in the London royal docks and they use to unload it by the sack full with a dockers hook, need to be vigilant. I am not saying that anybody now would put a dockets hook through a sack full of raw asbestos