Asbestos and fibre cement

[Aspiring Peasants]

I've got a building with a lean to which I've always assumed had an asbestos roof. I had the son of the previous owner here today and he thinks the lean to is fibre cement. Is there an easy way of telling the difference?

 

[grainboy]

No, apart from testing,
What he is the roof,
Big six used up until late 90 s

 

[grainboy]

Test is about £70

 

[grainboy]

What age is the roof

 

[ollie989898]

Get a sample taken and tested by a company.

If it is asbestos, get it removed and disposed of professionally and pay the money, it will only become an even bigger liability over time. You had your chance to legally bury the stuff years ago.

The same applies to tyres and other unusual materials the EA or HSE are hot on.

 

[grainboy]

Why has he got to remove it,
Don’t think you quite understand how many, buildings have asbestos roofs, it’s okay if maintained,

 

[serf]

Why has he got to remove it,
Don’t think you quite understand how many, buildings have asbestos roofs, it’s okay if maintained,

Prob outlive the new stuff

 

[Aspiring Peasants]

What age is the roof

One that is definitely asbestos roughly 60 years and lean to 30-40

 

[Aspiring Peasants]

Why has he got to remove it,
Don’t think you quite understand how many, buildings have asbestos roofs, it’s okay if maintained,

It's leaking all over, you can put your finger through the sheets in places

 

[grainboy]

Oh, yes it need’s replacing,

 

[Lazy Sod]

It's leaking all over, you can put your finger through the sheets in places

If it's as bad as that, it must be so old that it's bound to be asbestos.

 

[Aspiring Peasants]

If it's as bad as that, it must be so old that it's bound to be asbestos.

Yes, the old stuff definitely is, it’s the newer stuff I’m unsure about

 

[Kentishfarmer]

Yes, the old stuff definitely is, it’s the newer stuff I’m unsure about

Apparently the "newer" stuff they bought out just after they stopped using asbestos was rubbish and fell apart easily. Took them a while to perfect the new mix. So if it's 30years old and got loads of holes might not actually be asbestos.
I'm interested how your meant to take a sample to test? Surely you'd had to cut a bit off which if it is asbestos would release the theorectically dangerous fibres

 

[Aspiring Peasants]

Apparently the "newer" stuff they bought out just after they stopped using asbestos was rubbish and fell apart easily. Took them a while to perfect the new mix. So if it's 30years old and got loads of holes might not actually be asbestos.
I'm interested how your meant to take a sample to test? Surely you'd had to cut a bit off which if it is asbestos would release the theorectically dangerous fibres

Yes, I was wondering about that

 

[grainboy]

You only need a bit, size of envelope,
Technically banned 1984,
But,
Used in big six till end 1999,
If 30 yr old, pretty sure it will be asbestos,

the other problem, if it tests negative, you’ll have trouble disposing, as no one excepts it’s not asbestos,

 

[Aspiring Peasants]

You only need a bit, size of envelope,
Technically banned 1984,
But,
Used in big six till end 1999,
If 30 yr old, pretty sure it will be asbestos,

the other problem, if it tests negative, you’ll have trouble disposing, as no one excepts it’s not asbestos,

I'm going to get a testing kit from these, it says you get an official certificate of results

https://www.asbestos-sampling.com/

 

[Farmer_Joe]

i got a test for £35 search my posts, ive put all the details up a few times before, they send a per faid envelope etc.

 

[jackstor]

One that is definitely asbestos roughly 60 years and lean to 30-40

I would guess the lean to is fibre cement, we built a silage shed in 1994, it was the last lot of asbestos we could get, think it came from Italy, it’s still perfect. The sheds we did in 1995, 97 and 99, were with fibre cement, we’ve replaced 2 of roofs and the other needs doing.
We’ve got an asbestos roof getting ready for renewal, but it’ll be 60 year old and still a lot better that the fibre cement roof that’s less than half the age!

 

[killie_cowboy]

Get a sample taken and tested by a company.

If it is asbestos, get it removed and disposed of professionally and pay the money, it will only become an even bigger liability over time. You had your chance to legally bury the stuff years ago.

The same applies to tyres and other unusual materials the EA or HSE are hot on.

You can still bury it providing you've marked down where it's buried. That's what we shall be doing, would already cost 40k to change, nevermind paying big bucks for some stroker to bury it somewhere else.

 

[ollie989898]

You can still bury it providing you've marked down where it's buried. That's what we shall be doing, would already cost 40k to change, nevermind paying big bucks for some stroker to bury it somewhere else.

Ahhh, that is good. Once it is underground and buried by a good layer of soil and left undisturbed it won't ever pose any risk to anyone.

To be honest, I am not sure how much exposure is needed to become a problem. My understanding is that it is chronic exposure that is needed so even if you worked on a roof for two days taking all the sheets off and you wore a mask I wonder if you would be at basically no additional risk to anyone else.