Asbestos Question

Cloud

Hi all -

I have asbestos roofing on my garden shed - anyone know what is the best way to get rid of this?

All the best,

John.
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tapest

Cloud wrote:

Hi all -

I have asbestos roofing on my garden shed - anyone know what is the best way to get rid of this?

All the best,

John.
--

As you know the danger is from small particles when it breaks up. There are specialised firms equipped to handle the stuff. Workers fully covered from head to foot. Only one legal way to dispose of it. Double wrapped in plastic and exported to Germany. I'd imagine an expensive excercise. If removing roof yourself you need a very good mask and fine filter.....Not disposable paper rubbish.
t

antoinolachtnai

I believe that the local authority has an obligation to manage the disposal of the asbestos when it is taken down. You should certainly contact them.

It is worth doing some reading about this stuff. There are a couple of different types of materials that use asbestos. Some types are very dangerous, others less so. A serious business certainly.

Lex Luthor

I wouldn't risk it for a biscuit. Call in the experts...not worth your health

OhPinchy

Does anyone know of any companies that do proper asbestos removal at a good price? I need to get a 5metre x 3metre garage roof removed.

Pataman

I had a quote from a company in the golden pages, he was quoting €7 per sq m. he told me it was easy enough to remove. They can supply the clothes/ mask. The only danger comes if it breaks. If you handle it carefully, you "should be ok". He suggested leaving a hose running water on it all the time to reduce the risk of particles. Cant find his name now. will look later

tabatha

i wouldnt do it if my life depended on it! that stuff is so dangerous. all it takes is one tiny particle to be inhaled for cancer to form. for the sake of a few pound go with the experts!

MorningStar

Now I am not sure on this but I am 90% sure not all asbestos products are dangerous. It is still made and sold as far as I know too. The type used on a shed the (concrete composite type) is the safe stuff. I am just a bit weary of saying for sure unless I see it. When in doubt stay with the expert who see it.

prospect

****EDIT****

This did have a post about my tuppence worth regarding asbestos.
In light of some worthy constructive criticism, I have thought it best to remove it.

****EDIT****

kadman

prospect wrote:

I am not sure that this is true, well not all the time anyway. Thats a bit like one cigarette can kill you!

To the best of my knowledge, you are fairly safe, unless you are continually exposed to high levels of asbestos dust.
Sheet asbestos is perfectly safe, as long as you dont cut, drill or break it.
Alot of schools and buildings around the country still have asbestos roofs, and are under no obligation to remove it, because it isn't doing any harm.

Anyway, long story short. If you wear a high quality dust mask, long sleeves and gloves you should be okay removing it, but you are still going to have to pay for it to be disposed. So you may as well pay for the whole job while your at it.

Jaysus Prospect,

Its a good job you are not the minister for health then. :eek:

Extremely low levels of asbestos fibres, are sufficient enough to give you Asbestososis. Not necessarily apparent for years.

Correct, asbestos that is in solid unbroken form is less harmful. Degraded asbestos that is solid but may allow some fibres released, are a cause for concern. :eek:

As for your safety kit, dust mask, long sleeves, and gloves, its no wonder that Irelands construction industry has an appalling safety record, if this is the accepted level of awareness with regards to personal safety in construction. :eek: :eek: :eek:

There is a good reason why asbestos removal is expensive. The proper safety requirements, and methods of removal need specialist equipment and knowledge. After all it is a highly hazardous material.

Are your lungs not worth more than a 50 cent mask.

I'm not too impressed with your safety statement for safe removal.

kadman

rooferPete

Hi,

Sorry (cut n Paste)

The new school of thought is the weather exposed the fibres and they are not only a possible danger when being removed but the fibres are also being dislodged in heavy rainfall possibly entering the water table or worse lying on the surface and being blown around in the wind.

A product not treated lightly, Asbestosis can take thirty years or more to take effect and not a nice sight.

Let us dispel a few Myths.

Not one grain is safe, because I have been around it since I was a child does not mean I am in the clear, because of the time it takes to show up.

Morning Star.

You are not 100% right or wrong (not picking on you) there were different types of asbestos used for different purposes, the most common scares we hear about are the the asbestos used for pipe insulation.

Take for example some of the schools built in the 1970's the big scare in some of them was asbestos in the ceiling tiles, again encapsulated but considered dangerous none the less.

The new version is called Fibre cement not Asbestos cement, anyone not in the business could be forgiven for thinking they are the same product.

Antoin

The Local Authority has No Obligation to dispose of the asbestos, they do have an obligation to ensure the asbestos is disposed of in a safe manner.

For example if I remove your old roof the Environmental Health officer can (and does) call on people to ask to see the cert from the licensed disposal company, obviously the checks are random and not fully enforced as they are not aware of every roof removed.

Prospect.

The suit required is expensive and the mask is not your average dust mask, also the suit must be disposed of in a safe manner.

Pataman.

Be very careful of running a hose on old asbestos, it is likely to have moss on it which can cause you to slip very easily.

I don't know which is the worst the dust or the fall.

I hope I don't appear to be knocking anyone, I have used asbestos, drilled it, cut it with angle grinders.......basically ever rule in today's book was broken but that was before we knew what we were dealing with.

I still have some in stock for repairs, I still remove it and replace the roofs, but ok a big BUT the way I handle it is completely different to the cavalier way of yester year.

Also I will not allow anyone else to work with it, if the job means more than one person has to handle the asbestos based product I refuse it, I will not chance anyone elses health.

I am big enough and old enough to know what I am doing and also to calculate the risk, I can live with myself being wrong and suffering the consequences but I will not put anyone else in danger.

Finally beware of anyone who calls offering to clean the moss off your asbestos slate roof using brushes, the brushes open the fibres causing them to blow in the wind and they leave the slate porous.

.

gregos

That kinda says everything about it.

prospect

I shall consider myself 'told off'

rooferPete

prospect wrote:

I shall consider myself 'told off'

Hi Prospect,

Told off was not my intention, I assure you, I prefer informed

Please to everyone else who posted, don't take my post personally, I too am open to the learning process.

I may not be the greatest teacher ? but I have only touched on the subject and I do value being corrected or advised of new developments.

Absolutely No Offence Was Intended to anyone who posted before me.

.

prospect

No offence taken at all.
I was in trying to put a alightly less serious slant on a serious matter.

Everything cool now though, so all that leaves to be done, is trawl the net and find some concrete information for the OP.

Alun

Back in the early 70's I worked as a student holiday job in a factory in the UK that made those celing tiles. They had a big machine that mixed up all the "ingredients" ... waste newspaper, asbestos and pesticides (to stop the mice eating them!) amongst others. Safety was not a top issue there, and awareness of the dangers of asbestos wasn't around at that time either, and I sometimes got the job of clearing out the machine when it got bunged up with the only protection being a simple paper mask.

Needless to say I get very nervous whenever I get any chesty coughs these days. Don't take the risk, either with yourself, or the health of others that might be damaged by the irresponsible disposal of this stuff.

kadman

prospect wrote:

I shall consider myself 'told off'

Hi Prospect,

As I was the first to post in relation to yours, maybe you might consider my answer as the reprimand.

I was just trying to get the point of safety across, maybe a bit more agressive than I should have.

Any impression I gave , of an attack against you was unintentional.

Hope were cool,

kadman

prospect

kadman wrote:

Hi Prospect,

As I was the first to post in relation to yours, maybe you might consider my answer as the reprimand.

I was just trying to get the point of safety across, maybe a bit more agressive than I should have.

Any impression I gave , of an attack against you was unintentional.

Hope were cool,

kadman

Very cool, or Kool if you want to be cool about it
Anyhow, just goes to prove, and i hope everyone learns from this:
'If you are not sure what you are talking about, especially regarding safety, keep your mouth shut, or fingers idle!'

prospect

kadman wrote:

Its a good job you are not the minister for health then. :eek:

LOL

I'd bring back nursing home charges if i was..

Neverends

We have an asbestos roof on our shed which is right beside the house. As part of an extension job which is happening imminently they will be removing the asbestos chimney for the oil boiler in the shed but not the roof. I'm wondering - first, is it dangerous to leave the roof there at all and second will there be particles released in the air when they are removing the chimney and doing minor renovations to the shed (knocking internal dividing wall) that would necessitate us keeping clear that day/week? Thanks!

rooferPete

Hi Neverends,

Treated with care and respect removing the pipe can often be easier than the roof sheeting because the pipes had a better / stronger finish.

The interesting piece can be where least expected, at the joint where the pipe is fitted into the boiler it was not unusual to use an asbestos "Rope" between the pipe and the collar on the boiler.

The chances of releasing fibres into the air are very small unless the labourer is handed a hammer to break the pipe down.

As you are having other work done the shed roof would probably be a minor extra cost to have it replaced while the work is being done.

The main advantage in having the roof removed now is you will still have control on the cost, later you could find the removal and replacement more expensive.

.

kadman

Rooferpete,

How the **** do you do that.

I looked at Neverends last post. Went off to get the legal safety regs on asbestos to post them.

Came back two minutes later. And low and behold , you popped in and posted. You must be in league with the dark side.

Any way, here's my two cents worth.

http://www.oasis.gov.ie/environment/asbestos_regulations.html

kadman

rooferPete

Hi Kadman,

Good article, what it doesn't say is if a property with asbestos stored in or about the building how much it is likely to effect re-sale value in years to come.

It does state words to the effect that any asbestos stored must be marked ?

.

kadman

Good point,


kadman

antoinolachtnai

rooferPete wrote:

Hi,

Antoin

The Local Authority has No Obligation to dispose of the asbestos, they do have an obligation to ensure the asbestos is disposed of in a safe manner.

For example if I remove your old roof the Environmental Health officer can (and does) call on people to ask to see the cert from the licensed disposal company, obviously the checks are random and not fully enforced as they are not aware of every roof removed.
.

Good post Pete, saw you in the Sunday Times at the weekend!

To clarify this, the European directive (91/689/EEC I think) requires member states to have a waste management strategy. This basically means that they must have a plan for how the particular hazardous waste should be disposed of. The obligation is on the member state (in practice, the local authority) to come up with a safe way to dispose of the material.

They aren't merely regulators. They can't just say 'you can't bury it in the garden', they have to have a plan to dispose of the material. (From an EU viewpoint, the rationale for this is to stop consumers or busiensses from being induced by the government to export it). Perhaps this is a subtle distinction in practice.

That isn't the same as saying that they have to take it away for free of course. They'll presumably refer you to the local licenced disposal companies.

rooferPete

Hi,

Thanks antoin, maybe I'll get to see one of my contributions some day

I have been reliably informed that the document on Oasis is up for review with a new Code of Practice for Asbestos.

Of course the public are not to be informed and it's a shame that they must allow anything to be Posted on Oasis but they can't do anything about it because it's a Government web site.

Boards don't have a smiley for this one.....

.

Bren1

Hi John

I know it's a long time ago but I have a similar problem now and I'm also in Galway
I only seem to be able to find professional removal services in Dublin, and I was wondering if you managed to find anyone more locally, and / or other advise post doing the job

Many thanks
Bren

alice001

Hi all !

Do you know of anyone reputable and reasonably priced in the mid-west to remove a small 10sq ft asbestos roof on an old back kitchen ? I will be contacting the co. co. in due course and I presume they'll have a list but it'd be good to have an idea of the cost so that I know whether I'm being overcharged or not.

chuck eastwood

I have two sheds out my back with about 25 square mtr's on the roof . i called three guys out to price it but when i asked to see there certs for getting rid of it none of them could produce them. ran all of them. still on the roof. Cant get anyone to take it off