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Asbestos in neighbours' roof
- Thread starter Dick Head
- Start date
You'll be fine... just pop on one of these if you need to go out in the garden...
redoubtable seagull
Well-known member
- Oct 27, 2004
- 2,530
Difficult to say, you need to find out what type of asbestos is involved, whether the work is licensable and is being removed under controlled conditions by the contractor.
AlastairWatts
Active member
We had exactly the same situation, but the 'asbestos' turned out to be some sort of asbestos compound that (apparently) wasn't dangerous unless broken up on site. Had the elf and safety people and the local council down too. Why not get your local council out to offer advice?
This. Don't mess with asbestos.
jakarta
Well-known member
Urban Myth, I have been working with asbestos surveys, management and removal for over 30 years. The THEORETICAL ability of a single fibre to start carcinogenesis is based upon in vitro studies.
In actual fact you have to have significant exposure for this to happen (which means inhalation of hundreds of thousand or even millions of respirable sized fibres).
Also very unlikely that your Neighbours Roof is anything except Asbestos Cement (AC) which usually only contains Chrysotile (White) Asbestos, by far the least harmful form and is 85-90% Portland cement with 10-15% asbestos filler.
Having done a lot of air sampling around AC removal projects the levels of fibre release were normally undetectable, especially when the work was in the open air such as roof removal.
PM me if you want any more information.
Marshy
Well-known member
Its in your neighbours, so worth checking out if its in your place. I suspect it is.
Get it looked into i would say. Quick word with the people removing the neighbours should do it.
Get it looked into i would say. Quick word with the people removing the neighbours should do it.
Bold Seagull
strong and stable with me, or...
If it sounds like a scene from Snatch when they're stripping it out, I'd go out for the day...
happypig
Staring at the rude boys
That's good to know as a few years ago I drilled a couple of holes in an asbestos soffit.
jakarta
Well-known member
As are most of mine at Jakarta Towers, you are more in danger of falling off your stepladder than getting an asbestos related disease when drilling through AC soffits.
LamieRobertson
Not awoke
Demand compensation or sue them
Cheeky side question please?
When I bought a place 18 months ago, the surveyor said that I have tiles on my sitting room floor (under the carpet) that "probably contain asbestos". I'm about to put new underlay and carpet in that room. Ok to strip the existing stuff out and just put new underlay and carpet on top, or should I have an asbestos survey (and possible/probable? removal of tiles) first?
lordlush1972
Active member
I'm a asbestos analyst and the percentage of asbestos is so low it's non notifiable. I recommend damping it down with water then using two bags to dispose of. Keep the windows on open so air can flow minimal risk [emoji106]
Sent from my ONEPLUS A5000 using Tapatalk
Sent from my ONEPLUS A5000 using Tapatalk
All asbestos can and does kill there is no safe asbestos It's use was banned in the UK in 1980 but so much was used it's everywhere and we are very likley to come into contact with asbestos on a dailey basis, most of this contact is completly safe but for some the risk is much greater.
It's an amazing material which can be used as a powder and mixed with other materials and can even be woven, it's used to add strength, fire and heat retardancy being light was added to materials just to reduce weight. Asbestos can be found in the most unlikely of places from car break pads, sound muffling under kitchen sinks, some plastics, cookers, storage heaters, toasters, wall and ceiling plaster, construction boards, electrical fuse boards, oven gloves, fire blankets, floor and wall tiles, fire places, chimneys, flues, ventilation systems, filters, Irons the list goes on and on first discovered and used by the Romans Until it's banning in 1980 that we will be coming across the stuff regularly for the rest of our lives.
Asbestos if not in a fibrous state left alone is probably safe so in most cases being around living with asbestos is not a particular danger but if it is in a fibrous state ie damaged so that fibres are released as dust in a confined space then it's very dangerous.
It's an amazing material which can be used as a powder and mixed with other materials and can even be woven, it's used to add strength, fire and heat retardancy being light was added to materials just to reduce weight. Asbestos can be found in the most unlikely of places from car break pads, sound muffling under kitchen sinks, some plastics, cookers, storage heaters, toasters, wall and ceiling plaster, construction boards, electrical fuse boards, oven gloves, fire blankets, floor and wall tiles, fire places, chimneys, flues, ventilation systems, filters, Irons the list goes on and on first discovered and used by the Romans Until it's banning in 1980 that we will be coming across the stuff regularly for the rest of our lives.
Asbestos if not in a fibrous state left alone is probably safe so in most cases being around living with asbestos is not a particular danger but if it is in a fibrous state ie damaged so that fibres are released as dust in a confined space then it's very dangerous.
jakarta
Well-known member
Even less of risk than AC, although Asbestos Removal Contractors probably wouldn't agree as they would love to charge you hundreds of pounds to remove them.
Vinyl floor tiles of a certain era (1950's to 1970's) contained a very small (less than 5%) amount of white asbestos but it was very firmly bound into the matrix.
Theoretically I suppose you could generate some airborne fibres by removing the tiles with a rotary grinding wheel but if you lift them with a scraper it wont be a problem.
Rarely they were fixed to the slab with asbestos containing mastic but as you can imagine mastic is also a very non-friable material, a scraper and water hand spray will sort it out.