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removing soffits with asbestos



Notters

Well-known member
Oct 20, 2003
24,869
Guiseley
Interesting thread for me. Had my soffits replaced this week. I had been told they were asbestos by the old fella in the close but got a firm in took them a day and a half. What they removed on day 1 was left outside in the front garden and when finished the next day they took it all away. Having read some of the posts on here should I be concerned....
A: that the stuff was left outside over night

B: that partials are in my loft/house?

Bare in mind none of the blokes wore any protective gear either. I ask because I know the firm (recommended) and they are fully accredited and a family team that's been around decades
Depends what sort it was but it's not generally a problem outside as any fibres just get blown away.
 




BN9 BHA

DOCKERS
NSC Patron
Jul 14, 2013
21,580
Newhaven
If you go over them with plastic, you will have a duty of care to the persons carrying out the work that the asbestos is there. You wouldn't want them drilling or such into the asbestos to fit the plastic.

Get some pikeys in to do the job, they love this type of work :)
I'm not sure if they worry about a duty of care, just don't let them into the house to use the bog!!
 


SIMMO SAYS

Well-known member
Jul 31, 2012
11,717
Incommunicado
Interesting thread for me. Had my soffits replaced this week. I had been told they were asbestos by the old fella in the close but got a firm in took them a day and a half. What they removed on day 1 was left outside in the front garden and when finished the next day they took it all away. Having read some of the posts on here should I be concerned....
A: that the stuff was left outside over night

B: that partials are in my loft/house?

Bare in mind none of the blokes wore any protective gear either. I ask because I know the firm (recommended) and they are fully accredited and a family team that's been around decades

My old Mum & Dad live next door to a so called professional asbestos remover in Coldean.
At any time you would like to look there are pink plastic bags stacked up in his back garden for weeks.
Left to me I would confront him then DECK him several seconds later.
My parents do not want confrontation at their time of life so I have not got involved.
However an incognito phone call to the council may be on the way.
 


dougdeep

New member
May 9, 2004
37,732
SUNNY SEAFORD
I took my Asbestos gutters and downpipes down myself and took them to my local tip and put them in the skip marked asbestos. No probs, don't panic.
 








ofco8

Well-known member
May 18, 2007
2,389
Brighton
My son is purchasing a 1960's house and the survey states the soffits are made from asbestos paste.
I know on a standard house that changing soffits and fascias to UPVC is about £800-£1000 but how much extra do they charge for removal and disposal of the hazardous asbestos?
Anyone else have this problem before on their property ?

We sold my mother in laws house in the autumn and the purchasers survey indicated asbestos.

I asked Amstech of Newhaven to carry out an asbestos survey and the house was clear.

Some cowboy previously quoted the sum of £7k to remove and replace asbestos that didn't exist.
 


Caveman

Well-known member
Jul 14, 2003
9,926
I removed some asbestos corrugated sheets from an old shed, hove tip took them, I just had to double wrap with plastic sheeting.

As long as your not cutting / drilling to create asbestos dust there should be no problems, there is a lot of paranoia about asbestos removal fueled by the ET like isolation gear worn by the overpriced asbestos removers. Most of the asbestos health issues are dated from when people worked unprotected cutting asbestos in factories.

Yep did exactly the same a few years back. I took all the sofits down bagged them up and took them to the tip. They need to be double bagged and sealed, whilst they might ask you to sign your name and address, as long as you don't break them up then you are alright. you can always spray them with water to reduce any dust before removal/transit.

I used a mask and suit to reduce any risk, but I am sure the experts on here will confirm a lot of properties have some form asbestos, old marley flooring tiles are another example.

Its the blue stuff you don't want to be sniffing.
 








SIMMO SAYS

Well-known member
Jul 31, 2012
11,717
Incommunicado
Yep did exactly the same a few years back. I took all the sofits down bagged them up and took them to the tip. They need to be double bagged and sealed, whilst they might ask you to sign your name and address, as long as you don't break them up then you are alright. you can always spray them with water to reduce any dust before removal/transit.

I used a mask and suit to reduce any risk, but I am sure the experts on here will confirm a lot of properties have some form asbestos, old marley flooring tiles are another example.

Its the blue stuff you don't want to be sniffing.

We have just done a new Shower Room in Mile Oak Road - Portslade - all the ceilings were asbestos panels.
We wet them - cracked them - wet them again - got our pipes through - no probs.
 




Questions

Habitual User
Oct 18, 2006
24,896
Worthing
Just rip it down on a nice summers day, bag it up in Wickes rubble sacks and dump it behind my back gate where our garages are. Because that's what some c.unt did near me.
 




SIMMO SAYS

Well-known member
Jul 31, 2012
11,717
Incommunicado
Ha ha wasn't SIMMO SAYS was it?

:) Been dealing with asbestos in my plumbing career for forty years now.

It's all about being sensible.
My son 'Wrong Direction' shits a brick when we come across it.
My Dad who is 83 years old used to insulate pipes with asbestos in the sixties.
 




HovaGirl

I'll try a breakfast pie
Jul 16, 2009
3,139
West Hove
Asbestos is safe if it remains in situ, but it does affect the mortgageability of a property. It becomes dangerous if it is drilled or damaged and releases particles of asbestos which can be breathed in and settle on the lungs. One little particle can sit in your lungs for 40 years and have no effect and you will know nothing about it. But it is possible that one day, it may affect your lungs and cause Mesothelioma, a cancer caused by asbestos. My friend used to play in an asbestos hut as a child and she is now dying of this in her early 50s. Her sister died only a few years ago of the same thing, from the same cause.

Asbestos is best removed and disposed of by a specialist asbestos removal company, who will take care not to allow one particle to remain in the area, and will use a specialist sealed vacuum cleaner to suck up any remaining asbestos dust.
 


trueblue

Well-known member
Jul 5, 2003
10,429
Hove
:) Been dealing with asbestos in my plumbing career for forty years now.

It's all about being sensible.
My son 'Wrong Direction' shits a brick when we come across it.
My Dad who is 83 years old used to insulate pipes with asbestos in the sixties.

My Dad, who was extremely fit to the age of 73, cut up some asbestos sheets as a favour, once, in the 1960s. He died from mesothelioma (caused by a microscopic shard of asbestos, which lies dormant in the body - perhaps for decades - until it reveals itself as cancer at a point at which it is untreatable). He died at 74.

Don't piss about with asbestos.
 


knocky1

Well-known member
Jan 20, 2010
12,978
Our school and University buildings have a high content of asbestos materials. 1970's artex has 2% white asbestos content. White is less harmless than brown.

Lionel Shriver wrote a great book about mesothelioma and the U.S. private health care. A woman married to a plumber has mesothelioma and blames him for bringing asbestos fibres into the house over the years. It turns out that she got it from the Bunsen burner mats she used on a metallurgy course. The book is a challenging account of someone dying from terminal cancer and analysing the running of U.S. private health companies.

I agree with most accounts on this thread. handle with care and try not to think of the asbestos Bunsen burner mats at school that we scratched graffiti on with a compass.
 


jakarta

Well-known member
May 25, 2007
15,633
Sullington
Our school and University buildings have a high content of asbestos materials. 1970's artex has 2% white asbestos content. White is less harmless than brown.

Lionel Shriver wrote a great book about mesothelioma and the U.S. private health care. A woman married to a plumber has mesothelioma and blames him for bringing asbestos fibres into the house over the years. It turns out that she got it from the Bunsen burner mats she used on a metallurgy course. The book is a challenging account of someone dying from terminal cancer and analysing the running of U.S. private health companies.

I agree with most accounts on this thread. handle with care and try not to think of the asbestos Bunsen burner mats at school that we scratched graffiti on with a compass.

I think you will find that white asbestos (which is what most people will come across as it was 90% of the asbestos imported) is generally acknowledged as far less of a risk than the brown or blue forms. Your Bunsen mat WILL have been white asbestos, as will your soffits, corrugated roofs, gutters and downspouts, artex and floor tiles. The stuff to steer clear of is sprayed coatings, pipe and boiler insulation and insulating board ceiling tiles and fire claddings. All of these contain large amounts of brown or blue asbestos and will generate clouds of dust if disturbed.

Tales of people who cut up some asbestos sheets one day 30 years ago and got mesothelioma are almost certainly inaccurate. Those people were probably getting exposed to asbestos unknowingly in their working environment. For example, a very large shopping centre I surveyed years ago in the North West had loose spray coating asbestos blowing about the ceiling voids of almost every shop unit we inspected. Hence the shop worker and customers were getting a fair old dose of brown asbestos each and every day they went there. :eek:

It is MUCH more likely they got their disease from an exposure scenario such as the one I have just described than from drilling through a soffit or taking down a shed roof.
 




HovaGirl

I'll try a breakfast pie
Jul 16, 2009
3,139
West Hove
I think you will find that white asbestos (which is what most people will come across as it was 90% of the asbestos imported) is generally acknowledged as far less of a risk than the brown or blue forms. Your Bunsen mat WILL have been white asbestos, as will your soffits, corrugated roofs, gutters and downspouts, artex and floor tiles. The stuff to steer clear of is sprayed coatings, pipe and boiler insulation and insulating board ceiling tiles and fire claddings. All of these contain large amounts of brown or blue asbestos and will generate clouds of dust if disturbed.

Tales of people who cut up some asbestos sheets one day 30 years ago and got mesothelioma are almost certainly inaccurate. Those people were probably getting exposed to asbestos unknowingly in their working environment. For example, a very large shopping centre I surveyed years ago in the North West had loose spray coating asbestos blowing about the ceiling voids of almost every shop unit we inspected. Hence the shop worker and customers were getting a fair old dose of brown asbestos each and every day they went there. :eek:

It is MUCH more likely they got their disease from an exposure scenario such as the one I have just described than from drilling through a soffit or taking down a shed roof.

Q
Pliny the Younger wrote in 61-114 AD that slaves who worked with the mineral asbestos became ill.[28] In 1899 Dr. Montague Murray first recognized the negative health effects of asbestos.[29] The first documented death related to asbestos was in 1906.[30] In the early 1900s researchers began to notice a large number of early deaths and lung problems in asbestos mining towns. The first diagnosis of asbestosis was made in the UK in 1924.[30] The Merewether Report, published in 1930,[30] was the first epidemiological study of the asbestos industry to show cases without any complicating pneumonia or other co-morbidity such as tuberculosis.[31]

By the 1930s, the UK regulated ventilation and made asbestosis an excusable work-related disease, followed by the U.S about ten years later.[7] The term mesothelioma was first used in medical literature in 1931; its association with asbestos was first noted sometime in the 1940s.
UNQ (wiki)
 


AmexRuislip

Trainee Spy 🕵️‍♂️
Feb 2, 2014
33,827
Ruislip
Hi
I found some asbestos buried on my allotment plot.
I asked my local council about getting it removed, and all they said was that I could do it myself and take to my local tip!!
I said to them that my local tip in Hillingdon would not accept me just turning up with the asbestos.
After badgering Hillingdon council about getting it removed, they eventually did.
I did ask them them what they do with the asbestos after removing.
Answer they bury it in a land fill site:shootself

Your local council should clear it for you for free.
 


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