Asbestos felt roof - how much of an issue to remove?

[LemonViolet]

The previous owners of our house left behind a file which contains all the building plans from various alterations over the years, and just having a nosey, I’ve noticed that the plans for a 1986 rear extension describe the flat roof - still there now - as “3 layers of asbestos based felt to B.S.747 laid in accordance with Cp 144 Part 3 1970 covered by 15mm layer of granite chippings, felt and chippings bedded in hot bitumen”.

Our survey we had pre purchase just describes as “felt covering” and says “reasonable condition at this stage”.

We plan to renovate the kitchen/extension in the next few years and were planning on the roof needing replacing anyway, and I want a roof lantern.

Is the asbestos going to be an expensive headache to remove? If so I’m a bit annoyed it wasn’t flagged by either the surveyor or the sellers - who clearly had this information! I don’t remember anything on the TA6 form but maybe there wasn’t a specific question about asbestos.

Asbestos felt is one of the easiest types of removal. You’ll need to get a professional company to do so safely and dispose of it in accordance with regs, but it’s not a big deal at all and particularly not if you’re planning to extend anyway.

There’s no specific question on the TA6 about asbestos and no reason for a seller to have to disclose it. Generally speaking, if a house or extension is older than about 1990, it probably contains asbestos somewhere, asbestos was used everywhere in construction for decades and its nothing to worry about unless damaged or displaced.

Thankyou! Sorry I missed your reply. Can any builder deal with the disposal of it, or would it have to be a specialist asbestos contractor?

Our vendors didn’t answer lots of TA6 questions properly or said “don’t know” about things when the answers were all in this file once we moved in, so could have been answered fully, it was a bit weird, hence me immediately being worried about what else did they forget to mention!