Asbestos

[Koffee123786]

Hi all,

We have had our home buyers level 2 report back and they have indicated there's asbestos. Does anyone know the rough/average cost of asbestos removal? I'm in the West Midlands
Not sure whether to get it done ourselves or ask our vendors to. (We're FTB, so not sure what to do 🤦🏽‍♀️)
The areas affected include
-Asbestos flue to roof void.

• Asbestos flue to service ducts within electric cupboard.
• Asbestos flue to gas meter shelf.
• asbestos to soffits.
• Asbestos to the garage wall panels.

is there any reason why you want to get it removed? We had the same on her survey for our 1970s built house and it really worried me but then I showed my dad who worked in building and he said it’s not an issue unless you want to get it removed then it has to be done safely but otherwise if it’s not disturbed there’s no health issues.

Our survey that should say

We had asbestos in our double garage, the ceiling was boarded with it. Just had it removed, it cost £2700.

With anything like this, don't ask the vendor to do the work, do it yourself. You can then chose the tradespeople to do it, make sure it is actually done, and know the details if you need something repaired or re-done in the future.

That said, the vendor's been living there with asbestos and clearly isn't bothered to remove it so they're not going to pay for it to be removed for you.

Also millions of homes across the UK have asbestos in them. It's really not a problem til you cut into it. If you're not planning work that might disturb it, you just crack on with living there. No worries.

It's more dangerous to remove it than to leave it where it is.
Why do you want to remove it?

Thanks for all your replies.

We're FTB, and I think everything we've been told is you don't want to buy a house with asbestos or if you do it will cost you an arm and a leg to remove it.

In the long run we will be extending our house. Knocking out the chimney's out combining the wc/bathroom extending for kitchen diner. The current vendors have not maintained the house very well. There were a few reds and ambers on the survey report but main concern was the asbestos.
The likelihood of the vendors actioning these repairs? Minimal as they haven't maintained the up keep of the house. The likelihood of renegotiating the final sale price? Not sure as it's a sellers market currently.
Not sure what to do.

The problem isn’t now. Mesothelioma takes 30-40 years to show up. If you can get rid of it,do. asbestosdiseases.org.au/can-one-asbestos-fibre-kill/

It can but undisturbed asbestos is not a huge risk. We're an asbestos family--my grandfather worked with asbestos for decades and his work clothes were washed with the family wash. My sister and I spent a lot of time at our grandparents and were definitely exposed.

Granddad died of cancer that might or might not have been asbestos related. Grandmother died at 103 and was certainly exposed but never showed any symptoms. My mother has Mesothelioma but it is unlikely to progress before her death of old age. One of my aunts also has issues but the other doesn't. I'm not sure about my sister as I know she was investigated but we don't speak.

It's not as simple as one fibre when you are talking about asbestos which is undisturbed. All asbestos must be removed safely and IMO by the professionals. We had asbestos removed in this house and we paid the professionals. I'd definitely factor in the cost of removal but the actual removal would not worry me.

As you'll probably know many houses built up to around 2000 will have some sort of asbestos in them and if left alone and not broken up it won't do any harm to anyone living there.

If you have plans that involve removing any potential asbestos your best bet now would be to arrange for samples to be taken to find out if asbestos is actually present (checked under a microscope in a lab), what type it is, and an indication of how much removal would cost.

With care it's possible to remove some asbestos ourselves but others would need a professional company and this can be expensive. Worth it though if this is the house you want.

I worked for an asbestos company - samples sent in by the public cost £25 each with a discount if several are done

We had asbestos board removed in our garage 2 years ago and it was about 4k. We needed a licenced contractor because of the type of asbestos. He said if our facias and soffits needed replacing (luckily we didn’t) it would have been 20k as the scaffolding has to be from a specialist company! I’d definitely avoid it if I were you