Property with Asbestos presence

[Asian]

Hi,

We just had an Asbestos survey done on our property we are planning to buy and the result came as presence of asbestos in roof and flooring of the house. The remediation plan stated manage and annually reinspect. The level of risk is mentioned as very low. How do you suggest we should go about it. Really appreciate your help.

Huge swathes of the UK housing stock have some asbestos. In a certain age of property it’s very hard to avoid. If you don’t disturb it, it’s fine. If you do want to disturb it, you need a specialist to remove it, which costs more. So really it depends on where it is, how likely you are to want to disturb it, and whether you can afford the extra cost.

It is on the roof and flooring. I would need to replace the flooring as it is in tatters and also paint the roof since the house needs painting. We also need to add a new bathroom to the house and hence we might end up distributing it. I am also worried if the presence of Asbestos affect the price of the house when we would want to sell it.

Our last house had asbestos boards under the soffits, actually this one does too. The last house we were told on inspection that we could remove it ourselves when doing work, we just had to double bag it and take it to the special skip at the recycling centre. It was the council that told us that.
When we were doing this roof the roofer didn’t remove it, he just covered over it with upvc cladding.
As pp says there are loads of houses with asbestos. If yours has been inspected and the risk is very low I wouldn’t be concerned at all.

If you are that concerned then it’s not the house for you op.

Do you mean in the ceilings ? (As you mention painting it) or asbestos tiles ?
Almost all houses pre the mid eighties will have asbestos somewhere. It was used in tiles, in fillers, in artex, around fireplaces etc. My Georgian house had a lot of it, most of it we had removed (artex ceilings but in a very low and sloping attic so essentially walls) but I now think that we should have just had it skimmed. My thinking was that we would never be able to drill into it for any reason.
I have just stripped some wallpaper to find sections of filler behind it that could have asbestos in. Probably not worth testing it though, as it is all getting papered again.
Lead can be more of an issue than asbestos and all old houses have that too.

Thanks for your suggestion. I love the house. Do you suggest, I can ask the seller to carry on remediation task for the same or offer a discount so that we can get it done ourselves.

I’m not minimising the risk of asbestos exposure but I do wish that people would understand that most (all) houses built pre 1980s will have asbestos somewhere. Its use was massively widespread. People seeing asbestos and running a mile is a massive overreaction. Even if your ceilings are smooth, chances are artex will have been skimmed over. It’s everywhere.

The issue is whether it’s been disturbed or not, you need to work that out and go from there. But if you wanted another similar house then it will present the same issues.

It is in the textured coating in the ceiling, in vinyl flooring tiles with adhesive, in flat sheet used for board, tiles and slates used in the floor and in preformed moulded products. I would be getting flooring for this house getting carpets and LTV. Also get the entire house painted. Do I have to employ specialised staff Ito get it done.

@Asian

How can they know it’s in the ceiling? Highly unlikely they tested at survey stage? Is it not just a possibility?

And many floors had Marley tiles originally, especially ex local authority houses. You can seal and just stick your floor over the top. We did for the whole downstairs of our house (ex local authority, built 1958). Had the ceilings tested on moving in and they were negative.

If you are painting, it’s only an issue if it’s disturbed (I.e crumbling).

I got an Asbestos survey done.

I have asbestos in the ceiling of my integrated garage (60s house). My neighbours who have the same converted their garage and had to have people in serious suits in to remove it, with a special van to deal with it on the driveway. It cost £2000 purely for the asbestos removal from the 5m x 2.5m ceiling, before covid.

You absolutely do have to have special people to do any work that involves disturbing or removing asbestos and it is costly. From the work you are describing and where it is in the house I would think you need to get quotes for removing it all in one go - before you move in - and then see if it's affordable.

Yes - lots of houses do have it in places, but if it's literally in every interior surface then it would be a real pita to live with because you couldn't drill, sand, do anything practical without disturbing it. Personally I'd want rid of it.

@Superher Attached.

@Asian

In which case I’d just check on the state of mentioned bits and if floors and ceilings are good condition then seal floors and lay lvt over and skim ceilings. You don’t need it all removed if it’s not disturbed.

What is LTV?

The survey should tell you what grade asbestos stuff it is, if it's in the non-notifiable group at least.

DS just bought, is dealing with asbestos in his property. DS negotiated about £3.5k off the price to get the asbestos dealt with: £3.5k wasn't enough. DS & DH did the most labour intensive job which was lifting about 15sq.m. of floor tiles themselves; the tiles broke badly. DS paid £2.5k to get some roof bits removed, and a soil stack (yup that had asbestos too) removed & replaced, and another £500 will be cost to take away an old "back" boiler with asbestos parts in it.

DS was quoted £8k for a professional to deal with that floor, including disposal, which seems about right, 2+ person days + safety gear + disposal + insurance/certificates. He was charged 75p / kg to take it to special tip, about 200kg worth we think.

Your ceiling sounds like a nightmare, unlikely to be able to remove the asbestos there yourself.

The trouble with doing that is if you ever need any electrics done your electrician is unlikely to be happy about it because they would have to go best it and probably disturb it. If you need to lift the floors for any plumbing ditto. You also, surely, run the risk of covering it up and then If a subsequent buyer doesn't know it's there, because it's hidden, they or their work people might unwittingly put themselves in danger?

@lljkk

Laminate vinyl tiles.

Many many many many many floors and ceilings contain asbestos. You don’t need to remove them all if they are not disturbed.

Sorry - that was re. the suggesting to seal and hide it

@BewareTheBeardedDragon

The tiles will be on the ground floor, they are unlikely to need disturbing for electrics or plumbing.

If you had some sort of leak and it did become an issue then it would be covered by decent house insurance.

I guess if there's tiles it will be a solid floor so you are right. I have suspended wood floors which have pipes under them.

But surely skimming the ceiling is not very sensible given electrics do need doing every now and then? I don't know - I'd find the risk of a future buyer not knowing too much for my conscience

@BewareTheBeardedDragon

If you buy a house with smooth ceilings you are correct, you have no way of knowing what’s underneath so yes, that’s a risk for future buyers. It’s pretty standard though. Most previously artex ceilings will have been skimmed not removed.

If the OP is sensible with what work she does then skimming the ceilings would be perfectly fine, as long as they’re not crumbly artex.

Can I paint the ceilings?

You can paint the ceilings.

We paid £2k to have 10m x 2m of ceiling boards removed from our outbuilding just before Covid, it's also got a tiled floor which I suspect may have it in the adhesive but we weren't bothered about that as it was intact and as in outbuilding never likely to be replaced. We got the ceiling boards done because it was fairly low and DH likes to spend a lot of time in there.

I can remember when I was young in the 60s my parents laying floor tiles in our house with thick black tarry stuff which would have been black mastic asbestos, lots of houses will have that in.

You can also skim the ceilings or board then skim them

8k is very expensive to lift floor tiles. Even if it was on plywood it shouldn't come to that. I work in asbestos and that would be around 1k give or take a few hundred.

You can get special paint et150 which you can use on textured coating etc to seal.

Please don't attempt to remove it yourself. You need special equipment, masks etc to ensure you are safe. You would also need to hire an analyst to do an air check afterwards.