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.

Why do you think the seller should accept a reduced offer from you or agree to remediate the presence of asbestos when you have a specialist survey which states it's low risk and just needs inspecting annually?

Personally we got ours removed and an air quality test afterwards. It was about £600 to remove the tiles in the kitchen and grind off the asbestos bitumen. And about £1.5k to remove and dispose of the garage roof. Our ceilings were fine and came back okay.

We were originally going to leave the bitumen adhesive but our architect said to go ahead and remove it- the machine has a hepa filter attached and then they clean the area afterwards. We had a separate lab test of air quality afterwards.

It's best to remove the asbestos when the house is empty, so we put our stuff into storage and did it after the seller had moved theirs out. Our seller wasn't fussed about the asbestos and had the broken tiles uncovered in the kitchen. There was no chance she would have removed it for us (especially with soft furnishings still there etc)

It isn’t clear from your survey whether all those areas have been individually lab tested for asbestos, or whether they are areas that have the potential to contain asbestos, do you know which it is ?
For comparison, my entire kitchen was artex, the walls, and ceilings , there were sections of artex in my attic room too, so multiple areas all through the house. Only one of those areas actually contained asbestos, even though they all potentially could have. There was one old section that I was pretty sure would have asbestos , as it looked older than the 1980s ceiling that was asbestos, but it didn’t. You may have much less of it than you think.
With regards to removal, we got a specialist firm in, but years later I found tiny areas at the edges of beams where there were still fragments, so I think skimming might have been better.
Floor tiles can be tricky, you want to avoid breaking things up in a way that means fibres are released into the air, getting professionals in is helpful here as they vacuum everything. Where there is something like a solid panel, I have had friends simply remove and bag this, ditto things like corrugated asbestos sheeting used for shed roofs etc.
Also asbestos (as a pp has said) varies in terms of how dangerous it is. That is also why I wonder if the house has been surveyed rather than actually tested.

We have asbestos floor tiles in the hallway. We have laid another floor on top so they are completely hidden, the advice was that they are better just left as they are low risk.

Thanks everyone for the advise. I did get a quote of 3500 to get the asbestos flooring and ceilings removed. Thinking of getting it done. Could anyone advise how much could it cost to get new plasterboard ceilings reinstated after getting the asbestos ceilings removed.

Wasn't my place to get the quotes.
Did Cost £3k for 2 professionals to remove a much smaller amount of asbestos from different part of the property, and that only took about 3-4 person hours.

The tiles (removed already) took basically 2 people most of one day, so £8k for that when the other job was £3k sounds plausible to me The actual removers had loads of safety gear but never enough for MNers I suppose.

Thanks @Malbecormerlot, I am not even sure if I should get it done or not, the issue being replacing the ceiling boards after the asbestos is removed, I guess that will cost lots. I absolutely have no budget for it.

Websites like checkatrade and my job quote will give a general idea of the cost of a job.

Sure, will check on them.

Hello All,

Needed your suggestion, I see the ceiling which has Asbestos in it has been disturbed )they have removed a wall) by the present owners and could have led to disturbing of Asbestos. Would you know, how long does Asbestos remain in the air and what could we do now to make sure there is no Asbestos in the air.

I am attaching the image for your reference.

Thanks for your help.