Potential of asbestos in 1900 property

[DYIDIY]

We had a level 3 survey done and there were some comments about the fact that most properties built before 2000 are likely to have asbestos. The survey itself didn’t flag presence of these.
So my question is, if most properties have it, how do you escape from that risk? I assume unless you buy a newbuild you will always have asbestos most likely?
What does “disturbing” asbestos mean exactly? Can we drill holes, change floors etc?
The back of the house was extended a few years ago, should there be a sort of asbestos report available for it given it had major work done?
FTB here and slightly panicking about this.

I live in a house built in 1929 and I have asbestos in all the ceilings. I have not touched them - no drilling or diy etc - I’ve just painted them. I would seek professional advice before doing any major structural work - I am happy with the function and layout of the house and therefore having asbestos hasn’t affected me.

@BeeCucumber thank you. But say for example that they are in the walls, can you not even hang a picture or scrape the wallpaper/paint off?

The most common sources of asbestos in a house are likely to be things like artex and old marley tiles and bitumen tile adhesive - both are fairly easily tested and fairly low risk.

As @Scampuss has said - the asbestos is in the artex covering the ceilings - the walls are fine.

Asbestos being present is absolutely fine as long as you don't disturb it ie make holes in it or cause it to break, as that is when the doors are released.
You can Google (or even do an online course for about £30) which will tell you how to recognise it but in the main it was used for lagging to pipes, airing cupboards, artex ceilings, floor tiles etc, so these are the main areas to watch.

We paid £210+VAT in London in 2021 for an asbestos survey on our Victorian terrace where they test likely suspects and tell you where it is. It came back as being in an outdoor loo that cost us £350 to be removed - we had what looked like artex everywhere but it didn't contain asbestos.

You could do this sort of survey now if you wanted to reduce the risk / get a clearer picture.

I would recommend a survey to put your mind at rest (within reason).

Pretty much every house built before the year 2000 will have asbestos somewhere, usual places are lagging (around pipes, hot water tanks) rarely but sometimes within walls, artex ceilings, 50s kitchen floors (under the lino, as it's the actual paper that contains the asbestos), some older loo cistern tops, garage roofs etc. You really can get it anywhere, but unless it's friable (i.e. crumbly and able to be swept into the air) it's of absolutely no risk to anyone. If you're very worried I think that a survey of the likely areas is a good idea and then just re-survey every time you want to do something that 'goes into the fabric of the building' after that (that you haven't already checked). Try not to panic.

Artex is becoming a bit of a thing with first time buyers IME - maybe only associating asbestos with news reports of schools closed and men in moon suits. Brittle (blue / brown) asbestos has been more hazardous when broken up but soft (white) asbestos is pretty stable and is in lots of domestic ceiling and wall textured plasters pre 1999. It's really easy to remove if you don't like the idea of it.

Other asbestos could be deeper in construction and as pp said stable until broken up and easy to test for and builders would do this. There's no reason to try and avoid it, just factor in removal if you want. It's only hazardous when dry brittle fibres are breathed in as dust when it's broken up in quantity. Surveyors always have some copy-and-paste generic arse-covering paras about it.

Builders won't test for asbestos themselves but would put you in touch with a specialist asbestos surveyor who would take samples and give you a report. You could then have it removed but as pp mentioned, as long as it's not disturbed it's absolutely fine to live with.

So I guess we’d have to get a specialist survey and based on where it is, decide what to do. I don’t plan to do structural work but certainly want to be able to drill holes in the walls for example

Don't get too worried about it. As previous posters mentioned ANY building pre 2000 could have a level of asbestos in it. It's just how you manage it!

You can get a survey done for peace of mind, but my last house was built in 1905 and I wallpapered and hung pictures.. TBH it didn't cross my mind!

Avoid the obvious such as Artex or floor tiles, but if you're not planning structural works, then I'm sure you'll be fine. If you did decide to have building works done, a good builder will have done an Asbestos Awareness course and will recognise potential asbestos and advise you how to get it removed.

Please don't let it put you off buying a property you love 😊

The biggest use of asbestos in buildings was in the period 1950-1980. It's not so much buildings built before 2000, but when a building was built and/or updated/modified. A building built in 1900 is less likely to have asbestos than a building built in 1950. But a building built in 1900 has lived through the period when asbestos was in greatest use and it may have been added. So you need to look at the building and decide what's original, and what's a latter change, and whether those changes may have introduce the risk.

Floor tiles, ceiling tiles, artex, under-sink heat pads, sanitaryware, electrical backboards and cabinets, heating systems, cement sheet used shed rooves and garages. Not an exhaustive list (the HSE website has excellent information) but these are the sorts of places asbestos may be found. The risk varies according to the type of asbestos and its condition.

By the way, has everyone forgotten about the risk of lead in paint these days?

Ha ha! Yes good point! Always wear an FFP3 mask when sanding back all those layers!

You can get an asbestos management survey - they'll take samples of things that look suspicious.

A refurbishment and demolition survey is more in depth but will mean potentially making holes in walls and floors to see what's behind so if you're not planning to do extensive works then you probably wouldn't want to do that.

It's very likely you do have asbestos in a house of that age. It was a wonder material, added to all sorts of things. Sometimes just so they could say 'now with asbestos!' as a selling point to make it sound special

Places where it's more likely would be artex / textured walls and ceilings. Those vinyl tiles with flecks in and the black adhesive that sticks them down, paper backing on lino, wall panels inside airing cupboards, underside and walls of stairs and stairwell (it's fire proof), around the reveals of windows and external doors (it covered up damp), roof soffits and fascias (no maintenance needed so 'better' than wood), loft insulation and pipe lagging (these are the potentially most dangerous as they're 'loose' fibres that easily get into the air), and if your electrics / fuse boards etc are quite old or you have old night storage heaters they may have asbestos paper/fabric in them so shouldn't be taken apart.

If they didn't actually flag anywhere it's likely to be, then most likely the comments are just classic surveyor covering their arse rather than any particular likelihood you'll have any. It's not something that's just scattered randomly around a house waiting to surprise you. I've recently had an asbestos survey on my 1920 property (at my buyers request) and the asbestos guy was immediately pretty dismissive about the whole thing - pointed out that it is primarily something that you find in mid-century houses and even if there was any in the artex samples he went away with it would be "incredibly low risk".
In terms of what "disturbing" it means - asbestos is not at all dangerous as a solid, it's only breathing in dust that can harm you. So the time you might be at risk is if you are doing something like pulling a load of asbestos tiles up, snapping them kicking up the dust as they break. And the kind of tiles, that might be are those old 1960s-style lino type floor tiles.

Thanks all. So, I don't understand, is this something we should be doing as a standard process when buying a house or do people only bother with the asbestos survey if they need to do major reno and/or buying something built between the 50s to 80s where its presence seems obvious? Some people I am speaking with seem to think we are being excessively cautious with this and wouldn't bother

The place has original period ceilings with period details so doesn't look like it might be there? Floors are a mix of carpet and wood. Kitchen and bathroom refurbished over the past decade or so and the back was extended 15 years ago.
We are not planning major works, just changing the floors and a couple of other small things.

Our survey said there's evidence of asbestos in the cellar. We aren't doing a survey on it now as we don't have any plans to disturb it (plus there are much bigger issues)!

It doesn't cost a lot to have it looked at though.