Those home handyman neighbours

[LineLefty]

Just got a call at work from SWMBO,

Apparently the home handyman diagonally behind our place has decided to erect a colourbond fence.

In order to do so he's decided to put on his stubbies and thongs use an angle grinder and cut-off the existing ASBESTOS fence at groundlevel. Our whole backyard is now covered in asbestos dust, including our pool. :mad: :mad:

Council has been rung, and are on their way. Btw, it's 37 degrees over here and she's at home with a 11week old baby and now can't turn the aircon on :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

Some people...................................

Hopefully the council will also see his half completed, homebuilt house extension.

[DaveInOz]

Go easy on him lefty, if it wasn't for our brains, looks, and talent, it could have been us doing it :D

Hope it isn't asbestos just some cement sheet or such - not that any of is good.

[Wood Borer]

LineLefty,

I am so sorry to hear what that scum has done to you and your precious family.

Is there any chance it is not asbestos?

Slime like that should not be allowed to breed or wander around free.

I wish there is somethiong I could do to help other than hit keys on a keyboard.

[ozwinner]

LineLefty,

I am so sorry to hear what that scum has done to you and your precious family.

Is there any chance it is not asbestos?

Slime like that should not be allowed to breed or wander around free.

I wish there is somethiong I could do to help other than hit keys on a keyboard.
You could wander the streets giveing out frangers to the dumb looking ppl. :D
I can just hear you calling out like a market stall holder.
*******Free frangers, get your frangers here!!*******

Al :D :D

[ozwinner]

Now that Ive had my laugh for the day, I agree Rob, some ppl shouldnt be allowed to breed.
I do hope it isnt asbestos....:eek:

Al :mad:

[Shaty40]

If it is asbestos, I hope that he feels the full weight of the law, and is made to pay for a full cleanup of the site.

And then castrate him!!!

Tim

[E. maculata]

What the hell is wrong with some people, even if it's not he should have warned others. In the meantime try to wet the dust down safely and phone the EPA as well, just to be sure cause the council may not be up to speed

[LineLefty]

Thanks for the kind words all, and don't worry, I'm the non-confrontational type. There'll be no 'A Current Affair' worthy arguments!

The council inspector is due in an hour and a half, I'll let you know the results.

Of course it's been a while now so the easterlies have distributed the dust all over neighbourhood.

[ernknot]

Be very careful and keep away from the fence line. Your neighbour has just condemed himself to an early death. Cement sheet up to and maybe beyond 1976 is still ASBESTOS even though "they" call it cement sheet . Don't belive all the council is going to tell you because it will be bad politics if it is identified as ASBESTOS. Also the cost of handling this **** will be expensive. Have it tested and take care of your young family. One very tiny fiber can and will kill you. I don't like being the bearer of bad news but you got bad news. Your neighbour is already history. What a dumb S.O.B. ( I am so F*************** livid to learn that we still have these neanderthal type people in our so called educated and street wise society.

[LineLefty]

I dont think it will necesarily (I can never spell that word) be bad politics if it's asbestos. Every backyard fence in WA was made from the stuff.

[Jacksin]

Yeh good luck Lefty. I dont have any faith in local councils as I think they are staffed by off spring of dumb SOB's. Get onto the EPA. If its asbestos I would sue this dumb SOB for all he has got.

Why is it always the brainless morons who multiply incessantly?
Jack ;)

[ozwinner]

Why is it always the brainless morons who multiply incessantly?
Jack ;)
Cause they say, Gee maa, how the ferk did that happen, again!!.

Al :D

[nt900]

Sorry top hear about what is going on there. There should be a large scale initiative to clean up <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Australia</st1:place></st1:country-region> of the asbestos that remains in neighbourhoods and industry, because of situations like this.

About 18 months ago we notified our local council that there was asbestos being exposed at the local dog walking / general public park area, as the shorefront is being eroded. As a result of someone’s previous smart idea to include the stuff in the fill used to rebuild the shoreline. Not the stuff is exposed all along the shore. The council spent about 12 months consulting and managing committees before they signposted the area, then finally attended to the problem. Then spend many weeks 'cleaning' the area. In fact they spent the time and money fixing a close by areas erosion problems and left the asbestos area, and actually exposed more asbestos. 18 months later, bigger problem. We have notified the EPA.

As you can see by the sign, there was no intention to clean up the problem, just cover it up again, to be exposed again in the future.

[wombat47]

In our rather depressed (financially as well as emotionally) country community, you can just about get away with anything. On my way home one day I saw the asbestos roof of an old corner store being ripped off and thrown into an open truck parked on the footpath - right next to a public phone - a block from a primary school - and, being just after 3.30, kids walking up the street and around the back of the truck!!!!!!!!!!! There was also a strong breeze blowing so god knows where the dust was going.

I rang the DLI who immediately put me on to the correct people and, just over an hour later, I had a call from an inspector who had driven out from our nearest city, stopped all work on the roof and, according to the inspector, had notified the owner, as well as the council, of the safety measures which was required by law. The inspector assured me that the owner of the building would have to hire the appropriate people with the appropriate equipment.

Yea - right. The building sat there with nothing happening for a couple of months and I'm checking it out almost daily on my way past. Going past one morning about 8.15am and the rest of the roof is off. It was there the previous evening. Now I didn't see how it was done but they must have started pretty early in the morning - probably early enough for no-one to be around to see what they doing.

And I don't suppose it made any difference that the owner, as I found out in the course of things, was one of our trusted council alderpersons!!!

We have an old factory - a huge building on a huge bit of land - that is full of asbestos in roofing, pipe lagging, etc. etc. A couple of years ago one of our town builders bought it and announced plans to demolish the factory and build houses. The local Trades & Labor Council letterboxed all the houses in the vicinity, warning them of the dangers and outlined the safety measures required in demolition. Funny - the new owner hastily put it on the market again. He hasn't managed to sell it yet.

I wouldn't waste my time my council - too much inbreeding and backscratching. And what is a life worth when compared to making a quid.

[Christopha]

I have had a fair bit of exposure to asbestos from a young age. As a youngster I helped my Dad erect a lot of it, when I first left school I worked in a brake service where everything was abestos! As an apprentice carpenter I got to cut a lot of the stuff in sheet form with a bloody power saw and cut-off wheel and then when I had finished my apprenticeship I worked in high rise construction for a couple of years and every bit of bloody steel was coated in the crumbly crap...... I hate the Schidt and it may do me in eventually but I am not afraid of it, I shall be removing the asbestos roof from the verandah of my beach shack son and I have no qualms about handling and disposing of it.

Don't panic, shoot your neighbour, sell your house, move to Wittenoom and take up deep breathing exercises just in case he didn't get you already..... ;)

[routermaniac]

Linelefty,

from a medical point of view, although your neighbour is an absolute idiot and should probably be castrated, his tools taken away and made to use a tooth brush to paint my timber home :D ... your family is probably going to be ok.

Interstitial lung disease due to asbestos occurs after prolonged exposure over many years, as does mesothelioma. You'd have to basically be sitting outside breathing in the stuff as the idiot was cutting it.... for many months :eek: .

I do however share your concern about the 37 degrees and no aircon. And I do hope they plan on cleaning your property PROPERLY.

Best of luck mate

[vsquizz]

Hey Lefty, If the ridge spacing is 6" it may or may not be asbestos. If the ridge spacing is 8" its super 8 and not asbestos. Its all dangerous in dust form. I got some of my super 6 checked out by a lab and it came back negative for blue asbestos and its about 14 years old.

Its no consolation to me that my old commonwealth medical file has "Asbestos exposure" stamped all over it but you have to look out for your family mate.

Fair dinkum, I pulled out 28 metres of the super 6 by myself and just a shovel, all done in an hour and a half. How hard is it?.

Sick em Rex

Cheers

[Wood Butcher]

Interesting story along the same lines:-

I bought a house built in the early fifties with a super 6 roof. After we had been in the house for about a year decided the roof had to go. I made a few phone calls to professional abestos removers and they all quoted figures around $5000. The replacement roof was going to cost me only $3800, so i made some enquiries as to wether or not i could do the job myself.
First call was to the local council, asked building services what i needed to do. The reply was that it is out of their jurisdiction better call EPA.
Second call - EPA. The EPA said that as long as we take the sheets of intact and take care great care to minimize dust it will be okay, excpet for transport. Current QLD legislation states that ithout a special licence you can not carry more that 250kg of dangerous goods and it must be fully covered. So i ask "What if I make several trips?", reply "Fine by us!". Lastly they recommended I call Workplace Health and Safety.
Third call - WH&S. I found out that since I was doing the work on my own property for my own benefit that WH&S laws all but don't count and I didn't have to wear an safety gear if I want. (Needless to say, I wore every piece of safety gear that I could.) But just to be sure the bloke at WH&S said that I should call my local council???
Back to square ONE.
Anyway, I did a lot of research on the web looking at every piece of information or legislation that I could find in Australia and did everything that I could to prevent anyone else being exposed to the sheeting.
The worst part was when I took the sheeting to the dump the management team out there had dug a big hole for me to place the sheeting in. Only problem was that I could not get the ute anywhere near the hole. "She'll be right, just but it where you can and we will move it later." After the last trip I went to the "trash and Treasure" shop at the tip to look around and looked back to see my stack of sheeting being driven over by a great big dozer??!??
Must admit I left as quickly ad I could.

To end a long story, I did everything that I could and in the end it didn't make one ***** of difference.

[johnmc]

I recently removed some super six sheeting from my old carport. I simply hired a skip which is lined with heavy duty plastic, loaded up the offending material and sealed the skip with the same plastic. The skip company took it to the contaminated waste site and did the EPA paperwork - all for $250.

I did similar research to you, Wood Butcher, about disposing it at the dump, but it seemed like a major hassle.

[LineLefty]

Update,

The council inspector came out, and contrary to all your jaded views!, he was a good bloke who seemed really concerned. He's assured us that its Super 6, but is concerned that it my still have an asbestos component in it as it looks at least 20yrs old. Even if it isn't he says the dust from hardi(pitoohey!)fence is still dangerous.

He did have a good long look at the half finished house extensions this bloke has slapped up...............

Thanks all