Asbestos....

[Eastie]

On the weekend I continued the quest to exorcise my house of the tortures it has suffered at the hands of inept past owners. High on the list is a proper restumping job, but not before I address the issue of drainage. Within ten minutes of action on the crowbar and trenching shovel I had a trench three feet long, one foot deep and a bucket full of broken up asbestos cement sheet that had been buried by the previous owners. Why they bothered moving so much soil to bury it rather than pay the fee at the local licensed asbestos tip is beyond me?

Anyway I thought about writing a bit of a blurb about asbestos safety, but I’d only be repeating what others have already penned so I’ve linked a couple of good reference documents for dealing with asbestos in the home. Although the principles of these documents are universal, like railway gauges our laws aren't so check your states legislation regarding removal works.

I’m not interested in arguments regarding the poor practices of council/private tips and how they simply run over it with the excavator ….. If you are concerned with such practices let someone who can do something know (i.e call the local council/epa/worksafe/department of health). After all if you’ve seen such things first hand do you remember which way the wind was blowing?

http://www.dhs.vic.gov.au/phd/enviro...s_home2003.pdf

http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/b...os_in_the_home

[silentC]

Hey Eastie, sounds like you bought my old house

But seriously, I worked for a builder a few years ago who didn't believe in paying someone to take his rubbish away, so he got us to pile it all up in strategically placed mounds, then dumped a load of pine bark on top and called the mounds garden beds. I remember at one point having to remove a paint tin so that I could plant a native shrub.

He didn't even bother burying it, so I suppose you should think yourself lucky the previous owner went to that much trouble.

I wonder how much fibro is buried in backyards. I was demolishing a slab in my backyard in Sydney and I'd hired a skip to take away the rubble. We took out a bit of top soil with a bobcat as well. When the guy came to pick the skip up, he spotted a 2" square piece of fibro in the soil. I got a phone call from the wife telling me that the driver had refused to take the skip because it was "full of fibro", had called his boss on the 2-way and the boss had said "dump it in their driveway". I rang and convinced them it was unintentional and got them to leave it there for another day. I spent the afternoon sifting through it. I found 19 pieces of fibro - not exactly full.

They told me that they have so many people trying to sneak fibro out in their skips that they have adopted a "shoot first" mentality about it. The thing is, if they turn up at a tip with fill or top soil that has fibro in it, they will be banned from using the tip, which is a problem when you rely on access to a tip to make your living. They also told me that the contents of all their skips are sorted by hand just in case any fibro has snuck through.

[jackiew]

I had two bits of fibro tested recently ... the first sample was free as I was just a householder not a business but they had to charge for the second sample ( about $20).

Both samples turned out to contain asbestos but now I know and can take appropriate precautions/engage contractors to get it disposed of.

Its a small price to pay for certainty of what you're dealing with.

[journeyman Mick]

I use this simple test for checking if fibro cement has asbestos in it. If it has I tell the builder or owner that it's goodbye from me.
break a piece off and crumble an edge, if you look closely you will see small fibres (like little hairs), using a lighter, give them a really good singe. If they burn they're cellulose fibres, if they don't it's asbestos:mad:.

Mick

[bitingmidge]

Lost my chippie brother-in-law at age 42 to Mesothelioma (asbestos-caused lung cancer) which has to be the toughest kind of wake-up call.

There was a time when we thought it was safe because the little furry bits had been encapsulated, and the guys used to save time by cutting it with a circular saw. So much dust on them they looked like snowmen (shudder!). Some payed a big price.

Mick has the right idea!

On a lighter note, on a renovation job a few years ago the decontamination guys removed a "super six" asbestos sheet roof from a house, and stacked the sheeting (wet) on the footpath for collection the next day set up under a garden sprinkler.

Day dawned and the whole lot had been knocked off, saving my client a few thousand dollars in tip fees. No we never did get around to calling the boys in blue, just hope the thieves weren't making a cubby house for their kids.

Cheers,

P

[davo453]

Heard a story a few years ago, were someone bought a small acreage south of Perth, a really nice block apparently with a long driveway (approx 300 mtrs) leading to a level site for construction of the house.

The site was survey by the builder and latter visited by the site supervisor. He noticed something odd about the driveway and took a sample for testing, it was asbestos.

The seller of the land had apparently used crushed building rubble for the driveway, that had contained asbestos. The builder refused to start work until the whole lot was professionally removed and a replacement access track constructed.

Not sure what the purchaser did but I guess he would have had a few words with the seller. Wish I knew the end of the story really

Older parts of suburban Perth are full of thousands of kilometres of asbestos super six fencing and many older commercial buildings still have asbestos roofs in various stages of decay, a long term time bomb I guess.

Dave

[dzcook]

will try the test on the old hse as have been wondering how i could test it myself

what about age ? i mean if the hse is 60 yrs old is it a certainy to have asbestos in the walls or did they make sheet without it in the ' old ' days ? and when did fibro have it removed ? the 60s or when ?

just interested as later on want to have all the old stuff removed but if the newer sheets 10 yrs or so are ok then will leave them can notice a real difference in the appearence the texture etc is very different

thks david

[journeyman Mick]

David,
I'm not sure exactly when they ceased using asbestos in fbro sheeting altogether, I have a feeling it was the late 70s early 80s as that's when I remember seeing asbestos free stickers on the backs of sheets.

Mick

[jackiew]

David,

I wouldn't rely on the date that something has been installed in the house to decide whether it has asbestos in it or not .... who knows where any sheets came from or how long they had been sat in someones store-room.

I've got a bird aviary that doesn't look too old in my garden but the sheeting its made of contains asbestos. I'm probably going to bite the bullet with the cost and get someone in to remove it and also some of the cladding that the previous owner put over the weatherboards of the house ... In victoria you can get access to a list of registered asbestos removalists ... presume this would be the case elsewhere in Australia.

[jane99]

On the weekend realised that the cement sheeting which has been used on the top 1/3 of the house instead of weatherboards was probably asbestos. Our carpenter didn't care, and actually another carpenter who came by didn't care either. I was worried thinking that we had to get a licenced person in to remove it pronto, which of course is the safest method, but when I checked the EPA website you don't have to do this. There are regulations re. asbestos in the workplace, and regulations for asbestos removalists to follow, but domestically you can do it yourself. They have a document on how to safely remove it (for us, wet it, don't break it, double wrap it in thick plastic). I then rang Geelong tip and Chemsal in Laverton re. disposal. A trailer load of asbestos dumped at Geelong tip costs $20, and Chemsal charge 40c per kilo.

[ozwinner]

Do they still put asbestos in car brakes?

Just as a matter of interest I have a specimen blue asbestos from WA, I collect gems and minerals, also the gemstone Tigers Eye is a form of asbestos. ( which has since changed over time )
Cheers, Al

[davo453]

Am pretty sure they no longer put asbestos in car brakes, my local auto shop was selling off all the old asbestos linings cheap at the end of last year.

[journeyman Mick]

Asbestos brake pads and linings are no longer allowed to be fitted since late last year (I have a mate who works in auto brakes). Of course there are still vehicles that have them fitted but they must be replaced (eventually) with non asbestos linings. In Qld you must be licensed to remove certain types of asbestos products and for removal over certain quantities. I've never bothered to find out as I won't touch the stuff.

Mick

[ChrisH]

In 1978 I had a part time job after school at the local Mitre 10.

We were still selling AC sheet with asbestos warning stickers on it. So I'd guess it was still being installed by 1980...
Chris.

[silentC]

My uncle was the building maintenance manager in a power station in East Gippsland Vic. He looked after offices and utility buildings and was not involved with the power station proper. When they finally admitted that there was a problem with asbestos, they made him the asbestos safety officer.

Power stations were the worst place to work because they used asbestos-based lagging to insulate pipes and it was all over the place. People used to come home from work covered from head to toe in white powder and hug their wives and children. A few of the people who worked at that plant are dead now

My uncle told me that flat fibro sheet has very little asbestos in it and you have to be very unlucky to inhale a fibre from it. Not that it's not possible, just highly unlikely - unless you are cutting it with power tools or breaking it up. While it's stuck to the walls of your house and undisturbed, it's not dangerous. I sometimes wonder about the dust thats lying around in the ceiling and in the wall cavities though and what might be in it.

The stuff that does contain a heap of it is anything that has a shape, like the Super 6 corrugated roofing, gutters, flashings etc. That apparently has a very high level of asbestos fibre in it due to the difficulty of getting it to hold it's shape.

The point is don't panic if your house is clad with fibro. It's only really going to be a problem if you want to remove it for some reason.