Warm Air Ducted Heating System Removal

Reeves

muckybutt wrote: »

ACM's were used a lot in the installation of warm air heating depending when it was installed.

I am not going to bore you with the facts, however IF you think there may be boarding that contains acm DO NOT DISTURB IT, the easiest way to cope with acm's is to MANAGE IT. By manage I mean encapsulate it and keep an eye on it to make sure it doesnt start to degrade.

If you do have it on the door as you suggested thereare two options available to you.
1) You can completely remove the door, place the door and the acm onto a large plastic sheet and carefully wrap it up TWICE. Mark it ASBESTOS, ask your local council where the nearest asbestos skip is and they will dispose of it safely.

2) The cheapest way is to encapsulate it, paint it firstly with a watered down pva and water mix, that will seal the surface. Then with a good gloss paint paint the whole board and the edges, that is all you need to do. It would be advisable to write on the board once the paint is dry to advise that it is / maybe asbestos.

BTW I am UKATA trained in acm management, if it doesnt need stripping out then dont simple as that. Perfectly safe if managed correctly.

Been in the house a few months now and starting to look at some improvements now it's getting to springtime.

The door to the cupboard in the kitchen which housed the warm air boiler will be removed when we replace the kitchen so thats not a problem. The walls of the cupboard are brick built and finished with what looks like plaster.

There is steel ducting underneath the fitted wardrobes in two bedrooms which I would like to remove but this may be difficult as the gas engineer who fitted the new system before we bought the house has placed the combi boiler in the cupboard on the landing which used to house the hot water tank and routed the copper pipework over one of the ducts, essentially trapping it. If I rip out the fitted wardrobes in the future I may be able to get to it then.

There is ducting in the loft which runs from the bathroom ceiling to the third bedroom ceiling which I would like to remove. It is galvanised steel but there are sections which are wrapped in a white cloth like insulation material.

diywhynot

Reeves wrote: »

There is ducting in the loft which runs from the bathroom ceiling to the third bedroom ceiling which I would like to remove. It is galvanised steel but there are sections which are wrapped in a white cloth like insulation material.

Best have it checked out. Further advice here.

Bettie

I had my warm air replaced a few years ago with the same but a more modern J and S system. A specialist firm came from london to remove the flue containing the asbestos and replaced it with safe material and a new higher 'chimney' plus new wall vent to outside to meet safety standard. I love the system though I do think the new one is not as powerful as the old one. I used to hang my washing in front of a vent and it would blow like on a line and be dry in hours, it is barely moving now and takes a day or so to dry- though to be fair I did exchange the ugly big registers with bronze coloured ones that are slightly smaller so that could be the reason.
PS
I also had to have a new door as mine was asbestos lined

nrk2004

hello forum members

so glad to have found this thread. we are exactly in the same position as described in the first post. We have liked and wish to buy this house but it has a warm air unit fitted in. Its efficiency or maintainenance is secondary we are most concerned about any asbestos lagging in the ducting. apparently the neighbour when he removed the ducting and replaced it with a new heater+boiler noticed asbestos lagging but don't think he was trained for it.
A surveyor on the phone told me if its lagging its probably the blue one which is very dangerous.

didn't see the response yet or maybe I missed it , but can we just seal off the vents and leave the ducts in place and be safe from the asbestos ?
we then plan to just get some efficient electric radiators as then we won't have to break walls and fear disturbing anything. We are scared to wits at the moment and just can't decide whether to let go of this lovely house or our fears are just paranoia esp due to our little daughter in the house.

we are worried we might cause more harm trying to get the ducts removed even with a specialist company plus the costs which we don't know but guessing from information we have that its very very high.

the other asbestos related thing were the ceilings that were painted using artex i think as it has those patterns on them.

any help in this matter is much appreciated. looking forward to your thoughts and advice.

many thanks

Bettie

As long as it's not disturbed there isn't a problem. mine was not in the vents, it was on the cupboard door which was painted and sealed so not a problem and where the air heater meets the outside flue, from there up through the attic to outside the house, this was replaced. Other people in my street have sealed off these areas and some have left the vents some have removed them.
if you're worried about an artex ceiling then get someone in to give it a coat of skim. maybe if you intend taking the artex down and it is asbestos artex then you should take precautions when removing.
i wouldn't let it put me off.

nrk2004

Bettie wrote: »

As long as it's not disturbed there isn't a problem. mine was not in the vents, it was on the cupboard door which was painted and sealed so not a problem and where the air heater meets the outside flue, from there up through the attic to outside the house, this was replaced. Other people in my street have sealed off these areas and some have left the vents some have removed them.
if you're worried about an artex ceiling then get someone in to give it a coat of skim. maybe if you intend taking the artex down and it is asbestos artex then you should take precautions when removing.
i wouldn't let it put me off.

Thanks Bettie, was this warm air unit intalled sometimes in the 70's.
And you say that there was no asbestos lagging in the ducting ?
I really hope that is the case but is there a way to find out for sure ? in my case as obv we can't do an intrusive survey as we don't own the house yet.
Which is why started to think around sealing the vents and leave the ducts and asbestos alone but are unsure if that would make it any safer since now its completely enclosed in the wall and we will never be doing any extension or refurbishment of the house.

also is it common for this brown/blue(high grade) asbestos to be used to enclose/insulate warm air ducts ?

wallbash

None of my many ducts are lagged/ insulated/ enclosed in the house/walls/floors/ ceilings. They are just aluminum ducts . In the loft there are a few ducts BUT they are only well wrapped up in standard loft insulation.

we then plan to just get some efficient electric radiators

So you want to dump a brilliant SAFE system for electric rads !!!!

A surveyor on the phone told me if its lagging its probably the blue one which is very dangerous.

He can tell all this , not seeing the installation ......... remind me not to use this guy .

r our fears are just paranoia esp due to our little daughter in the house.

I hope ( for your daughters sake ) your paranoia is not catching .

Ps can anyone find a case of asbestos poisoning due to warm air heating .

Bettie

nrk2004 wrote: »

Thanks Bettie, was this warm air unit intalled sometimes in the 70's.
And you say that there was no asbestos lagging in the ducting ?
I really hope that is the case but is there a way to find out for sure ? in my case as obv we can't do an intrusive survey as we don't own the house yet.
Which is why started to think around sealing the vents and leave the ducts and asbestos alone but are unsure if that would make it any safer since now its completely enclosed in the wall and we will never be doing any extension or refurbishment of the house.

also is it common for this brown/blue(high grade) asbestos to be used to enclose/insulate warm air ducts ?

This house was built in the 60s, The ducts, both inlet and out are made of metal. It is the flue that sits on top of the warm air heater that can hold asbestos. That flue takes the fumes up and out of the roof. My neighbour has not removed the flue despite doing away with the heater. I wouldn't mess with that flue. If the warm air system is working then it would pay to have it serviced and then put it to good use. It is a really good heating system.

nrk2004

wallbash wrote: »

None of my many ducts are lagged/ insulated/ enclosed in the house/walls/floors/ ceilings. They are just aluminum ducts . In the loft there are a few ducts BUT they are only well wrapped up in standard loft insulation.

Thanks wallbash, I don't know enough which is why i'm here so I would not say your case is uncommon but I would think you were lucky it wasn't used. As mentioned our neighbour noticed it while removing his ducting and he mentioned it was white in colour .
So when I spoke to this asbestos expert he mentioned that white/brown/blue varieties of asbestos always appear white in colour when its used in construction. So the actual colour used in construction could be misleading etc...

This is as per what he said,
white is more commonly used to mix with other materials like cement or paint etc, so artex, flue pipes could have them. this has lesser concentration of asbestos although its still bad.

the brown/blue(not using scientific names) are the higher grade and several times more dangerous but were used primarily as fire retardants and hence used as lagging around boiler pipes, ducts, or as vibration dampers between ducts etc
but he has been booked in for a survey , this is just info he told me over the phone from experience and he thought if the neighbouring house of my semi has it then our house could have it too and it would probably be this type.

this is why we are feeling extremely worried, the thought of living with them in a ducting was even more scary, had it been in some exposed area then we either remove/wrap them properly, but this is difficult to know without ripping the walls to see the ducting. Any inputs appreciated if you know a way to find out without ripping walls as its not our home yet unfortunately.

which is why we had this idea about sealing all the vents so atleast nothing gets out :-( but then we are no experts and wanted some opinions/advice here as to whether that is recommended or would it cause some other issues. Or is there any other solution etc.

( even if the ducting were externally wrapped etc, if the pipes have a gap or a crack, fibres could still make their way into the airstream ? we saw some websites mention this )

wallbash wrote: »

So you want to dump a brilliant SAFE system for electric rads !!!!

If we were to have it confirmed there is no asbestos , believe me we like the thought of having warm air heating, as we dislike the look of radiators too and the advantage of instant heat is also hard to ignore.
we chose to use electric if we were to seal the vents simply because then we won't have to rip the walls and disturb any asbestos while laying water pipes.

wallbash

but I would think you were lucky it wasn't used

Or you could be the unlucky one.
Half the houses in my street have warm air, the son of the guy who installed the system , when the house was orig built still services the boiler.

I still maintain there is a 'lot' of info coming from a phone call.

PS when you have been reassured , make certain you get the phone number of the person who can service the boiler, you do need a specialist, British Gas won't be able to help.