Asbestos test ruined garage contents?

lackingwedge

Hi all, my cellar was lined with Asbestolux boarding when i moved in. Was Quoted anything between 3 and 6K to remove.

Spent £100 on safety gear from Screfix (gloves, beathing mask, suit) as well as a couple of brushes and PVA glue.

diluted the PVA 50:50 with water. brushed the PVA onto the board. Removed the board and bagged with the council provided bags (They charge £75 to remove) I then hoovered up with a dust extractor hired (£60) I then used a brush to apply PVA to the joists that i removed the board from.

All for around £250 or so.

phill99

uk_messer wrote: »

Actually it can be in plasterboard, in thermal blocks, even in concrete render. There came a point where they were sticking it in everything.

Happy to be corrected.

choccyface2006

Thank you again for all the replies, had a busy day so unable to get on until now.

The PVA solution is a good one, thank you. My dad will weigh up all the options but probably wouldn't undertake that sort of work himself but I will offer if it looks like it would be a good solution. ☺

The second test isn't back yet so they will get advice based on that, I also don't understand how it could be so dangerous yet over boarded.

Plenty of the neighbours will the same house have had their conversions done and the two that my dad spoke to didn't even have any tests for asbestos.

Sarah

choccyface2006

Digforvictory, I'll be at the house at the weekend so I'll find out where we are up to then. As far as I can remember we only have some tents and padded outdoor chairs in there, thankfully the rest of our camping gear is safely stored at our house. The rest of the contents are my parents bikes, furniture that has been in the family for a long time but not valuable, caravan equipement , carpets that can be disposed of anyway and tools.

We will wait until my dad is happy they will be OK then get them out, I'm reluctant to do it sooner as I don't want to take any chances, especially with the tent as we will be using it in the summer with children.

Sarah

BuntyB

If the panels are un damaged I believe you can paint them to seal them

choccyface2006

Thanks Buntyb, they are undamaged apart from where a sample was taken.

Sarah

trailingspouse

While you may be happy to seal the asbestos/overboard it etc, I would suggest you also need to have an eye to the future. If/when the house is sold, it will of course be noticed in any survey - and may well put off potential buyers.

I would recommend removal both to give yourselves peace of mind, and to make a future sale easier.

choccyface2006

Thank you trailingspouse, hadn't thought of that but its a good point.

Sarah

stebiz

I actually started a thread on asbestos choccy a couple of months back.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4940366

The truth is the vast majority of us have (or have had) it in their homes. Artex, tiles, putty, lino, soffits, bath panels, sinks etc etc and many are ignorant to the fact or prefer to turn a blind eye.

There are 5000 deaths a year from asbestos related illness - that equates to about 1 in 15,000 people alive today who will die from it. Try and put that in comparison with road accidents, obesity, smoking etc and it is small. Add to this that the vast majority of those 10 in 150,000 have worked with the stuff day in day out you can understand what I'm trying to say.

I've just done a full refurb of my house and had asbestos surveys who found 'traces' of the stuff in the artex. I had this removed professionally at a cost of £1,000 but the trace was less than 1% -might even have been 0.01%.

Bearing in mind that 30 million war gas masks where made of the stuff, cigarette buts in the 50's also, the risk really seems small compared with other day to day events.

At the same time though your Dad may have a fear, like I have, that can at times become irrational. I think he should respect the material but not be afraid of it.

On a personal note I was glad that I had all mine removed, although I'm not naive enough to think that every last piece has gone from a house 80 years old. Even old lino that was ripped up would have deposited it under the floor boards - and ALL houses had lino.

'Post-mortem studies of people aged between 60 -79 years who had not died from asbestos-related diseases have shown up to one million asbestos fibres per gram of dry lung tissue'.

http://www.deir.qld.gov.au/asbestos/general/health-effects.htm

So we've all breathed it in.

choccyface2006

Stebiz, this is very interesting, I will show my dad tomorrow.

Sarah