Asbestos Advice

grey13_2

Hi all,

I'm hoping for some advice.

We're currently in the process of buying a 70's built house. Now, not surprisingly, it came up in the survey that it may contain asbestos (not in itself that surprising). For most of the house, this doesn't worry me, as we're not planning on disturbing much for some time.

However, there are two issues:
- One of the upstairs bedrooms has had the ceiling start to come away from the wall (crack along most of the join with the wall). We suspect this is a result of a recently fixed roof leak, but can't be certain. We suspect that this may need to be replaced, although we're investigating whether we can repair
- The survey indicated that the majority of the upstairs ceilings are of a similar "unknown foam board", for which the durability is uncertain, and may present a fire hazard.

Now, the second part here, I'm sure, is the surveyor covering their backside, but with a baby on the way (soon!), I'm in full on worry mode about anything being unsafe and either way, presents the increased probability of having to replace the ceilings.

Given the increased likelihood of having to replace those ceilings, we had an asbestos survey, which confirmed the presence of white asbestos on the samples taken (and therefore assumed in all rooms)

From what I can make out, no licence is required to remove white asbestos, and if it was just my husband and I, we'd have probably just DIYed it, or got in a plasterer to replace the ceiling, but with the little on on the way (aka mummy-to-be obsessive paranoia), I'm not taking any chances and want the place perfectly safe when the work is done. Has anyone removed ceilings with asbestos coatings, and does anyone have any advice for what we should look for when hiring someone to replace the ceilings?

Thanks in advance!

Davesnave

I haven't any advice you'd want to listen to about artexed ceilings, 'foamboard' and the like, but I can predict with reasonable accuracy that the second one will be much better balanced!