Replacement for asbestos soffits, fascias guttering etc

firsttimediyer

Hi All,

I've recently bought a house three bed end terrace. We had a bathroom extractor fan fitted by an electrician on his recommendation when he came to do another job but have since discovered this is venting straight into the loft with the hose just buried under the insulation. There are no vents on our soffits or roof tile vents which was raised in the survey but there was no condensation at the time. Now loads of condensation in the loft. Have stopped using extractor but need to find a way to sort. Our soffits are amosite/chrysotile asbestos (we knew this when we bought the house and negotiated a bit of money off as we were told would cost us an extra £5k if we wanted to do a loft extension) and i've been told we shouldn't drill into this to put vents in. All the roofing boards in a bad way so considering replacing all,

Have had several quotes ranging from £1,000 to replace fasicas, soffits, guttering and downpipes to £2,500 from anglian home improvements (negotiated down from about £4k with agreeing to have advert boards up etc) but if our soffits turn out to be the bad type of asbestos will be additional £1,200 to have them removed.

Does anyone know what the bad sort of asbestos is in Anglian home improvement terms?

Also worried the guy charging £1200 is going to use substandard materials / do a bad job off ladders / put himself at risk if it is the bad sort of asbestos.

I've also been suggested to use easi vents in the roofing felt but a bit wary of this.

Any tips / experience much appreciated.

TheCyclingProgrammer

Are the soffits in otherwise good condition? If so, surely it would be much easier and cheaper to fit a roof tile vent instead?

kirtsypoos

The 'bad type of asbestos' will be asbestos insulating board which sounds right given that you have amosite and chrysotile asbestos fibres within. Asbestos cement products normally contain chrysotile and/or crocidolite rather than amosite (although not unheard of)

Anglian windows cannot do the asbestos removal themselves if it is, asbestos insulating board (AIB) is a notifiable material, meaning it's removal has to be notified to the Health and Safety executive and only a licensed contractor can complete the removal. Even if the material is cement, make sure the company employed has insurance for working with asbestos.

If it is soffits, and they are at first floor you would also need to allow for scaffold complete with a haki staircase for use during the removal (HSE requirements)

As TheCyclingProgrammer says, if there is another route - take it!

leveller2911

The soffits may well be "masterboard" which is a cement based board but it does not contain asbestos and does you don't need any special precautions to remove it.

Blue asbestos was the worse one but that was mostly used as a form of "plaster of paris type bandages" and used for pipe insulating in schools,ships etc.

IIRC White asbestos was produced from the same rock as Talcum powder.


Whats the age of the property?.

prosaver

I would buy a hose vent and some sun tan oil..
connect one end to the vent with an aluminium vent tube and with the other end, leave it sticking a little out of the eves and forget about the new facai boards

.http://www.builderdepot.co.uk/manrose-100mm-4-x-1-5m-length-aluminium-ducting.html?gclid=CNmll4GcyMoCFQeVGwodtgYOSQ

And go on holiday with the money you saved.
Im sure your other half will like that idea better.

kirtsypoos

I'm guessing the OP/previous owner has already had the soffits tested as they have the breakdown of the fibres contained within.

It's not necessarily the asbestos type which determines the 'dangerous-ness' of the material, it is the material itself (ie how friable it is, how easily disturbed the location etc)

OP, I'd go with prosavers idea (or something similar) asbestos removal is so costly (I work for an assy removal firm, so I speak from experience) that I'd go for any other possible option, especially as apart from this, soffits are not exactly prone to damage or regular access.

Ben84

You could also install a fan vent through a window/wall?

As for the soffits, the actual asbestos cement material tends to be pretty durable in my experience. It doesn't rot or anything. So, if they're just in need of painting, I'd paint them.

kirtsypoos

Please make sure you confirm the material type before taking any action - it is for good reason that work with asbestos insutlating board is licensed work - fibre release is common as the material is friable and even painting can release fibres.

Ben84

To be clear, this is apparently asbestos cement, not asbestos insulating board. Asbestos cement is much tougher stuff intended for external use, and the issues are different. I don't want to try to summarise what they say, better to get it from the source, but the government do offer advice on how people can paint otherwise good condition asbestos cement, and if you search the site for 'asbestos cement' there's more to read about it:

http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/guidance/a0.pdf
http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/guidance/a16.pdf

Our painters followed this or something similar from them at the time when painting ours.

kirtsypoos

While all that is correct Ben, the OP has not specified whether it is asbestos cement, and it is not uncommon for soffits to actually be asbestos insulating board. Asbestos cement commonly contains either Chrysotile (white) asbestos, and/or Crocidolite (Blue) asbestos. Occasionally is found to contain Amosite (brown) fibres, but this is much more uncommon.

Asbestos Insulating board tends to contain Amosite (brown) and/or Chrysotile (white)

Given the op has had a sample taken which states amosite and chrysotile, I certainly wouldn't be encouraging the painting of a class 1 carcinogen without further analysis.Hence my advice not to take any action until the material is confirmed.