Asbestos removal quotes

kilby_007

Hi,

We've just bought a house and found that there's asbestos insulation boards covering the double garage ceiling. I've phoned for 3 quotes from licensed asbestos removers which vary wildly:-
£1700+VAT (£2040)
£2400+VAT (£2880)
£3000+VAT (£3600)

I asked the guy who gave the cheapest quote if he did clean air tests when he was finished as per the HSE regs and he said they did so it seems to be a no brainer to go with the cheapest option but I'm just wondering if I'm doing the right thing or if there would be some value or additional piece of mind with shelling out more. I don't want to shell out £800 or £1600 more for the sake of it!

firefox1956

Why not just leave it alone ???
Cheapest option by far.............
Oh & you should have been told about the asbestos when you
were in the process of buying the house.
HTH

andrewf75

Presumably the boards are failing or need removal for some other reason? Otherwise no need to do anything.

trailingspouse

We had the asbestos ceiling removed above our integral double garage about three years ago. It cost £1125 +VAT, so your lower quote doesn't sound too crazy.

We didn't have a full survey done before buying the house (we already knew that everything needed doing, so it wasn't going to tell us much!!), and it was the electrician who spotted it when he came to do the rewiring. Reasonably enough he wasn't prepared to work on that area while it was in place. And also, looking to the future, I thought it made sense to get rid as future buyers might be put off by it.

I found the asbestos removal company on the Wednesday, they came and took a sample away for testing, confirmed that it was indeed asbestos the same day, and came out 2 days later to remove it. We had to clear everything out of the garage, and they went in with the full protective gear on. All bagged up, certificate of removal provided. And they hoovered the garage!!

kilby_007

firefox1956 wrote: »

Why not just leave it alone ???
Cheapest option by far.............
Oh & you should have been told about the asbestos when you
were in the process of buying the house.
HTH

The house is empty and we're renovating and re-wiring it. The electrician has already expressed reservations about removing the old lights which are screwed into the AIB. AIB is very dangerous compared to your average asbestos cement garage roof as it releases fibres very easily and I'll be using the garage as a workshop where I'm likely to be carrying long lengths of wood etc which will undoubtedly at some point hit the roof. Recent independent studies have found that removing a single drawing pin from AIB releases on average 600 fibres.

andrewf75 wrote: »

Presumably the boards are failing or need removal for some other reason? Otherwise no need to do anything.

The boards aren't failing yet, although there's a few small cracked pieces where big nails have been hammered through for hanging things. I did look at an identical house down the road and their asbestos was in quite a bad way so I think it's only a matter of time before ours goes the same way. I might as well get it removed whilst the garage is empty.

trailingspouse wrote: »

We had the asbestos ceiling removed above our integral double garage about three years ago. It cost £1125 +VAT, so your lower quote doesn't sound too crazy.

I found the asbestos removal company on the Wednesday, they came and took a sample away for testing, confirmed that it was indeed asbestos the same day, and came out 2 days later to remove it. We had to clear everything out of the garage, and they went in with the full protective gear on. All bagged up, certificate of removal provided. And they hoovered the garage!!

Was it AIB (flat insulation boards underhung from the garage roof) or asbestos cement (e.g. corrugated roof)? Removal of AIB is notifiable to the HSE and the notice period is 2 weeks.

trailingspouse

Kilby - can't remember the technical name for it, but it was the least nasty variety. Flat, not corrugated (it was effectively the ceiling, as the garage is in our basement). Ironically, at some point it was against building regs to have an integral garage without an asbestos ceiling!! We replaced it with fire retardant plaster board.

Niv

trailingspouse wrote: »

Kilby - can't remember the technical name for it, but it was the least nasty variety. Flat, not corrugated (it was effectively the ceiling, as the garage is in our basement). Ironically, at some point it was against building regs to have an integral garage without an asbestos ceiling!! We replaced it with fire retardant plaster board.

Sounds like asbestos cement containing white / Crysotile asbestos

Risteard

kilby_007 wrote: »

I asked the guy who gave the cheapest quote if he did clean air tests when he was finished as per the HSE regs and he said they did so it seems to be a no brainer to go with the cheapest option but I'm just wondering if I'm doing the right thing or if there would be some value or additional piece of mind with shelling out more. I don't want to shell out £800 or £1600 more for the sake of it!

It generally makes much more sense to give consideration to the middle quote and not to the cheapest quote. Certainly with Asbestos the consequences of wrongly chasing the cheapest quote could be extremely dire.

kilby_007

We got the test results from our sample back. The AIB is brown (amosite) and white (chrysotile) asbestos so it is definitely the dangerous stuff. Thankfully the kitchen samples we had done from our flat roof came back clear so it's not all bad.


I have asked both unlicensed and licensed companies to quote for removing this stuff and all of the unlicensed companies were consistent with the HSE guidelines in saying they were only legally allowed to remove asbestos cement (not insulating boards). The cheaper option turned out not to be so cheap after I sent the images. He had got confused by my terminology "roof" and "ceiling" and had assumed I meant Asbestos Cement (even though I said Asbestos Insulating Board) so the quote jumped from £1700+VAT to £2600+VAT which is in between the two other quotes I had. I went with him in the end because he was recommended by a friend and a couple of the other unlicensed companies.


So, that's me 3K out of pocket! Ouch... A couple of people mentioned that I should have been told about this during the process but I can't find anything in the property information form (which the vendor completes) where it asks for it to be declared and I certainly wasn't told about it. Does the vendor legally have to declare it and is there any recourse now, either through my conveyancing solicitor or through the courts?

PhilE

I paid £2500 for the removal of AIB that had been covering an asbestos flue. A heating engineer had carelessly broken it. This included the initial test for asbestos, its removal and an air safe certificate afterwards.

Most older buildings contain asbestos. If the house was built before 1985(off the top of my head) then it most probably contains asbestos.

Some people don't even know where the asbestos actually is in their house anyway. I was chatting to a neighbor in an identical house, he'd been there 2 decades and had no idea whether his flue casing was AIB or not, despite having had his boiler changed twice.


Would I have known about it if the heating engineer hadn't smashed the AIB? No.

I've had to fork out a bit to sort out the asbestos in my home, however if it had been undamaged I simply would have left it. I was aware that my flue had to go, so I got 1K reduced from the price and I'd already reduced it before that.
So, there's nothing there for me to complain to the vendors about really. The house was safe for habitation when I bought it, and as an older property it most probably had asbestos.

Depends on the state of the AIB when you bought the house, and how much you paid. The vendors should have declared it, but they could also claim ignorance of it.
If the AIB was damaged, they have put your health at risk and you might want to contact your solicitor about that.

The Homeowners Alliance say that if the vendor is aware of the existence of asbestos and its cost to remove it, they must disclose it. However, what if they didn't know? Best ask your solicitor.

Having an asbestos inspection by an unlicensed company, who could advise me on licensed asbestos also but not remove it, cost me less than £100 and that included the testing. Well worth doing when purchasing or living in an older house.
A surveyor might point out what could be asbestos, but might not. In my case he pointed out the artex ceilings and flue, but missed out the AIB casing. On this forum I've read of surveyors not mentioning any of the asbestos.