Vendor refurbished but hadn't checked for asbestos!

Waahmbulance

I do realise I should have checked this before we bought the house. I'm only trying to figure out whether this is a big deal or not. I'm not going to pursue the vendor about this, as it's my mistake. Anyway...

We moved into our new house a few weeks ago. My husband promptly started drilling into the walls to put shelves up. I didn't think much of it until I saw some advice online that mentioned that you shouldn't drill into a wall unless you know it doesn't contain any asbestos.

The house is from the late 30s and had been completely refurbished when we moved in, so I figured the vendor (who did the refurbishment) would know. I asked him whether he had done an asbestos survey before the refurbishment and he said no! It's my understanding that asbestos can hide behind walls and in ceilings and you can't always tell if it's there. I know that many builders don't bother checking unless it's immediately apparent, because it's a hassle and they underestimate the likelihood of finding any.

Would it be way over the top to book in an asbestos survey to check whether there's any in the walls we drilled into, and the rest of the house? It will cost around £300-£400, apparently.

davidmcn

Probably, yes. Any particular reason why you think the bits you want to drill into might have asbestos? I know it was commonplace in things like Artex, but it wasn't generally randomly stuffed into walls and ceilings. A survey isn't going to take the house to bits anyway, it will only investigate easily-accessible suspect items.

AnotherJoe

I would work on the assumption that it's not in the walls but is in the ceilings, and not waste money on a survey. The most likely place for it other than ceilings is in sheets in areas that get hot such as near boilers and flues, and in the loft as a water tank.
Have the ceilings been skimmed?

Waahmbulance

Have the ceilings been skimmed?

I'm ashamed to say I don't know. It's possible!

I've been reading about how dangerous it is to just drill into a wall of it does have asbestos, so am freaking out a bit that we've already done it, given how ubiquitous the stuff seems to be! I've read that practically everyone had it in the sixties and that they used to mix it into everything, even plaster.

Thanks for your answers!

davidmcn

Waahmbulance wrote: »

I've been reading about how dangerous it is to just drill into a wall of it does have asbestos

I would say "not particularly" dangerous, and you should try to keep it in perspective. It's dangerous if you start snorting the dust (but breathing in any sort of dust is hardly good for you!), and obviously gets more dangerous if your job means you're doing this every day. The vast majority of people who have suffered asbestos-related illnesses are those who used to work with the stuff day in and day out - if the tiny amounts in people's homes were dangerous then far more of us would be falling ill.

AdrianC

Firstly, calm down! The chance of harm from drilling into a normal domestic plastered wall is considerably lower than that of being hit on the head by a shelf that's fallen off because it was fixed to flaky old plaster...

Firstly, what are the walls? Are they thick plaster straight onto brick or lathes, or are they plasterboard with a skim? If they're thick plaster, is it really old and crumbly, or good and solid? It's not foolproof, but if there's plasterboard, the chance is low of there being asbestos in the plaster. Back in the 60s, people tended to use hardboard for internal walls... And you'd definitely have a higher risk of injury if you tried attaching anything heavier than a photograph to that.

Lathe and plaster ceilings are definitely a higher chance - I've ripped a couple down (not all voluntarily!), and I've not died too many times yet. But not many people attach shelves to the ceiling, do they?

Did DIYers die in their thousands back in the 70s? No.

jimbog

Waahmbulance wrote: »

I've been reading about how dangerous it is to just drill into a wall

More likely you will drill into a cable and be electrocuted

Slinky

OP says the house is late 1930s, were they using asbestos then?


We've been happily drilling our 1960s walls without a second thought about asbestos. Previous owner had shelves up everywhere, it looks like he wasn't bothered either.


The only time we've encountered asbestos was when our old boiler in our 1970s house was removed and we went to remove the flue. We took advice, donned protective clothing and bagged everything up including the paper boilersuits and took them to the specialist section at the tip. There could have been asbestos in the artex ceilings but we didn't touch them. I expect our new purchasers will have them skimmed.

Waahmbulance

I don't really know what the walls are made of but it seems like plaster and there's been red dust when drilling. Is that what they call drywall or sheetrock?

With regards to ceilings, the vendor has been drilling into them to put spotlights. I hope he hasn't done that without a mask...

Thrugelmir

Slinky wrote: »

OP says the house is late 1930s, were they using asbestos then?

Earlier. Our original drain pipes were partly asbestos. Same with the tiled roof.

Waahmbulance

The house is 1930s but the vendor hasn't lived in it, so he wouldn't know if it's ever had artex in the 60's, for instance.