Garage Roof Contains Asbestos

scaredofdebt

Hi,

I'm selling my house, the buyer has agreed price etc but now survey has come back sying the garage roof contains asbestos.  They want to knock the price of the house down due to this.

My understanding is that the type of asbestos used in the roof isn't dangerous, I remember vaguely being told this by a builder who did some work on it but that was a good few years ago so my memory isn't 100%.

The garage was erected in the 1990s, roof is generally in good condition.

Just wondered if anyone has any opinion about this or if there's anything I can do about it.

Thanks,
David

davidmcn

1990s seems late to still be using asbestos, how sure are they about it? I wouldn't expect a normal surveyor to say much more than areas might have asbestos. It's only an issue insofar as it means more precautions need to be taken whenever the roof is demolished (or if it gets damaged), not really much of an excuse to chip away at the price.

Jamaicanmelaff

I had a similar comment on my survey about a car port that isn't in the best of condition (not dilapidated and certainly usable but a bit rough in areas). The surveyor suggested getting a quote to have the car port demolished and rebuilt and negotiate that cost off. I didn't bother cos I was always planning to remove the car port anyway. I'm not sure I would've thought it a reasonable request even if I hadn't been planning on removing it.

MysteryMe

Many items have asbestos in them and garages are common.  If the garage is in good condition then it's not an issue so I'd want to know the justification for the lower offer.
Obviously we don't have any context of how much they are trying to knockdown in comparison to the overall selling price. It also depends on whether the valuation has come in lower than the agreed sale price.

NinjaTune

davidmcn said:

1990s seems late to still be using asbestos, how sure are they about it? I wouldn't expect a normal surveyor to say much more than areas might have asbestos. It's only an issue insofar as it means more precautions need to be taken whenever the roof is demolished (or if it gets damaged), not really much of an excuse to chip away at the price.

Use of asbestos wasn't banned until 1999, but the more dangerous type was banned in 1985.  If the garage was built in 1990 it will be white asbestos which is not a major issue.

scaredofdebt

Yeah sorry, poor communication there, I had only spoken to the Estate Agent when I posted and not actually seen the survey etc.

It appears the buyers husband reckons it looks like asbestos, so treat accordingly!

I've seen these corrugated sheets before in a previous house where the roof got damaged when the neighbour was pruning a tree and a branch crashed through it (damaging my car in the process!)

Initially builders wouldn't touch it as it "was asbestos" but on further inspection it was fine.

Thanks for comments so far guys!

scaredofdebt

davidmcn said:

1990s seems late to still be using asbestos, how sure are they about it? I wouldn't expect a normal surveyor to say much more than areas might have asbestos. It's only an issue insofar as it means more precautions need to be taken whenever the roof is demolished (or if it gets damaged), not really much of an excuse to chip away at the price.

Thanks.

There's a few issues the survey has brough up that the buyer is using to try to get the price down, by a total of £7k - initial offer was £130k which we refused so they then offered full asking price of £140k which we accepted.  The house "sold" within 24 hours of being put on the market so we were concerned that we'd put it on too cheap.

The accepted offer was on condition that we took the house off the market which we did.

We're going to go back and offer to meet them halfway as the survey has brought up some issues that need remedying but it is a 1920s house so can't really expect it to be perfect.

Thanks again all.

dimbo61

Is the buyers husband an expert on asbestos ? The only way you can really tell is to file a small quantity off one of the panels and send off to a laboratory for a breakdown of the materials.
We were quoted £500 to have the roof removed and disposal by a licenced asbestos company.
Ended up selling the whole garage with roof on eBay.

Jeepers_Creepers

If you let folk on here know what the other survey 'issues' were, they'll advise on whether they are valid concerns for the sort of money they are trying to knock off. 

As said above, the garage roof - possibly asbestos-cement - isn't an issue unless damaged or so worn that it's crumbling/flaking, and even then it is low-level risk. If the sheets have full integrity, I'd say they are 'trying it on' for a discount; I doubt very much they'd go to the cost of replacing it just because it contains asbestos.  

If they are paranoid about the material, then they can coat it on the underside to seal it fully.

Jeepers_Creepers

Better still, demand a premium from them as your house is fortunate enough to contain asbestos...

From: daily.jstor.org

When Asbestos Was a Gift Fit for a King

File under: “don’t try this at home.”

Tremolite asbestos from the Aure Valley, French Pyrenees

 

via Wikimedia Commons

By: Amelia Soth 

 

According to legend, Charlemagne liked to lay out his lavish banquets on a sparkling-white tablecloth spun from pure asbestos. After his guests had eaten their fill, the king would pluck the tablecloth off the table and fling it into the hearth. In the blaze, the cloth turned fiery red, but did not burn. When it was plucked out, it was cleaner than ever, with the debris of the meal roasted away.

Long before asbestos was recognized as a health hazard, it was a near-mythical wonder material, a gift fit for kings and emperors. One Han dynasty general apparently put on an even better show than Charlemagne: he would wear an asbestos jacket to dinner and “accidentally” spill wine over it. Feigning a fit of rage, he would rip off the garment and throw it into the fire, only to pull it out moments later, perfectly clean and unharmed.

Nobles were cremated in asbestos shrouds, so that their ashes would not mix with the cinders of the fire.

Nobles were cremated in asbestos shrouds, so that their ashes would not mix with the cinders of the fire. The eternal flames that burned in the temples of Vesta, watched over by the Vestal virgins, were kindled on asbestos wicks.

But asbestos was also turned to less scrupulous uses. The wondrous properties of the material made it a prime tool for the creation of false relics: its incombustibility served as proof of authenticity. Scammers passed off chunks of asbestos as fragments of the True Cross, and the monks of Monte Cassino bought an asbestos towel under the impression that it was the cloth Jesus had used to wash his disciples’ feet.

Tremolite asbestos via Wikimedia Commons

But even without trickery, asbestos was rare and precious enough to fetch a pretty penny. When Benjamin Franklin found himself broke in London, he paid his bills by selling an asbestos purse to a curiosity-collector. We still have his letter:

Sir, Having lately been in the Northern Parts of America, I have brought from thence a Purse made of the Stone Asbestus, a Piece of the Stone, and a Piece of Wood, the Pithy Part of which is of the same Nature, and call’d by the Inhabitants Salamander Cotton. As you are noted to be a Lover of Curiosities, I have inform’d you of these; and if you have any Inclination to purchase them, or see ’em, let me know your Pleasure by a Line directed for me at the Golden Fan in Little Britain, and I will wait upon you with them.

Asbestos seemed to belong more to the realm of fairy-tales than to real life. Some believed that it was derived from the wool of the mythical fire-resistant salamander, or the feathers of the phoenix. Others confidently claimed that it was spun from the long, silky fur of a species of rat that lives inside volcanoes. According to this version of the legend, while the rats are in the blaze, their hairs glow sapphire-red. Hunters kill them by splashing them with just a few drops of water, after which their fur fades to an alabaster white.

These stories may seem a little far-fetched, but there’s a certain logic to them—after all, it makes sense that the source of an incombustible fiber would be incombustible itself. The truth of asbestos is perhaps even stranger. As the historian of technology Rachel Maines notes in Asbestos and Fire: Technological Tradeoffs and the Body at Risk, pretty much every fiber we use comes from something living, whether animal or vegetable. Asbestos is the only exception; it’s the only rock that can be woven into cloth. For that reason, the early naturalist Charles Bonnet considered asbestos to be the missing link between lifeless rock and living matter.

There is something extremely eerie about asbestos in the wild. Splitting open a rock, you discover a vein of fluff running through it, like wool caught in a cleft. A blue-gold glimmer of chatoyancy runs down the threads, and when you peel the fibers away, they come off as delicately as pieces of cobweb. Rock as delicate as silk, cloth as indestructible as rock: asbestos seems like it should be impossible. If you came across this description in an old book of natural wonders, you’d probably dismiss it as a legend, just as unlikely as the fire-resistant salamander or the fire-rat.

AskAsk

they are not as dangerous as asbestos plaster but they are still considered a hazard to health.  you couldn't just throw them in the tip for example and they have to go to asbestos disposal.  it costs more to replace them and you are advised not to drill them or if they break then don't hane around them.
how much money are they asking off?