Asbestos under Gas meter

Farway

QrizB said:

Swipe said:

lohr500 said:

...
Prepares to be shot down in flames!!!

Last step, wait 30 years to see if you were successful 

Very much off-topic, but it's occurred to me several times that asbestos removal would make a good part-time job for retirees. Typically it's fairly light, low-skilled manual work and the chance of suffering long-term health consequences from it if you're in your 60s or 70s is much lower than if you're in you're in your 20s or 30s.

Probably also get a job near Chernobyl for a holiday type break, bit like the old hop pickers from London's East End in Kent

MWT

QrizB said:

Swipe said:

lohr500 said:

...
Prepares to be shot down in flames!!!

Last step, wait 30 years to see if you were successful 

Very much off-topic, but it's occurred to me several times that asbestos removal would make a good part-time job for retirees. Typically it's fairly light, low-skilled manual work and the chance of suffering long-term health consequences from it if you're in your 60s or 70s is much lower than if you're in your 20s or 30s.

Considering how common asbestos was in the 50s & 60s as insulation, roofing and in other products like Rawlplug etc.it is amazing that we have any retirees left at all...

lohr500

Swipe said:

lohr500 said:

Is the meter just sitting on top of the plate and is the plate just sitting lose on the base below? 

I wouldn't recommend you to do this, but if the above is the case and it was in my house I would :

Prepare a replacement piece of non asbestos plate cut to the same size.
Dampen down the existing plate with a fine mist of water.
Slide out the old plate whilst someone carefully supports the meter.
Slide in the pre-prepared replacement plate.
Double bag the removed plate whilst still damp.
Dispose of the old plate at our local council waste recycling centre who accept double bagged asbestos.

Prepares to be shot down in flames!!!

Last step, wait 30 years to see if you were successful 

As a keen and regular DIY motor mechanic over the years, I've probably inhaled more than my fair share of asbestos dust from brake and clutch repairs, not to mention stripping the corrugated asbestos sheeting of an old stable. Hopefully it won't catch up with m.............................................  

zepps

After several calls from south Africa call centre who didn't even know what asbestos was she agreed to book another engineer to remove asbestos and fit a smart meter.

Guess what he said when he looked at the meter, can't do the job with the asbestos plate there and we have no one trained on our patch (Birmingham ) to remove asbestos, the last guy we had left two years ago.

So we asked the installer to lift up the gas meter and I removed it , to be honest it was like a concrete plate as it was heavy not light. 

It's probably not even asbestos but they would have had to take a sample and get it tested.

Probably should have done that previously my self .

MeteredOut

zepps said:

After several calls from south Africa call centre who didn't even know what asbestos was she agreed to book another engineer to remove asbestos and fit a smart meter.

Guess what he said when he looked at the meter, can't do the job with the asbestos plate there and we have no one trained on our patch (Birmingham ) to remove asbestos, the last guy we had left two years ago.

So we asked the installer to lift up the gas meter and I removed it , to be honest it was like a concrete plate as it was heavy not light. 

It's probably not even asbestos but they would have had to take a sample and get it tested.

Probably should have done that previously my self .

I really hope you double-bagged it and disposed of it as required, just in case?

zepps

MeteredOut said:

zepps said:

After several calls from south Africa call centre who didn't even know what asbestos was she agreed to book another engineer to remove asbestos and fit a smart meter.

Guess what he said when he looked at the meter, can't do the job with the asbestos plate there and we have no one trained on our patch (Birmingham ) to remove asbestos, the last guy we had left two years ago.

So we asked the installer to lift up the gas meter and I removed it , to be honest it was like a concrete plate as it was heavy not light. 

It's probably not even asbestos but they would have had to take a sample and get it tested.

Probably should have done that previously my self .

I really hope you double-bagged it and disposed of it as required, just in case?

It's in the garden at the moment, to be honest I don't think it's asbestos but will double bag it as you say and call out the correct team

Ectophile

zepps said:

MeteredOut said:

zepps said:

After several calls from south Africa call centre who didn't even know what asbestos was she agreed to book another engineer to remove asbestos and fit a smart meter.

Guess what he said when he looked at the meter, can't do the job with the asbestos plate there and we have no one trained on our patch (Birmingham ) to remove asbestos, the last guy we had left two years ago.

So we asked the installer to lift up the gas meter and I removed it , to be honest it was like a concrete plate as it was heavy not light. 

It's probably not even asbestos but they would have had to take a sample and get it tested.

Probably should have done that previously my self .

I really hope you double-bagged it and disposed of it as required, just in case?

It's in the garden at the moment, to be honest I don't think it's asbestos but will double bag it as you say and call out the correct team

If it's hard asbestos sheet, you don't even need to do that.  Find your nearest council tip that will take (double bagged) asbestos sheets.