Asbestos Roofing

Many of the questions we receive concern asbestos roofing.

It's easy to spot an asbestos roof from the crinkly outline and grey colour. The roof profiles are constructed from asbestos cement - most typically Chrysotile (white) asbestos.

Cement based products like roofing and cladding sheets are fairly low risk, because the asbestos is contained within the cement to add strength and water resistance.

With age comes deterioration though and the panels can become porous and be prone to leaks.

This creates additional problems because as they get porous, they are also weakened considerably, yet show little sign of this from the outside.

Extreme caution should therefore be applied when walking on an asbestos cement roof, with crawling boards being employed wherever possible.

When broken, an asbestos cement panel can release fibres and therefore, if working on a panel, it is strongly advised that breathing masks be worn to protect the lungs from asbestos fibres.

One of the biggest dangers comes with fire, because although they don't burn, the panels can explode in extreme heat and shower the surrounding area with invisible asbestos fibres.

If your asbestos roof is in a poor state of repair, it is advisable to replace it with an alternative material, rather than trying to patch it with other products that don't quite match the outline of the original.

Asbestos Roofs - The Inside

The main consideration with an asbestos cement roof is what is underneath it, on the inside of the building.

If the roof is unsealed and you can see the asbestos cement profile, it's good health and safety practice to have this painted to further encapsulate the asbestos materials. A specialist asbestos paint is available and the work is best carried out by a contractor.

Asbestos cement is not currently licensed (as of November 2004), so you do not need a registered asbestos contractor to remove or work on the material. This may change sometime in the future.

You will however, need to dispose of the asbestos properly as the material itself is a considered to be hazardous waste.

In many cases, the inside of an asbestos cement roof will be lined with plasterboard or fibreboard panels.

During our surveys, we have discovered many instances where the paper lining on these boards has been 100% Chrysotile paper.

These liners, if disturbed can present a risk to health. If the roof is dry and in a stable condition, there should be no problem, but if the roof is leaking, the fibre boards tend to sag and break, falling into the building below, often releasing asbestos fibres into the air.

Another common way of lining asbestos cement roofs was to use an internal asbestos cement panel. These are flatter than the external panels and usually present on a low risk of contamination - for example when they are broken.

In some buildings however, we have discovered lining panels made from Amosite (brown asbestos) and others that contain both Amosite and Crocidolite (blue asbestos).

These materials should not be interfered with under any circumstances and our advice is generally to have them removed at the earliest possibility.

If you suspect that your roof liners could contain asbestos and are concerned about health and safety issues, please contact us on 0121 733 8686. We will be pleased to offer advice by telephone without charge.

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