Asbestos Roofs & Walls

Asbestos is often found in internal wall and roof panels in commercial buildings.

The wall lining panels in this relatively modern warehouse building were tested and found to contain Amosite (brown) asbestos. As long as the asbestos is not disturbed, it should not create a problem. However, because it is in heavily trafficked areas at ground floor level, where it is vulnerable to fork lift truk damage, our recommendation was to remove or encapsualte. Encapsulation in this case means relining the walls with a different material such as ply board, over the top of the existing board.

This is same material on a different wall in the same warehouse. Because the asbestos board is at mezzanine level, it is not vulnerable to fork lift truck damage. The board is painted, so the asbestos is already encapsulated and there were no damaged areas. The client decided in this case, that it was sufficient to place warning signs on the wall at regular intervals and to place a barrier against the wall preventing accidental damage to the board.

	Asbestos cement wall sheets like this usually contain only Chrysotile (white) asbestos which is firmly contained within the cement matrix of the material. It is very sturdy and as long as it is in good condition and undisturbed, should present no real risk to health. If this building was in daily use, our recommendation would be to encapsulate the asbestos with a purpose made paint.
In many buildings, an asbestos cement roof will usually be lined with plasterboard or fibre board lining panels. It is extremely common for the end of the panels and the profile fillers (which are also made from asbestos cement) to be left exposed. Whilst this should not present an immediate risk to health, good asbestos management would involve painting the exposed areas of the panels.

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