Great Yarmouth Features  

Have you got an old asbestos-built outhouse, shed or garage in your garden?

If so, you have probably heard of all the scare stories that seem to imply that your entire family will be struck down with a diabolical lurgy at any moment. Even if the supposed health risks don't scare you, you can be sure that anything that looks remotely like asbestos may scare the pants off the more timid potential buyers when you come to put your house on the market!

Asbestos - It's got to go!
Despite the 'green revolution' and local councils' stated commitments to the environment, you'll find impartial and practical advice as to what to do with unwanted asbestos buildings somewhat hard to come by. Here in Norfolk, folk are advised by the County Council's environment department to contact a private contractor to dismantle and dispose of the offending item. Be ready to take out a second mortgage if you've got a building that's any bigger than a pixie's toilet - this is evidently a highly specialised and regulated trade, and 'full service' prices can run into the thousands...

No Panic - It's DIY Asbestos Removal Time
Assuming you're moderately competent and suitably equipped, you can dismantle the offending building yourself. You'll need:

• Disposable paper overalls and a breathing mask (about £25 from B&Q)
• A good claw hammer
• A sharp bolster
• A medium-sized crowbar
• A spare weekend
• A mate or two to lend a hand

The common type of asbestos that used to be utilised in shed construction is concrete-sheet asbestos, which generally presents no health problems until it's interfered with. So you need to avoid drilling, cutting and random clouting with a lump hammer. The only way to prevent the sheet edges from breaking up - and therefore potentially releasing dangerous fibres - is to chip the heads off all the retaining nails with a sharp bolster. And there may be hundreds of nails. Stripping the asbestos from the timber inner frame is likely to take far longer than you anticipate...

  

Asbestos Disposal
Congratulations - if you've got this far you're now the proud owner of half a ton of broken asbestos in a tidy pile on your drive! At this point you have to know that disposal of domestic asbestos waste is rightly subject to various Government guidelines - the key fact is that the various local authorities interpret the guidelines in remarkably different ways.

Our local Norfolk County Council advise you to seek a specialist waste contractor or to make an appointment to take it yourself to their depot at Thetford. For convenience a contractor will drop off a skip for you to fill at your leisure, but they'll require you to wrap each sheet individually in plastic wrapping before you put it in the skip. It's not cheap either - the asbestos cladding for a small sized shed is likely to cost around £400 to dispose of by skip.

A tour down the A11 to Thetford is hardly practical, and you still have to wrap each sheet in plastic wrapping. In case you're wondering, the plastic is intended to prevent fibre emission during transportation, subsequent handling and final landfill disposal.

Suffolk to the Rescue
Across the county border, Suffolk County Council adopt a somewhat more practical approach. You just turn up at Wangford Landfill Site and load your asbestos into a JCB bucket (for smaller amounts) or chuck it directly onto the landfill site (for larger amounts). You don't even have to wrap the asbestos sheets in plastic. Obviously you need a van or trailer capable of carrying your asbestos, and for safety you need to ensure that the load is well covered during transportation.

The cost is based upon weight and you can expect to pay around £110 (priced April 2006) for a good sized load - a large garage worth of asbestos - which will weigh in at about half a ton. That price includes admin fees and statutory taxes, and all things considered is an absolute bargain!

Rules and Regulations
You can only do this job yourself if you are a domestic householder and the asbestos is being removed from your own residential address. You need a license from the Environment Agency to legally transport asbestos waste if there is any commercial element to the job.

New Sheds For Old
If the building is a useful size and has a timber frame construction, consider re-cladding the frame with shiplap timber once the asbestos has been removed. It's a tedious task, but you'll end up with an 'as new' building for considerably less expense than purchasing a new one of equivalent size.

The pictures on this page illustrate the conversion in Hemsby during April 2006 of a 9m x 8m outbuilding from asbestos sheet to timber-clad. The four-day project involved the removal and disposal of two-thirds of a ton of asbestos and the fitting of 760m of shiplap timber - changing a dilapidated eyesore into a very desirable garage/workshop for a total cost of less than a grand!