Asbestos in your home

It's asbestos awareness month, so I thought I'd share where there might be asbestos in your home. Any house built or renovated before 1987 might contain asbestos.

Inside the house:

- Backing of vinyl sheet floor covering

- Carpet underlay
- Cement flooring
- Compressed asbestos sheet
- Flues to fireplaces
- Insulation below wood heater
- Internal and external ventilators
- Internal angle mouldings
- Internal walls & ceiling
- Kitchen splashback
- Loose fill insulation in roof cavity
- “Tilux” marble finish wall panel
- Vinyl floor tiles
- Wall sheeting - internal

Outside the house:

- Backing for electrical meter boards
- Dog kennels
- Downpipes
- Eaves and gables ends
- External angle mouldings
- Fences
- Garages
- Gutters
- Insulation for hot water pipes and tanks
- Internal and external ventilators
- Ridge capping
- Sheds & external toilets
- Wall sheeting – external

Stay safe when renovating everyone!

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Comments

Mick0s

Chalk me up for "insulation below wood heater".
We plan to get the heater removed eventually, seeing as we have ducted central, and will definitely be calling in the experts when the time comes.

We had a sparky around a few weeks back who was going to quote on some external lights around the deck and he said we're have to get the fascia asbestos tested first, so if anyone knows about how to get this done on a very small scale without costing the earth, if be interested to hear. (Located in the ACT)

Jason

Yes, be careful everyone!

I thought this was an important point from the Asbestos awareness website:

"Most people can’t tell whether building materials contain asbestos just by looking at them. Only scientific testing of a sample of material by an accredited National Association of Testing Authorities (NATA) asbestos testing laboratory can confirm the presence of asbestos. For a NATA Lab List call 1800 621 666 or refer to their website at www.nata.com.au. When searching for an asbestos testing facility use a capital A in Asbestos."

Andy_Mann

https://www.workshop.bunnings.com.au/discussion/comment/2358#Comment_2358

@Jason, do you (in a '50s home) have a ballpark guesstimate of what the lab testing will cost?

Brad

https://www.workshop.bunnings.com.au/discussion/comment/63482#Comment_63482

Eaves yes, switchboard not anymore.

Ceiling maybe, carpet underlay changed to foam and lino not sure.

Jason

https://www.workshop.bunnings.com.au/discussion/comment/63482#Comment_63482

No, I haven't had to use the service before @Andy_Mann. Perhaps another Workshop member can assist, or you can contact them directly.

Jason

Andy_Mann

https://www.workshop.bunnings.com.au/discussion/comment/94260#Comment_94260

@Jason, I contacted NATA & they were very quick to reply:

Apologies for the incomplete message, as much as I tried, I couldn't get around the formatting. 😳

Good morning John

NATA does not undertake testing; NATA is an accreditation body and our role is to accredit laboratories that undertake testing.

If you let me know which state in which you are located I will be able to provide details of relevant testing facilities.

Kind regards

Then:

Hi John

There are 3 accredited asbestos laboratories in SA that should be able to assist you with your enquiries and their details are included below:

> Bureau Veritas Minerals Pty Ltd

> Adelaide Geo-analytical

> 35-37 Stirling Street

> THEBARTON SA 5031

> CONTACT: Ms Kate Miller

> PHONE: (08) 8416 5334 FAX: (08) 8234 0355 MOBILE: 0404 470 812

> EMAIL: kate.miller@au.bureauveritas.com WEB SITE:

> www.bureauveritas.com

> Greencap - NAA PTY LTD

> Adelaide laboratory

> 12 Greenhill Road

> WAYVILLE SA 5034

> CONTACT: Ms Karin Thomson

> PHONE: (08) 8299 9955 FAX: (08) 8299 9954 MOBILE:

> EMAIL: Karin.thomson@greencap.com.au

> WEB SITE: www.greencap.com.au

> Health Safety Environment Australia Pty Ltd

> 193 Henley Beach Road

> Mile End SA 5031

> CONTACT: Ms L Ly

> PHONE: (08) 8152 0555 FAX: (08) 8152 0500 MOBILE: 0448 861 871

> EMAIL: lly@hseaustralia.com.au

> WEB SITE: www.hseaustralia.com.au

I am not sure if you are aware of the following website that may also provide some useful information on asbestos http://www.asbestos.sa.gov.au/

Kind regards

.................................

I contacted Bureau Veritas Minerals Pty Ltd, their reply:

Hi John:

Thanks for your enquiry.

In general, house built bwteen 70s~90s has relatively high chance contain asbestos building material, e.g wall, floor, eaves, ceiling. etc. We are a NATA accredited asbestos identification lab, we can certainly test those samples for you if you are interested in find out.

I have attached forms for asbestos testing below should you decide to send samples to us for testing. Please complete them and send them back to me or attached with samples.

Sampling requirements: Sample should be double bagged using zig-lock bag, a small size of sample will be fine for the test (e.g 2cm x 2cm)

Cost for asbestos identification testing:

PLM test: $50.00+ GST per sample
TAT: 2 business days

Hope you it helps, please feel free to contact me if you have any other questions.

............................

So from my enquiries, there were a lot of surprises:

1 .. "In general, house built bwteen 70s~90s has relatively high chance contain asbestos". YIKES

2 .. There was no mention that an assessor could be sent, to appraise the risk of a domestic environment.

3 .. More surprising, was that they wanted homeowners to send them samples, but no advice on how to do it safely.

Having said that, I thought that $50 per sample was very reasonable.

I hope this helps

AHoy

Scary story - Many now expect to see a growth in asbestos deaths arising from home renovations.

http://www.theage.com.au/nsw/this-house-killed-me-diy-home-renovators-the-third-wave-of-asbestos-victims-20170531-gwh2x1.html

Reno-girl

https://www.workshop.bunnings.com.au/discussion/comment/63482#Comment_63482

Lab test costs vary. I paid $55 + Gst for each item sampled. Thats if you collect and prepare samples yourself and take to lab. If you call lab technicians to your site they charge upwards of $300 to collect samples and then test costs on top of that.

Jason

https://www.workshop.bunnings.com.au/discussion/comment/95118#Comment_95118

Many thanks for joining in the discussion and sharing your experience @Reno-girl. Much appreciated. We look forward to reading more of your posts soon. Perhaps you'd like to share the last project you worked on?

A very warm welcome to the Workshop community. We're rapt to have you join us. Please feel free to post whenever you need assistance with anything or have something to share.

Jason

woodenwookie

https://www.workshop.bunnings.com.au/discussion/comment/114084#Comment_114084

The weird thing is that there is NOTHING wrong with NATURAL asbestos. Like so many things in its natural state asbestos is harmless until man makes it into stuff.

My wife's dad used to run an asbestos mine in Zimbabwe and there was no one that got issues from it. The issue comes from taking the asbestos and shredding it into fine shards. Those shards get into the lungs and it's them that cause the problems. If you think you have it in your home then always wear respirators when working with it.

Noyade

https://www.workshop.bunnings.com.au/discussion/comment/124914#Comment_124914

A couple of years ago I was crawling under the house to re-route the telephone line. Of course it was dark and I was using a torch to guide me and then around a few footings I noticed large mounds of fibro sheeting. I thought nothing of it at the time but on the return trip I realised the house had been built in 1947 and renovated in the late 80's - so more than likely this was asbestos based fibro that the renovator has disposed of rather inefficiently.

Now imagine a fat man crawling very fast to escape but in the process kicking up more and dust which became acutely visible under the torch light - while holding his breath. In the end you start gasping bigger and bigger lungfuls of air and dust. Comical.

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