Can I repair and enhance an old asbestos roof?
By admin on Dec 21, 2009 in Maintenance & Repairs
dorothy s asked:
I have lived in my house for forty years, before that it was a farm house. I have very large outbuidings with asbestos roofs, apart from the fact that they leak, they are covered in moss and look dreadful. Does anyone know if they can be professionally repaired and cleaned. The cost of replacing them has been estimated at £30k. I live in the UK.
I have lived in my house for forty years, before that it was a farm house. I have very large outbuidings with asbestos roofs, apart from the fact that they leak, they are covered in moss and look dreadful. Does anyone know if they can be professionally repaired and cleaned. The cost of replacing them has been estimated at £30k. I live in the UK.
On Dec 25, 2009, Simon says said:
you would spend most of that just getting rid of the asbestos, it had to be profesonaly disposed of
On Dec 25, 2009, Mike Sanders said:
A large problem with asbestos roofs is that after a certain period the sheets start to become porous and in winter this can often cause them to crack or split.
Given regulations, the cost of disposing of asbestos is exceptionally high although there are less expensive alternatives, the cost for a garage roof (for disposal) is generally £400.
You can try coating the roofs in products such as Aquaseal or Flexacryl, although dependant on the cost (and the size of the roofs) this might just be throwing bad money before good.
Flashband is an excellent product to repair splits, although please always be aware that heat is required to apply it and if overly heated, asbestos can explode.
EDIT – In addition, 30k sounds like a lot of money, i’d expect a price like that for about 3000-4000 sq foot, although that is dependant on what you intend to replace them with, ie. a tiled roof or a less expensive alternative with tile form roofing sheets.
On Dec 26, 2009, jimmybond said:
you see the Daily Mirror, page 13 – there’s an ad for doing your job at a cost within your budget.
On Dec 29, 2009, indeed632003 said:
You cannot do this yourself. In the UK, asbestos removal/disposal can only be carried out by a licenced contractor due to the health ans safety issues involved because asbestos is carcinogenic. As one of the other respondents here says, there are methods available but they need to be carried out by a professional. Asbestos foofs are very weak and therefore you will need crawler boards to spread the weight evenly.
On Dec 31, 2009, popa said:
asbestos has to be worked on by professionals by law so take care please.popa