Asbestos

[Minxy]

A bit random, but does anyone know anything about ths stuff?

We've just discovered that in our hole of a house (AKA The Money Pit) that the boiler cupboard is lined with it and it's illegal

 

[Babylicious]

depending on your council they may take it for a small charge or you can take it to the skip.

If you do remove it make sure you wear a mask!

 

[mayday]

Here we go! http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/asbindex.htm

If your asbestos is rigid, the chances are it is white asbestos cement board, which is relatively harmless. It is only if you have blue or brown asbestos (which looks 'wooly') that you will have a problem. It is not likely that you have this - they are industrial materials which are highly dangerous.

You can pay someone to remove it, but it won't be cheap. If a contracter removes it they have to package it correctly according to the law and take it to a disposal facility and pay exhorbitant amounts to get it disposed of. If it is a small amount you can do it yourself. The boards are not dangerous as long as you don;t break them when handling them. You should wear a disposable overall (from B&Q), mask, gloves, goggles, and spray the asbestos sheet down with water while removing it - this minimises the floating around of any stray fibre. You should wrap it up in lots of layers of tick plastic sheeting and then take it to your local council tip where they should take it off you. Depending on your council there may be a fee for this, but it won't be anywhere near what the contracters fee will be.

We got our builders to take our asbestos out for us and wrap it up, then we took it to the tip to avoid paying too much.