******* Asbestos and unexpected costs

[Thorfun]

A tale of woe and a warning to others for something I was unaware of……

 

demolition of our old bungalow was never in question so we did our due diligence and got an asbestos survey and quotes from demolition companies to deal with it and the demolition. All agreed on and in progress. 
 

they get to pulling up the slab and under the conservatory which was built at a later date to the original bungalow and they find loads of asbestos used as hardcore which was bound to the concrete of the slab. No safe way to pick it out without smashing the slab and potentially releasing those harmful fibres so the slab has to be removed onto an 8-wheeler and taken to a safe land fill at a cost of £4K!!! 😭

 

obviously it has to be done but it’s a real kick in the knackers and a cost I really can’t afford. 
 

so for anyone reading this that will have a demolition as part of their build keep a big chunk of cash to one side for unexpected asbestos removal. If you don’t find any then you have spare cash for something else or a holiday. Don’t be like me and have to go in to even more debt to get rid of it. 
 

😭

[Beau]

4K ouch!

 

We recently found an asbestos partition in our house. Did the removal ourselves but the specialist skip wasn't cheap. Think it was around £800 for the first tonne and £400 per tonne over that and we thought that was painful.  All taken to Bridgewater to be buried. 

[Mr Punter]

Was there no way the slab could have been left?

[HerbJ]

Commiserations...

 

We had a similar problem when we demolished a house in 2015.

 

Everything was going so well, when the resuts of  tests on the white render came back from the lab. The whole of 1930 house was covered in render which had to be removed by hand and removed from site by a team in white suits and protective gear - it gave a bit of a scare to the neighbours. It doubled the cost of demolition from £10,000 to £20,000. 

[Nickfromwales]

16 minutes ago, Mr Punter said:

Was there no way the slab could have been left?

I'd have put the BBQ and the patio set on the bastard thing!!

[Gus Potter]

43 minutes ago, Thorfun said:

A tale of woe and a warning to others for something I was unaware of……

 

demolition of our old bungalow was never in question so we did our due diligence and got an asbestos survey and quotes from demolition companies to deal with it and the demolition. All agreed on and in progress. 
 

they get to pulling up the slab and under the conservatory which was built at a later date to the original bungalow and they find loads of asbestos used as hardcore which was bound to the concrete of the slab. No safe way to pick it out without smashing the slab and potentially releasing those harmful fibres so the slab has to be removed onto an 8-wheeler and taken to a safe land fill at a cost of £4K!!! 😭

 

obviously it has to be done but it’s a real kick in the knackers and a cost I really can’t afford. 
 

so for anyone reading this that will have a demolition as part of their build keep a big chunk of cash to one side for unexpected asbestos removal. If you don’t find any then you have spare cash for something else or a holiday. Don’t be like me and have to go in to even more debt to get rid of it. 

Yup.. just happened to a Client of mine, simple extension on a listed building that had been extended in circa 1960's and then altered again. Asbestos roof cladding found buiried under the extension foot print.

 

This is a risk. Do you pay for a more indepth site investigation (would have uncovered it) or take you chances?

 

As an aside I've a project on where I'm taking down part of an old extension / conservatory and retaining the foundations and floor.. about a 25k saving. The thing has moved a bit so have settlement tell tales on it.. story for another day. It has a felt roof and I've seen the original specification. There is mention of a roof felt called "Astos".. the clue lie in the name. It's low risk but does contain asbestos thus needs to be dealt with and the risks managed. Inevitabley there is extra cost but this is non negotiable for safety reasons.

[Thorfun]

44 minutes ago, Mr Punter said:

Was there no way the slab could have been left?

No. The area will be our back garden and we didn’t know about the asbestos until the slab had been flipped over so no putting it back. 

[Thorfun]

5 minutes ago, Gus Potter said:

This is a risk. Do you pay for a more indepth site investigation (would have uncovered it) or take you chances?

Not sure how they could’ve checked for it. Even if they drilled through the floor it’s not sheets of asbestos underneath so chances are they wouldn’t have hit any. 
 

That’s life I guess. Never simple. Especially when you choose to self-build!

[Gus Potter]

3 minutes ago, Thorfun said:

Not sure how they could’ve checked for it. Even if they drilled through the floor it’s not sheets of asbestos underneath so chances are they wouldn’t have hit any. 
 

That’s life I guess. Never simple. Especially when you choose to self-build!

Agree. I neglected to think about an in situ slab, sorry about that. That is probably beyond the realms of reasonable investigation as you say.

 

Now for all. From time to time we encounter buried asbestos. One great place to find it is obviously on industrial sites but also in and around farm buildings.. steading conversions are a good example. Made ground is common and also things farmers call a dead hole..to put dead animals in.

 

Now often we find old asbestos cement roofing sheets, broken up in the ground. The first thing to do is to ask.. how well compacted is it? The stuff does not rot away, cause ground gas so can we just leave it in situ, isolate and build over the top? As an SE if it has sufficient ground brearing capacity then what is the problem? In other words we can just treat it as some form of compacted inert material.

 

There are plenty precedents for leaving contaminated ground on site and isolating it but you need a convincing and logical arguement to do so.. A good way of stopping asbestos getting airborne is to keep it wet. Hence if mixed with clay soil with a high water table.. all good news. On big contaminated sites we look at the risk to local communities of carting the stuff away ( dust etc escaping from the lorries say ) on public roads cf leaving it in situ. The same principles can be referenced to convince say BC that you are doing the right thing by containing contamination on site.

 

I make reference to a job I did recently but I only found out as the designer after they had spent a pile of cash digging the stuff out. For all if you find asbestos stop work.. don't panic as this can often make things worse, think and make a plan, seek professional advice even if just to reassure.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Roger440]

Sensible advice.

 

After all, if you have it removed, they are taking it away to be buried, not to be magic-ed away.

 

Might as well stay buried where it is.