Asbestos or cement board?

[nodOubt]

My neighbours have had their roof done on a nearly 105 year old house. This has landed in our yard from the works. I'm not sure if it is cement board or asbestos? 

[Redbeard]

Given that it appears to be smeared with sand/cement could this perhaps be a (modern) fibre cement verge trim? I used one 2 years ago. If you think it could be a heck of a lot older (say no later than 2000) there's a possibility it could contain asbestos. When you say 

1 hour ago, nodOubt said:

had their roof done

do you mean had the whole roof re-laid? If so, unless someone had some very, very old stock, I think you can be pretty sure it is not asbestos-bearing. If in any doubt whatsoever get a sample tested.

[Spinny]

Depends how paranoid you want to be perhaps.

Council waste centres will normally take small quantities of some asbestos waste - you should check on their website. Normally they will ask for it to be double bagged and handed in correctly not chucked into a dumbster skip. You could wear gloves and a mask to collect it up and double bag it, or I guess ask your neighbour to do it - though they might deny it as being asbestos. We had an old cowling once that had some asbestos in the cement and treated it like this, The general idea is not to do anything that will break it up, scratch it, abrade it etc.

 

You could decide to send it for testing before you do anything - this might lead in different directions if it is positive, impacting yourselves and your neighbours, depending on the outcome. But is obviously the strict correct catch all approach.

 

(We once had part of an internal artex ceiling that had had a small collapse tested and it was positive. Resulted in removal of the ceiling by a specialist company using negative pressure tenting, and men in NBC suits and taking away of almost all the furniture, carpet, TV you name it. The reality was that the artex only had a tiny percentage of asbestos well bound within it, but it still fell in an asbestos related coating classification that required the full monty for removal.)

 

Asbestos has been a major problem destroying lives but those impacted generally worked with occupational exposure over years. I remember using asbestos mats with school bunsen burners. But I wouldn't trivialise it and I know people can get very anxious and laws apply.

Edited Saturday at 16:19 by Spinny

[Spinny]

Are they doing other building work too. I remember now before we started our building work there was a requirement for an asbestos survey that had to be met to ensure everyone that might work on site would be safe. I guess you could ask your neighbour whether they had an asbestos survey prior to the works taking place. You might also expect roofers to be up with it on anything that might be asbestos - they are most at risk.

Edited Saturday at 16:16 by Spinny

[Conor]

Throw it back over the fence.

[ProDave]

3 hours ago, Conor said:

Throw it back over the fence.

Invite them to come and clear up their mess off your property first, but if they don't, follow that advice.

[Nickfromwales]

4 hours ago, Conor said:

Throw it back over the fence.

Indeed. Scruffy gits should have offered to clean it up ffs. Go knock the neighbour and tell them its "gloves and bag time" at yours, and show them the mess left behind!!