Asbestos Removal Decision

It's May 2014

I manage to get 2 asbestos removal companies to visit and do a quote from the full survey from Terence Martin.

Now I know that the guys doing the assessments are rarely the people who will actually do the job but I do expect them to be able to discuss what they will provide, my responsibilities, a rough starting date and how long it will take. One contractor could and the other couldn't. Any guesses which one we picked, even though the quote was slightly higher and the delay slightly longer?

We have decided to remove the internal wall between the WC and bathroom and also to move the wall between the WC and the spare room, actually removing it for now.  This is all good news to the asbestos removal team as it will make the removal easier.

Although it would be appropriate to leave the lounge ceiling asbestos in situ, removing the walls will no doubt damage it and the additional cost of removing it is not significant.

What I have to do:

• remove all soft furnishings as these would trap any fibres;
• remove all wall fittings on the affected walls - this includes radiators, fitted wardrobes, part of the fitted kitchen, WC, basin and bath;
• provide WC and hand-washing facilities outside the affected area, ie a portaloo;
• vacate the property.

They expect it to take about a 1.5 days and can start the next month. The cost will be, including VAT, £3,300.

This amount is much less than we'd budgeted for. The budget of £10k includes the building costs of making the resulting work good, plastering, etc but we'd expected the actual removal to be roughly twice that. This is very good.

It's also evidence that getting work done on a house before selling it is usually about half of the reduction of value if you don't do it. The Fleepit purchase price was probably £10k-£15k less than it would have been without the asbestos.

The costs involved make it absurd to try to do it ourselves. I'm still confident that we could have done it but the Fleepit is supposed to be a relaxing place for OH and a total DIY approach would make that difficult for an extended time. We'd budgeted for more so we'll go pro.

We book the removal firm Safeline Environmental. This is the start of really knocking the Fleepit around!