The Plan

It's June 2014

The internal asbestos has been removed. The Fleepit external walls now consist of a brick outer skin and a timber frame with asbestos cement sheets between them. There is minimal insulation and the asbestos needs encapsulating so as to be inaccessible to normal domestic activities.

We also want to get double glazing installed with some of the windows & doors being altered

Simon the builder is great, looks at the situation, considers the possibilities & restrictions and comes up with a plan.

Simon says:

• A steel RSJ will be put in across the extension to provide the necessary support for the roof;
• The windows/doors get replaced/altered
• A 4x4 timber frame will be built just inside the existing timber frame.
• New wiring and plumbing will have a first-fix through the new frame

• Kingspan insulation boards will be packed into the frame
• The lounge ceiling and all walls will have plasterboard and be skimmed
• The bathroom walls will be rebuilt, making it one room with the WC, skimming the ceiling to cover up the pre-existing wall marks and have a new door
• The electrics and plumbing will be completed.

Once done, all the remaining asbestos will be approximately 15cm behind the plaster so that only drilling right through the walls will be an issue. Hanging shelves and normal domestic DIY will be perfectly safe. Although totally removing the asbestos would have been the ideal, this is a good compromise and puts The Fleepit on a par with any home built before 1999 which may well have asbestos as part of it's construction.

This "making-good" was all considered as part of the original budget for the asbestos removal and the quote for the work is very reasonable. We give the go ahead and Simon schedules the work to start alongside work on a barn conversion he's doing. Our work will be indoors so ideal for when they're struggling with wet weather.

I'll be liaising with our existing plumber plus the electrician and window fitters that Simon has recommended.

The RSJ is the first item on the schedule...

Click on the blog update email box if you want to continue reading the story of this renovation project.

Asbestos Survey

It's March 20th, 2014.

I'm meeting Terry, as in Terence Martin, at Sunny Acre for the asbestos survey.

We need a full asbestos survey to see where the asbestos is, what sort of asbestos it is and how to remove or encapsulate it.

Terry is very happy that we're not worried about damaging the walls. He tells me that he's been asked to do surveys where the owners have been surprised that he needs to dig into the walls. He starts peeling back wallpaper and chipping away at what is underneath. The ceilings come in for some scrutiny too.

The bad news:

All the external walls of the original house, ie not the extensions, have a layer of rigid asbestos cement internally. This has been wallpapered and then painted.








You can see in the pictures where I've stripped away the wallpaper. The extension is pink plaster and the original external walls are grey with various layers of paint.

The lounge ceiling is chrysotile (white asbestos) artex. It would be perfectly acceptable, according to the government, to leave it in-situ and just repaint it! However, if we did this, we would have to take precautions every time we wanted to put a screw or nail into the wall. Any contractor would need informing.

The good news:

All the internal walls, ie the ones that are between rooms - not an original outside wall, are not asbestos but hardboard. The front and back extensions are asbestos free. All ceilings, other than the lounge, are asbestos free.Woo hoo! This probably reduces the potential bill by about 30%!

When we decided to buy the bungalow, we had assumed a worst-case scenario, that all the original walls and ceilings would need to be removed. The amount of asbestos is high but not as bad as we'd planned for.

Removal

Removing and disposing of the wall panels is not necessarily a professional job, Terry tells me. The asbestos cement panels are rigid, not fibrous, and would crack with minimal dust rather than release loads of dangerous particles. The pieces would need to be double wrapped & sealed in heavy-duty plastic but would then be accepted at many domestic waste sites with specialist bins. Anyone doing this should wear protective overalls with a hood, wellies, gloves, goggles and face mask.  Careful cleaning of both the area and oneself also needs doing, removing any soft furnishings before starting.

Removing the artex ceiling is really a professional job but would be more acceptable to leave as many houses have such ceilings.

Options:

1. leave all the asbestos as it is and paint over it, encapsulating it - restricting what and how we can improve the property; 
2. remove and dispose of it ourselves - hard work but saving us pots of money;
3. get the professionals in - the most expensive option but the safest and quickest.

I'm intrigued by option 2 but we need to get some proper quotes to see just how much option 3 will cost. Time to arrange to meet some more men...