Asbestos Cladding Removal in Guildford

Wall cladding gets less attention than roofing and there is a lot more of it than people think.

Asbestos cement was made in flat sheet, corrugated sheet and profiled panel, and all three were used vertically. It went on the sides of light industrial units, farm buildings, workshops, sports pavilions and the odd garage. On the industrial estates around Guildford, Slyfield in particular, whole elevations of 1960s and 1970s units are still clad in it.

Recognising it on a wall

The tell is the same as on a roof. A chalky grey surface, a wide shallow corrugation if it is profiled, and a slightly fibrous look at any cut edge. On a wall you get an extra clue: the weather side ages far faster than the sheltered side, so a south-westerly elevation is often visibly rougher and greener than the one behind it.

Flat cement sheet on a wall is harder to place. It looks like a plain grey board fixed to timber battens, and modern fibre cement board looks close to identical. Bolts with washers rather than nails point towards asbestos, because the sheet is too brittle to nail. So does a manufacturer's stamp on an inside face, which is often still legible.

Vertical sheet is frequently overlooked on buildings where everyone has focused on the roof. If you are getting a roof quoted, walk round the outside and look at the gable ends, the area under the eaves and any lean-to. Finding it before the job starts is much cheaper than finding it halfway through.

What it costs

Around £50 per square metre, indicative, which is the same rate as cement roof sheeting because it is the same material.

Two things sit outside that.

Access, at £300 to £600 where a tower or a scaffold is needed. Cladding is often cheaper on access than a roof, because a single storey elevation can frequently be worked from the ground or a low tower. A two-storey gable end is a different matter.

Disposal, at £0.55 to £0.80 per kilogram. Wall areas add up quickly on a commercial building and cement is heavy, so on a large unit the disposal line can exceed the labour.

The full set of ranges sits on the cost page. If the roof is coming off at the same time, which it usually is, the two get quoted together as one job, and that is genuinely cheaper than two visits.

What is behind the sheet

This is the question that decides whether the job is straightforward or not, and it is the one most often skipped at quoting stage.

A simple building is single skin. Cement sheet on a frame, nothing behind it, and stripping it is exactly what it looks like.

An insulated building has a lining, and the lining could be several things. Mineral wool or glass fibre, which is unpleasant but not asbestos. A modern board, which is fine. Or asbestos insulating board, which is a much more friable material, is licensed work, and turns a non-licensed strip into two separate jobs with a licensed contractor involved.

The only reliable way to know is to open a small area up and look, which is a ten-minute job at survey stage and a very expensive surprise on the day. If a quote for cladding removal makes no mention of what is behind it, that is the question to ask.

Where the lining does turn out to be board, that work is asbestos insulating board removal and we arrange an HSE-licensed contractor for it.

Sequencing an occupied building

Cladding comes off in runs rather than all at once, for the same reasons roofs come off in sections.

Opening the side of a building is a weather problem and a security problem. A run gets stripped and either made good or temporarily sheeted before the next one starts, so the building is never fully open. On an occupied unit that also means the working area can be kept away from whichever door is in use.

Internal access matters too. Where a building sits tight against a boundary, the only practical way to reach the fixings is from inside, which means clearing a working strip along the inside of that wall. Nobody enjoys that conversation on the morning of the job, so it is worth having at the quote.

Working from the inside

Where a building sits hard against a boundary, and plenty of older units and farm buildings do, there is no room outside to work. The fixings then have to be reached from within, and that changes several things at once.

The working area moves indoors, so containment matters more. Sheeting goes up along the inside of the wall and the space either side is cleared to give room to work and somewhere to stage wrapped panels. Anything stored against that wall has to move, which on a full unit is often the largest single piece of preparation.

Panels come inward rather than being lowered outward, which is slower and needs two people on anything of size. Sequencing also matters more, because you are opening the building envelope from the inside and the weather comes straight in.

None of this is a problem. It is simply a different quote from the same wall approached from outside, and it is worth flagging when you ask for a price rather than leaving it to be discovered.

Asbestos in the guttering and the trim

The main sheets get all the attention. The bits at the edges are what turn up as extras.

Cement guttering is more common on these buildings than most people realise, and it looks like heavy grey plastic from below. Corner pieces, barge boards, verge trims and ridge caps were all made in cement to match the sheeting, and they are frequently the most weathered parts of the building because they take the most water.

Downpipes, hoppers and flashings on older commercial buildings are worth a look too.

All of it is the same material at the same rate. The reason to mention it is that these components are easy to leave off a measurement taken from a photograph of the main elevation, and finding them mid-job means a variation. Walk the perimeter and look up at the edges before you ask for a price.

What goes back on

Very few people put cement sheet back, and there is no requirement to.

Insulated composite panel is the common answer on a commercial unit, because it fixes to the same frame and solves the insulation question at the same time. Single skin box profile steel is cheaper where the building is unheated storage. Timber cladding on battens works on smaller and more visible buildings, and it is the usual choice on anything domestic or equestrian.

We strip and remove. We do not reclad, and separating the two normally costs less than one firm quoting for both.

Around Guildford

The buildings with cement cladding cluster in two places, and they behave differently.

On the industrial estates, Slyfield above all, the units are large, the elevations are simple, and access is usually good. Those jobs are dominated by area and disposal weight rather than by difficulty.

Out towards Normandy, Pirbright, Worplesdon, Shere and Albury, the clad buildings are agricultural and equestrian. Smaller elevations, much worse access, tracks that a lorry cannot use, and material that has taken sixty years of weather with no maintenance. Those are covered in more detail on the agricultural asbestos removal page.

We work across Guildford and the surrounding towns. The areas we cover page lists each one.