Emergency Asbestos Removal in Guildford

Two things happen when asbestos gets broken unexpectedly. The material becomes more hazardous than it was, and everybody involved becomes considerably more alarmed than the situation usually warrants.

Both matter, and the second one is why this page starts with what is actually urgent.

What is genuinely urgent, and what is not

Urgent. Debris inside an occupied room. A ceiling that has come down in a house, a school or a workplace. A damaged roof directly over a working area, a walkway or livestock. Anything where a fire has involved asbestos material. Anything where people are already walking through it.

Not urgent, but needs dealing with. A sheet blown off a garage roof onto a lawn. A cracked panel on an outbuilding. A hole in a shed roof. Broken cement lying in a garden nobody is using.

The distinction is exposure. Cement in pieces on the grass is not doing anything to anybody who stays away from it. The same material in fragments across a kitchen floor is a different situation because people are walking through it, and walking through it is what makes it airborne.

We would rather tell you which of the two you have than charge an out of hours rate for the second one.

The first hour

Keep people out. If it is inside, close the door and stop anyone going back for anything.

Do not clean up. This is the instruction that gets ignored and it is the one that matters most. A domestic vacuum pushes fibres straight back into the room through its exhaust. A brush aerosolises what it moves. A pressure washer or a leaf blower on outdoor debris is about the worst option available.

Do not move the pieces. Broken cement gets more broken every time it is handled, and each break makes more edges and more dust.

If it is outside and rain is coming, leaving it is usually fine. Wet cement is safer than dry cement. If wind is the problem, a sheet of polythene laid loosely over the pieces and weighted at the edges is enough. Do not wrap and drag.

Photograph it where it lies. That helps identification, and it helps if you are claiming on insurance.

Made safe first, cleared afterwards

Emergency work has two stages and they are frequently on different days.

Making safe is what stops the situation getting worse. Isolating the area, covering material to stop it spreading, temporary sheeting over a hole in a roof so weather does not drive debris further, and collecting the loose material that people are most likely to walk through.

Clearing is the full removal, which is a scheduled job like any other. It is often the following week rather than the same day, and that is usually the right sequence rather than a delay. Once a situation is stable there is no advantage in doing the removal badly and quickly instead of properly and soon.

Where a damaged roof has to be made weathertight before anyone can plan the removal, that is a separate trade and worth arranging in parallel.

The classification changes when it breaks

Worth knowing, because it explains any conversation about notification.

Asbestos cement removed carefully in one piece is non-licensed work. Cement that is substantially damaged, or where the removal will substantially break it up, is notifiable non-licensed work under the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012. It has to be reported to HSE before it starts.

Storm damage puts material squarely into that second category most of the time. It is still work we carry out directly, and it still involves notification and the record keeping that goes with it. That is a reason a genuinely damaged roof cannot always be cleared the same afternoon, and any firm promising otherwise is either not notifying or not thinking about it.

Fire

Fire is the case that needs the most care and the most patience.

Heat degrades asbestos cement badly. Sheets that were sound before a fire are frequently shattered and friable afterwards, and the debris is mixed in with everything else that burned.

The area needs to stay isolated. Nobody should be sorting through it for possessions, and that is a difficult thing to say to somebody who has just had a fire. It is also the right advice.

Fire damage is nearly always an insurance matter, and insurers generally want the site documented before it is disturbed. Coordinating with the loss adjuster rather than getting ahead of them is usually both safer and faster.

Around Guildford

Storm damage is the commonest trigger locally, and it clusters exactly where the ageing cement is: detached garages across Burpham, Merrow and Westborough, outbuildings behind the older terraces, and farm and stable roofs on the exposed ground out towards the Hog's Back and the North Downs.

The second commonest is a trade breaking something mid-job, most often a roofer or a builder who put a foot through a fragile sheet or a fragile roof light. Those are usually the least dramatic and the quickest to resolve, because the site is already controlled and somebody competent is standing next to it.

Where material is already off the building and simply needs taking away, that is waste collection and it is normally the fastest thing we can do.

We cover Guildford and the surrounding towns. The areas we cover page lists them.