Before you renovate

Asbestos before you renovate: a job-by-job checklist

Kitchen, bathroom, loft, knock-through or rewire in a home built before 2000? Here is what HSE says to look out for, job by job.

Ask about a survey

Check first, then start

If your home was built before 2000 and you are about to break into walls, ceilings or floors, it is worth finding out what is there first. HSE says you must stop work and follow its guidance if you think you have found asbestos. A builder who knows before they start can plan around it. A builder who finds it halfway through a job stops the job.

If you think something is asbestos, leave it alone. Don't drill, sand, scrape, break or sweep it up. HSE advises that if you have not been trained you should not try to repair or remove asbestos yourself, and that material in good condition is often best left where it is until it has been checked. Source: HSE asbestos FAQs

By job: what HSE says to look out for

Kitchen refit

Old vinyl floor tiles, stair nosings and their adhesive, which can be hidden under carpet or newer flooring. Textured ceiling coatings. Ovens and older heating appliances can have asbestos rope seals and gaskets.

Bathroom refit

Asbestos insulating board is listed for panelling around windows and for internal partitions. Also floor tiles, textured coatings and boiler flues, which can be asbestos cement.

Loft conversion or insulation

HSE lists loose-fill insulation in lofts, cavity walls and under floorboards, and says not to work on it unless you are an HSE-licensed contractor. Also pipe and boiler lagging, and sprayed coatings under roofs.

Knocking through

Internal partition walls and bulkheads can be asbestos insulating board. Find out before it is cut or broken.

Rewiring

HSE lists textiles behind the fuses in older fuse boxes. Drilling and fixing into textured coatings is lower risk work for trained people, but it is not for guesswork.

Boiler or heating work

Older domestic boilers can have gaskets and rope seals, and lagging goes round boilers and pipes. Most lagging work is high risk and needs an HSE-licensed contractor.

All from HSE: where asbestos can be found and the right action. This is a summary of what HSE lists, not a statement of what is in your home.

Test one thing, or survey the lot?

One suspect material (a ceiling, a floor tile, a roof sheet): a sample analysed by an accredited lab is usually enough. See asbestos testing.
Major work that opens up the building (an extension, strip-out, big refit, demolition): HSE says a refurbishment and demolition survey is needed before the work starts. See asbestos surveys.

What to tell the builder

When the house was built, and what has been done to it since
Whether you have a test result or survey, and a copy of it
That any asbestos has to be dealt with before their work starts, not during it

Planning the work in Plymouth? See also asbestos in Plymouth homes.

Planning building work?

Tell us what you are planning and when the house was built. We pass your enquiry to one HSE-licensed local contractor, who will contact you to discuss it. No obligation, and we never sell your details to lists.

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