Today, we’re going to talk about asbestos roofing. This is near and dear to my heart because it’s pretty much how I got started in the industry. Back in the day, I’m a roof plumber by trade. The first time I ever encountered, asbestos on a job was doing asbestos roof removal and replacement with a new metal roof. Also, we used to do a lot of asbestos gutter removal and asbestos downpipe removal, but there’s more to it. I can start this video by saying one thing if you get from this video, one thing and one thing only asbestos roof removal, asbestos guttering removal, and asbestos downpipe removal is not in any way capable of being done by a DIY enthusiast. The two-story asbestos roof removal and replacement are one of the most dangerous activities you can undertake in the building construction industry. The amount of safety, knowledge, culture, and practices you have to have in place to be able to do it safely and successfully is just way out of the range of a DIY enthusiast.
Now asbestos roofing, there are about three main types. So, we have asbestos super six that everyone’s fairly familiar with. Then there’s the asbestos standard sheet. So, the standard looks a hell of a lot like corrugated iron, just normal corrugated iron, and then there are asbestos shingles. But they all have one thing in common, when they break down, them when they get to the age where they start to crack and break, they’re just not repairable. Over 25 years of experience, with roofing and dealing with asbestos, I can tell you now I’ve seen, I’ve heard, I’ve heard it all. I’ve seen it all and I’m not convinced that there’s any way to successfully repair a leaky asbestos roof, because one thing is important.
You only want one thing when you’re repairing a leak and that is to stop the leak. Now, if you start putting things over things, spraying things on things, all sorts of ideas that people come up with. It’s only ever going to be temporary, and it’s never going to be a fix. If you’re going to fix a roof leak, you want it to be permanent. So, let’s not worry about all these products and processes that claim to fix asbestos roof leaks. And there’s a number that’s important in this. This roof is 60-plus years old; they are way past so used by day. In Southeast Queensland, they’ve been subjected to hail, the sand, and wind, if they’ve been on the ocean front, there’s salt as well. These things are way past their day.
Nobody should be getting on an asbestos roof unless it’s been removed and replaced. So, at Coastal Asbestos here, we do not repair the asbestos roof. We remove them, that’s it. I’ve seen people go through asbestos roof sheeting that’s old and brittle. Sometimes you can just stand on it and you can crack a sheet and if you’re going to take that risk and you crack the asbestos roof sheeting on somebody’s house and it creates a leak. You could be up for a whole new roof. So just please don’t do it. It is not worth it. Everything has a timeline and when the asbestos roofs are done, they’re done.
The important things to worry about with asbestos roofs are, that if you have a house with an asbestos roof, it is time to replace it. The best time is now to think about replacing it because it is going to let you down. In the worst-case scenario, if you’ve got an asbestos roof and it leaks, and you’re going to the asbestos ceiling, you are going to have asbestos fibres come through that roof cavity into your home. After all, the thing about asbestos roofs and roof spaces is they’re probably the most heavily contaminated parts of anybody’s house without a doubt because the house is made of timber and most houses are made of timber, nearly all the houses with asbestos cement are all timber. I’d be surprised, maybe a few industrial places shed that don’t. And when these houses move in the wind these sheets are rubbing together like that, and constantly releasing fibres into the ceiling cavity.
So, you don’t want to be crawling around on an asbestos roof. That’s why a lot of solar companies just won’t fit solar to an asbestos roof because it’s time to replace them. Now, a few important things that we get asked about asbestos roof removal. Okay, number one, this is crucial. The whole sealing cavity has to be cleaned out and vacuum and seal encapsulation spray. So if you’ve got cool n cozy, if you’ve just put bats in last week, I’m sorry, they’ve got a go. If you’ve got foil installation, it’s got to go. Cool and cozy, it’s a big problem. It doesn’t have asbestos in it, but because it’s been in the ceiling for that long, and that action of the sheets rubbing in it is now contaminated.
If you’ve got someone coming to your house, telling you they can leave the cool and cozy in, or they can leave the bats in or leave the insulation in, it’s not number one, it’s not to the code. So that makes it illegal and number two, what is the point of removing asbestos from your home, like a roof and leaving a heavily contaminated roof space. It just doesn’t make any sense to us.
So, you’ve got your super six roofs. You’ve got your standard asbestos roofing, and you’ve got the shingles. The shingles, just look like little bits of fibro and they are, they’re probably about 300 mm by 300 mm or whatever it was back in the day, 12 inches by 12 inches and, they just sort of overlap as well. Usually, there is plywood or something under them to support them. The big thing that’s in common, all asbestos roofs have is they’re out of date. They’re going to let you down and it can be catastrophic when they fail. And as a roofer, I can tell you the best time to get your asbestos roof replaced is now and in winter. Don’t wait as everybody else does for the hottest months of the year with storms rolling in every afternoon and go, we should get our roof fixed. You should get your roof fixed before storm season, not during storm season. It just creates all amount of habit, pain and anxiety.
So that’s it for me today. That’s an asbestos roof. That’s what you need to be aware of. You’re going to have guys working at heights, so they have to manage the risk of heights at all times. You’re going to make sure that cavity gets decontaminated. All that insulation, it’s got to go. It’s got to be encapsulated. And like all asbestos removal jobs over 10 square meters, it has to be inspected and a clearance certificate issued. So, if you like this video, there are plenty more of them over on our YouTube page. So just head over there now, that’s it for me for today. Jason, from coastal asbestos.