This guide belongs before the trades start.
If your renovation will lift old vinyl, take tiles off a wet-area wall or cut into the eaves, have those materials tested before anyone starts. The result decides who can take them out, and we book our loads around it.
The NSW EPA puts it simply: if your house was built before 1990, it probably has materials in it that contain asbestos. Davidson's houses went up from the late 1970s on, so going by that, an original house here may well date from before 1990. That's a reason to check. It says nothing certain about your walls.
According to asbestos.nsw.gov.au, asbestos went into more than 3000 building products before 1990, and there's no way to tell by eye whether a sheet is one of them. A laboratory test of a sample is the only confirmation.
Sealed, painted and left alone, bonded asbestos is lower risk. A renovation is what changes that. Prising off tiles, lifting old flooring, cutting a hole for a downlight or a new window: that's when fibres get into the air.
The materials worth testing are the ones your renovation will touch. A new kitchen disturbs the splashback wall. A bathroom disturbs the wall behind the tiles and the floor under them. New floors disturb whatever the old vinyl was stuck down with.
Old vinyl deserves the most care. asbestos.nsw.gov.au lists the backing under old vinyl flooring and floor tiles as friable asbestos: the kind that crumbles, and the kind with the strictest rules.
Disturbed when the tiles come off, because the sheeting's face comes with them.
Disturbed when it's lifted, scraped or sanded to get to the boards or slab.
Disturbed by downlights, a moved wall, a new window or door, or re-roofing.
Disturbed when a shed comes down, a fence is replaced or the ground is dug for a deck.
Going into the roof space? Some NSW homes had loose-fill asbestos put in as ceiling insulation in the 1960s and 70s. If you're not sure what's up there, the EPA's advice is to stay out of the ceiling and call a licensed asbestos assessor.
What the test finds, and how much of it there is, decides who is allowed to remove it. SafeWork NSW licenses the contractors who do.
Asbestos set in cement or another binder. Dry, it won't crumble in your hand. This is the usual kind in a house.
More than 10 square metres in total must be removed by a licensed asbestos contractor.
Dry, it crumbles to powder in your hand. Bonded sheeting becomes friable once it's broken, damaged or burnt.
Any amount at all must be removed by a contractor with a friable licence, and an independent licensed assessor issues a clearance certificate before the area is used again.
Eaves lining 600 mm deep reaches 10 square metres in about 16.7 metres of run, roughly the front of a house.
The walls of a small bathroom, 2.4 by 1.8 metres with a 2.4 metre ceiling, come to about 20 square metres floor to ceiling: twice the line, before the door and window are taken off.
A floor 3.2 metres square, about a small bedroom, is 10 square metres of old vinyl. If its backing is friable, any amount needs a licensed contractor, so the 10 square metre line doesn't come into it.
Walk the job with your builder or installer: which walls lose their tiles, which floors come up, whether anyone cuts into the eaves, the ceiling or the shed. That list is what gets tested.
A licensed asbestos assessor, or an occupational hygienist, takes the samples and has them tested. SafeWork NSW licenses assessors and publishes who holds a licence.
Bonded over 10 square metres, or friable in any amount, goes to a contractor licensed for it. You can check any licence on SafeWork's site before you book.
With the result in hand, or the area cleared, the room is an ordinary renovation again. We empty it before the trades and take the rest as it comes out.
We don't test, remove or carry asbestos. What we do is keep the rest of the job moving around the people who do.
If we come across sheeting nobody mentioned while we're loading, we stop, leave it where it is and tell you.
Asbestos can only go to a landfill licensed to accept it, and Northern Beaches Council's bulky goods collection doesn't take it either.
asbestos.nsw.gov.au's rule is to treat anything that might be asbestos as if it is: stop work, keep people away from it, and get a licensed assessor to look.
The same site makes the practical point too: asbestos is cheaper and easier to deal with when it isn't a surprise. That's the reason to test before the trades rather than stop halfway through them.
Bonded asbestos of 10 square metres or less doesn't legally need a licensed contractor, but asbestos.nsw.gov.au strongly recommends you don't do it yourself. If you do, the EPA's disposal rules apply.
Only the parts that went in after 1990 are past the EPA's line. A later bathroom can be tiled over the original wall sheeting, and new flooring is sometimes laid straight over old vinyl. Test whatever the work will disturb that could be original.
The EPA's advice is that asbestos in good condition, unlikely to be damaged, is often best left alone. Sealed and painted, it's lower risk. Don't drill, sand or cut into it while you wait.
We'll take the cabinets, benchtop and appliances once they're out, as long as no wall sheeting or tiles came away with them. Anything with sheeting attached waits for a result.
It adds a step before the trades, not in the middle of them. Booking the assessor when you book the trades gives the result time to come back before the start date. The planner flags which of your loads could disturb old sheeting.
No. Asbestos can only be disposed of at a landfill licensed to accept it, packed to that landfill's rules. It doesn't go in with the general renovation waste, and a licensed contractor can remove it and dispose of it in one job.
SafeWork NSW licenses asbestos assessors, and asbestos.nsw.gov.au links to the list. Check the licence on SafeWork's site before you book.
A few lines is plenty. We ring you back, come and look at it, and agree one fixed price before anything is lifted.
No hourly rate, no tip fees on top. The price covers loading, sweeping up and taking it to a licensed facility. If the job changes on the day, we agree the change before we carry on.
