Asbestos shed removal- Practicalities, NOT how to dispose it

[itsdave]

Hi all,

I have a corrugated asbestos shed which I need to remove from my garden. I know about all the safety aspects and am well prepared with respirator masks, paper suits and wellies etc, and I also know that my local council tip will accept the asbestos, but I have a question over what is the best way to actually take it down.

The shed looks to have a timber frame, and the asbestos sheeting is attached to the frame by large nails with a kind of rubber/plastic washer under each nail between the head and the sheeting. I am not sure what is the best way to take the shed down without damaging the panels? If I try and remove the nails this could take a very long time, and I cant see how I could use a claw hammer without crushing the asbestos sheeting. One other way I was thinking is to cut the timbers where the asbestos panels meet with a disc saw (obviously being VERY careful not to start cutting into the panels!) so that the sheets would then come away from the shed with some of the wood attached still. Or, perhaps try and chisel/grand off the heads of the nails so that the panels can come away from the timber frame that way?

My partners father who is a bit of an old school farmer would probably want to just break it down with a digger but I want to do this properly and not end up with asbestos fibers on/in the ground that could be inhaled in later years or released when gardening.

If anyone has some practical advice on how to carry this out who has actually done this before it would be great to hear from you. It is very difficult to find anything out on the internet as all the advice is about the safety aspect.

Thanks!

 

[OwainDIYer]

If the nails go through the ridges of the sheets can you cut them from the inside with a dremel-y type tool? Or even a bootlace saw?

 

[merlin50]

done it this way lots of times

 

[itsdave]

If the nails go through the ridges of the sheets can you cut them from the inside with a dremel-y type tool? Or even a bootlace saw?

Thanks for the advice. Do you have any links to these tools as I tried to google them but couldn't really find what I think you mean?

Cheers.

 

[itsdave]

done it this way lots of times

I'm not sure that would help me avoid breaking the panels up! Although it probably is the quickest way....

 

[^woody^]

I want to do this properly and not end up with asbestos fibers on/in the ground that could be inhaled in later years or released when gardening.

Asbestos fibres are so fine, and so light that they wont linger anywhere and will be blown and diffused in the external air.

You can safely dismantle and collect any broken pieces, and no fibres will be lingering

If these are nails, then they tend to come out easily with a nailbar. A disk saw or powered saw (of any size) is the last thing you want to use

 

[itsdave]

Hi ^Woody^,

Do you dampen the surface with water when you have done this in the past as well? I'm not disagreeing with your comments above as I have absolutely no experience of working with asbestos (well, knowingly anyway!), but (bear with me on this one) a lot of the advice on the internet suggests that people should not 'wash down' but only 'dampen' the panels, as washing down will wash the fibres on to the ground, the fibres will dry and perhaps stay on the ground until you then come along with a broom or something to clean up. Which kind of suggests that the fibres aren't always blown away easily and will linger. Is this just being overly cautious and paranoid do you think?

As I say, I have no experience at all so I am just wondering what your thoughts are?

So, going back to the practicalities side of it, you would just use a nail bar and accept that you will crush/break the panels around the nails (they go through the raised part of the corrugated panels so they would just crumble when you start levering)?

Cheers again!

 

[foxhole]

Take it down while it's raining.

 

[^woody^]

Cement board has the fibres held tightly within it, so damping does little as any breaks will be dry.

In context though, the fibres are well held within the cement structure and there is a relatively low asbestos content. Its not like other asbestos board products which have a high asbestos content and are more brittle and allow greater fibre release

Add the fact that it is outside, and you have a situation where even if a board is cracked, the few fibres released (literally a few 'ppm' parts per million) are instantly dispersed.

Fibres will not settle anywhere and are so free dispersing that that will be immeasurable from the fibres that are present in the air naturally. Again in context, fibres are no bigger than 0.015 mm and just blow away

You do not have to worry, and even lots of breaks are not a big issue. And you do not have to dampen the sheets down.

As for the crowbar and removing nails, it the nails don't come out easy, then you would use a piece of timber to spread the load across the sheet and it wont break

 

[itsdave]

Hi all,

I just thought I would come back and give an update as I took the shed down yesterday.

I opted for the nailbar option, so got all suited and booted, had the mask on etc and set to work.

On the roof the nails came out quite well using the nail bar, with only a few parts of asbetos collapsing around the nail, normally where the nails were near the edges of the boards.

On the sides of the shed it was far more varied. God only knows what was wrong with some of the nails but they would not budge! Even after we took the panels off I was swinging off the nails with a claw hammer and they just would not come out (I'm 14 stone!). I think perhaps the wooden frame for the roof had started to rot which made it easier. Also, the frame was made of different types of wood, so perhaps this may have been a factor.Anyway, as a result we ended up with more cracked/crushed panels around the nail fixings than we had hoped for.

If I had to do it again, I would be tempted to take a grinder to the heads of the nails as I think that would have resulted in far less cracking/crushing. I appreciate that there is a risk of grinding a panel and launching dust in to the air, but with a bit of patience and care it should be a much neater job that way I would think.

Cheers for all the advice, no doubt I will be back on here again with my next problem during our refurb!

Thanks all.

 

[merlin50]

should have used a big hammer, very little dust and small bits to bag up.