Asbestos lot of it

[Bobballs]

I bought a house recently, I thought it was 1930’s but talking to the neighbours it turns out to be 1950’s, the survey was a home buyers so not just a valuation he even thought it was 1930’s. In the survey it was mentioned it had asbestos garage roof, no issues with that but that the only asbestos mentioned, however now I’m in the property I have found,

1. All soffits / facia are asbestos concrete sheets (surveyor would of been able to see this)
   
   
2. Water tank is asbestos (surveyor would of been able to see this if they looked in loft)
   
   
3. Lift the carpet down stairs asbestos based tiles beneath it (surveyor wouldn’t have seen this)
   
   
4. Chimney flue asbestos.

My worry now is the walls might have an asbestos board on, they survey said it was plaster board and skimmed ceilings and walls ..... but it’s actually lining paper so I don’t know how he knew it was just plaster this, this is my real worry now as I’ve been drilling into the walls allot, I was getting white dust but then brick but just thought it was plaster, how likely is it they would line all walls with asbestos based boards ?


I am getting a survey done now to see how bad it all is as I think I may need to take this up with the surveyor, the guy didn't even pick up it had cavity wall insulation in the last 3 years, the marks he refers to on the external walls as a 'bad' paint job is were they put in it to the walls.

 

[Burnerman]

What you are finding in points 1 - 4 is actually quite common Bob......the soffits certainly would be asbestolux sheet (not sure about the facia though!)
Personally I've never seen asbestos sheets on the walls, but why not steam some of that lining paper away for a closer look? I would hope you'll just find plaster onto brick.
Over to the others!
John

 

[^woody^]

All those are common and relatively harmless. If it's of traditional construction, the walls won't have asbestos in them.

 

[footprints]

No reason to line wall with asbestos if the property is standard construction (brick) the only ones I have ever heard about were some weird steel houses with asbestos insulation on the inside walls made from riveted iron panels like ship construction! Otherwise the only ones I know are the post war prefabs totally constructed from asbestos!

http://www.sandtoft.org/prefab

Asbestos would only have been used internally where a fire risk or extreme damp was possible (your tank and flue) so normal walls would not use it, perhaps boarding in boiler cupboards or the ceiling of integral garages would be suspect, and Artex coatings of course.
I have the dreaded asbestos soffits and garage roof I just stay away from them in DIY and ensure they are well sealed with paint.