polystyrene tiles

[The Duke]

I’d leave the roof, just either paint the inside to seal it. Or bit a false ceiling in.

Or if it’s for your own home, (not commercial) take it down carefully. (maybe coat it in a upvc/water mix to seal it.) then burry it 4 foot under your garden.

I know a lot of people that have buried their old garage roofs.

If you have the head room, I’d just hang a false ceiling. Cheap scant and plasterboard and a hand full of wall hangers. Then paint it white. Also use the cavities to put flush ceiling spot lights in, right across your workshop.

If you just LED bulls 3watt jobbie, you’d be able to cram as many as you wish in. 20 of them only draw the equivalent of a single 60w bulb. And would be bright enough to redirect any aircraft.

[Richard]

I did a bit of research and found several links:

1. https://householdquotes.co.uk/asbestos-removal-cost/
2.  https://www.braintree.gov.uk/info/200257/pollution/258/asbestos/5 

The first is one from a contractor based advisor, the second from a local council. The upshot is that those and several other references, please check for yourself is that the type of issue you face is at the bottom end of the risk scale and can be handled for modest upheaval and cost. Some care is needed but calling out the entire home guard squad is not needed. I was surprised to see that a council advised that it can, if accurately identified, be removed via DIY with disposal via the correct approved methods. This does slightly chime with my experience of a local council who advised that a removable panel  should be bagged up and they would remove the tagged sealed bag for disposal. They called on the day in question, collected the waste and the job was done and dusted.

 

[JayCeeDee]

@EdP – your link refers to Industrial situations. See our local guidelines for disposal of Domestic Asbestos HERE.

@sgb101 – our garage roof ( asbestos or otherwise ) was installed with screws or pins through a curved square metal washer on top of a rubber washer, so a grinder to remove the head and the panels will lift off.

Bury it Steve??? – that’s an awful lot of digging!!??

@sawboman – our local regs ( link above to EdP ) are much more lax and suggest a competent DIY’er with an assistant ( in my case that would be a builder friend  and I would be the assistant ) and at £50+ per sq metre that would be £900+ for my 6m x 3m roof. That money will pay for my new roof including flashings and fixings and still leave more than enough spare for a couple of day’s labour for my friend.

Quote from KCC site – “It must be double wrapped in heavy gauge plastic and sealed closed.  It can be disposed of by private occupiers at a Kent County Council Recycling Centre (tip).”

A couple of rolls or packs of DPC polythene and some parcel tape should do nicely.

[Ed P]

You are lucky JayCeeDee my Authority will only accept very small amounts of domestic asbestos. I’ve not tested what this means but it sounds like the old Rawlplug asbestos pots!

I’m lucky I do not have the BAP1 (mesothelioma) mutation, as I used to nearly wade around in asbestos when I worked as a teenager at a small shipyard that made LCTs for the Normandy Invasion..

[JayCeeDee]

I’ve disposed of an old section of asbestos soil pipe before to the tip. They are quite efficient in taking name, address etc and it goes straight into a padlocked container via a locked hatch. HazMat warnings, the works.

Similar to yourself, I’m lucky too. I worked down in the Kingsway Tunnel for a few months, before transferring on to other duties. Any longer ( more than 6 ) and I’d have been on the Asbestos Register and all that entailed.

[Richard]

JayCeeDee wrote:

@sawboman – our local regs ( link above to EdP ) are much more lax and suggest a competent DIY’er with an assistant ( in my case that would be a builder friend and I would be the assistant ) and at £50+ per sq metre that would be £900+ for my 6m x 3m roof. That money will pay for my new roof including flashings and fixings and still leave more than enough spare for a couple of day’s labour for my friend. Quote from KCC site – “It must be double wrapped in heavy gauge plastic and sealed closed. It can be disposed of by private occupiers at a Kent County Council Recycling Centre (tip).” A couple of rolls or packs of DPC polythene and some parcel tape should do nicely.

That appears to agree with what was said in the Braintree link. You are dealing with cement bonded asbestos which the link says is the only one that you are allowed to remove as a DIY person. As you suspect double wrapping and secure taping along with wetting down are all spelt out for this one ‘asbestos style’ material. The only thing that I would add is that you need to use the heavier grade polythene wrapping stuff. Some sold for ‘dust sheet use is very thin and not tough enough to count as being there at all. Use good material and you ‘should be good to go from what I can see’. Your idea of DPC style polythene is what I suspect they would like you to use. If you have any doubts contact your local council and confirm any doubtful items but from what you have said and the link I gave to you I do not see any problems. Good luck, Oh one final point, you might have to make a couple of trips to the tip as the sheets are quite heavy and could exceed the vehicle weight limits and my lifting abilities… but that is another story.

Do not bury the crap; that is when the fines kick in big style.

[JayCeeDee]

Man and Van could well do the trick, although I might need to let the tip know in advance to open the barrier, as they don’t allow vans in any more.

There is a much bigger tip that does allow vans, but it’s much further away!!

 

I won’t bury it – too much like hard work all that digging!!

[The Duke]

If you use a man n van, the council will charge them as commercial and it won’t be cheap to dump. You be better off asking the council to pick it up form your home.

My council charge £15 for domestic pick ups. Youll have to ask if they do asbestos

[JayCeeDee]

I’ll check first – thanks for the heads up!!??

[Bob Williams]

Burying things in the garden – yes indeed, cost my son and me a lot of work when we moved here in 2003.

The 15 bungalows in our Close, were built in the early 60’s and we live in one of a line of 6 interconnected homes. Behind our back gardens, is another line of 8 bungalows which face the main road. An old resident (long gone) told me when we moved in that the border between the main road and our homes, had been a farm track. An old guy had apparently lived in ours since they were built and the fence was probably from the farmland days: completely covered by a very old hawthorn hedge, about 8 feet high. In trying to sort out the jungle that was the garden, son and I found that the fence/hedge collapsed. We called in the Social Housing landlord, who agreed to take away the old fence and all greenery if we could knock it all down, which we did. Digging up and over the old garden was a nightmare: about 2 feet down, we found a whole greenhouse! ???

It was complete, although well smashed up, and appeared to be no more than a couple of years old. The aluminium legs were folded over, still with concrete foundation lumps attached. All the glass was there, smashed and broken. We had to be very careful how we handled that! There were hundreds of ancient potatoes in the soil. The landlord was not best pleased when we informed them of what we found, but were made to remove the greenhouse bits and fit a new fence.

My lad and I still recall the day we found a greenhouse buried in our garden, and wonder at the mentality of someone who could do that. Had I wanted to get rid of such an item, I would have advertised it and had it taken away, probably for a few quid.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[The Duke]

It was probably my FiL that buried it bob. His first answer is always “I’ll dig a hole” .

He spent far to long underground mining, we think he misses it. Any excuse, and hell grab a spade. He is in his 60s now, but he can still dig, better than most 20 something.

We just break the bbq and the beers out and leave him to it.

[Richard]

Bob, builders have been famous for burying the tat in a hole whenever they can get away with it and have done so for years. Now and again they get caught out when they build on something that was not up to carrying the weight, like an old mine shaft, etc. but it hey hazard is in the ‘open space’ like a garden then the residents can start their course in practical archaeology in their own back garden. Ours was a ‘brown field site’. Used by the MOD in WWII as a munitions distribution/dispersal point for various local airfields among other uses and then as a civilian goods transfer point. The site clearance was a bit like a 30 bob tailor’s outfit. it fitted where it touched. It appears it did not touch very much! The rebar and concrete we dug out was interesting, lengths of pipe remain to be found.

The remains of a pond near the farmhouse up the farm lane play host to an abandoned combine and possibly a tractor, though the exact details are debated. I guess the combine was an early largely wooden affair that would be clapped out first and now well rotted after 60 years in the mud. No doubt there is a lot of other detritus buried all round the area, some accidental and, I suspect more deliberately interred. I know the last resting place of two bulldozers, but doubt they will ever be recovered, they also went into a hole about 60 years ago to the South East of London under what is now a housing estate.

[Bob Williams]

In late 1981 I was working for a boss I hated, which is something for me as I had endured without actual hate, some real a-holes in the Merchant Navy and 12 years of Army Service. The girl I had grown up with across the road was married to an old mate, who decided to strike out from his dad’s Mansfield garage and buy a bankrupt garage in the village, across the way to the one I was working at. I was wanted as workshop foreman and there followed some of my happiest working years, running the workshop in a family business among his 4 kids also working there.

The place had been really rundown and it took 2 years of hard work to create a profit – making business. Boss/mate and I decided to dig up and level the ground behind the workshop, hired a digger and got on with it. We hit metal. I took a crowbar and tested the ground: lots of metallic sounds! Turned out that the last owner had buried some cars there, lots of 60’s and 70’s heaps which he had reported as stolen. Police were called, they brought in a bigger machine and I believe they are still looking for the guy! I think the only car which might have been worth something once, was a BMW 1602, the round headlamp model:

Something like the above. Unfortunately, all the roofs were crushed and the bodywork of every car was trashed. I considered the motors after we had dragged everything into our recovery compound and asked the police what would happen to the remains. Eventually they decided that all the cars were ours, obviously they wanted no further dealings. We got that in writing and began to strip what we could from the cars, labelling everything properly with make/model/year etc. We sold quite a lot of stuff to a second-hand parts place and made a good few quid. Scrap was then at a relatively higher value than now, so all the remaining metal fetched another few quid.

I received a healthy bonus for my initiative, suggestions and plans from my mate the boss, which was a bonus as the last employer refused to pay holiday money after I left. I would have loved to be able to rebuild the 1602, but it was too far gone. A classic now: really good ones fetch very good money.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Richard]

Bob wrote about the following car: I think the only car which might have been worth something once, was a BMW 1602, the round headlamp model:

I had one of the touring examples of the 1602 back in 1972 ~ 5. It was OK but a bit over rated in some aspects. The window winder was supported on a main spindle made from something not really up to the job, sintered metal perhaps, so it failed and dumped everything in the bottom of the door. I had a new bit made with a very narrow nut to hold it in place. The screen washer was forever seizing up, probably from the local water, the steering joints all started to seize up until the dealer did some magic to sort them out, but worst of all, in a climate rather more extreme than here, no A/C. After that is was with an A/C or no deal for every new car.

[Ed P]

I had a second-hand one in New Zealand (lots of 1 in 4 or 5 hills). It was b-awful, and had the pulling power of a wet lettuce. My wife’s Honda Civic used to run rings around it. It put me off BMW for life.

[Richard]

Mine was new, though the servicing may not have been too hot. I do not remember it being that sluggish or out of the way though I do remember I had a constant fight with the plugs fouling up and that really knocked its performance. A good bit of acceleration in a low gear and hold it for a number of seconds would sent clouds of crud out of the tail pipe. The Civic might have had a set of gear ratios better suited to the hilly terrane rather than the BMW being more interested in motorways and pining for them. I was a long time back but I thought the 1602 was quite free revving rather than being a slogger. Certainly my old Jazz has great flexibility even in 5th gear pottering along one moment within the built up area limit and the next being willing to stretch its legs to 70 and probably beyond. The Beemer was better than a VW beetle in many ways, except the the bug had a crude form of A/C that ‘sort of worked’. A Mazda had good-ish A/C but drained the condensate in the chassis… guess what happened to that. My wife had a Nissan that managed to rot holes in its roof of all places. A Saab was OK in almost all respects, I don’t think that gave much trouble. In Japan we had a couple of Toyotas, his and hers, they caused no trouble. unlike the automatic Ford my wife had when we came back to the UK. That needed a new gear box with every service, wore out brakes, pads, shoes and hydraulics in almost no miles and was a total dog. We had a string of Hondas after that until the local dealership was moved 20 miles away, they more or less ‘just worked’. The Jazz has done nearly 100,000 miles and likely I shall be its last owner. A pair of Kia Ceeds hog the garage, my wife not having been able to use her’s enough due to a string of different health issues I take it out once a week to keep it in good shape and fully charged, while my Ceed dodges the supermarket, the tip and other such ‘events’ in favour of longer runs, anything over about 8~10 miles – though none of my outings are that long.

We had a rush to get to the hospital for 08:30 this morning, the dogs were out just after 06:00 this morning in the best part of the day an hours walking just about did me for the day. Breakfast all round then into the Jazz for a quick dash to get my wife’s chemo line cleared. The ‘Dynorod nurse ‘dropped in her Draino equivalent’ and told us to go away for an hour or two to give the clearance fluid time to work. Happily by 10:45 the line was back in service, so it was home again, some lunch and back to the oncologist in the afternoon. Time did not drag today.

Sometimes I just want reliable transport, excitement it not needed.

[Ed P]

I suspect that it was simply the power to weight ratio that mattered on very long drags up steep hills. The Civic (also second hand) had a Power to Weight ratio that was 50% better than the BMW. (146 versus 89.5).

BTW at that time everyone had second-hand cars as the NZ duty on imports crippled the new car market. A ‘new’ car was almost certainly 3 years old! IIrc Japanese cars (imported as second hand from Japan) tended to be somewhat younger.

[The Duke]

I love that BM bob. Though abit be for my time, so I’d of thought it a 2002. I love them old BMs. ALFA also have somthing that looks very similar. I’d love somthing like that today.

I’d imagine you’d be able to squeeze an Honda type R engine in it too. But even one of theses new (un) economical 1.3litre 3cy turbo engines would make a 2002 fly.

I do love the splicity of the older motors. Even the original civic looks amazing today.

Wouldn’t like a crash in any of them.

[JayCeeDee]

The Duke wrote:

Even the original civic looks amazing today. Wouldn’t like a crash in any of them.

My brother had an early Civic over in Saudi Arabia in the 70’s/80’s. He was hit by someone joining the motorway and he spun off. He was left sitting, buckled up, in the driver’s seat, with the windscreen flapping from the roof join, but the front of the car, bonnet, wings, wheels and engine etc were off to the side of him. He walked out of that with a stiff neck!!

[Richard]

JayCeeDee wrote:

The Duke wrote:

Even the original civic looks amazing today. Wouldn’t like a crash in any of them.

My brother had an early Civic over in Saudi Arabia in the 70’s/80’s. He was hit by someone joining the motorway and he spun off. He was left sitting, buckled up, in the driver’s seat, with the windscreen flapping from the roof join, but the front of the car, bonnet, wings, wheels and engine etc were off to the side of him. He walked out of that with a stiff neck!!

That can be the way the cookie crumbles. I slipped on a polished office floor out that way. The same day the son of a minor sheik rolled his car 6 times and some considerable distance across the desert scrub land. He went home the next day. I left a month later after two operations, my leg encased in plaster and walking with the aid of crutches. Mind you another minor sheik’s son was, how shall I put this, less fortunate. He drove side on at about 80mph in a 40 limit area into and under an old bus, one with a wooden body on a long lorry like chassis. The bus was a bit banana shaped, the car, its driver and passengers were in rather worse shape. Some urgent changes to the road engineering resulted in the next 24~48 hours.

[Author]

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