Our team of qualified Asbestos Management experts are highly experienced in finding and removing identified Asbestos Containing Materials. We carry out residential asbestos removal and commercial asbestos removal, including industrial premises. But how is asbestos identified? Let’s take a look at how to identify asbestos in a building, an outbuilding, or a building site.
What is asbestos? Asbestos is a group of naturally-occurring fibrous minerals with unusually good fire-resistant properties. Before it was discovered to be lethal, and was banned, the substance was used in thousands of products. It still frequently turns up in kitchens and bathrooms, roofs, ceilings and walls, fencing and outbuildings.
In its natural form, asbestos can be blue, brown, green or white. It looks different depending on the materials it is mixed with. When it’s blended with other substances or painted over, the colour changes, so it’s more or less impossible to spot going by the colour.
Because asbestos is made of microscopic fibres 50 to 200 times thinner than a human hair, you can’t see it with the naked eye, so that’s no help. It doesn’t have a flavour or scent either, so you can’t identify asbestos that way.
Because asbestos containing materials or ACMs come in such a wide range of types, colours and textures, you can’t tell whether it’s present or not. It was often mixed with cement and other bonding materials, and only a few came with a health warning. Just because there isn’t a label, it doesn’t mean there’s no asbestos.
In short, you can’t tell by looking if a material contains asbestos. You need expert support. Asbestos removals experts will know exactly which materials to investigate, understand what old manufacturer labels mean, and handle your asbestos removals needs from start to finish.
Asbestos wasn’t completely banned in the UK until 1999. 1985 saw the first asbestos prohibition laws, banning the import and use of blue asbestos, called crocidolite, and brown asbestos, called amosite. The white kind, chrysotile asbestos, was finally banned by the UK government in 1999, before which it was widely used in new homes and other buildings.
Estimates hint that as much as 50% of the UK’s homes built before 1999 might still contain asbestos. Older buildings often feature Artex, which contained white asbestos as late as the mid 1980s.And floor tiles containing it were popular right from the 1950s to the ‘70s. This means it is likely older buildings that haven’t been renovated, or need to be demolished, will contain asbestos. If your place was built after 1999, you should be safe.
Now you know how asbestos is identified, do you need someone to help find and remove it? We find, remove and dispose of ACMs safely and quickly, according to current guidance.
We carry out ongoing asbestos removal management, along with the appropriate air monitoring and clearance procedures after we’ve removed the asbestos from your place.
Feel free to contact us to talk about how we can help, ask questions, or book a professional asbestos survey.
