Chris Bombolas: Hello, everyone. I'm here at this 1950s residence with our asbestos expert, Steve.
Stephen: The casement windows, there are timber casement windows. This is before aluminum windows were introduced. You can also see that the chamfer boards are five-inch hardwood, and that's indicative of the 1950s. Right, I've come into this 1950s-style home. I've just identified that there appears to be an asbestos-containing material, like the sheeting and the ceiling. I can identify it by the clout-head nails and the cover strips. Looking over towards the wall, I can see also some protruding nail heads there, and also a V joint. We've come into the kitchen area now, and I've noticed that in the ceiling here, we also got an asbestos-containing material or fibro product. You can see the protruding nails and also the cover strips are D mold. Then I'm looking on the floor. Now the floor is a product called a sheet vinyl. It's a domestic sheet vinyl. The backing to that sheet vinyl is an asbestos-containing material. The toilet also has got wall sheeting. It's got protruding nails. The ceiling's got protruding nails. The homeowner started some renovation work. As they were renovating, they've come across that this bathroom has been renovated before, and the sheeting on the walls behind the tiles are asbestos-free. But what noticeably that's there is low-density board, which backs onto the kitchen. That's what the board looks like on the stud. It is a whitish gray material to maybe like a blue tinge in, and that's how you identify it. We've entered into this room, which is used as an office inside this house. We've got two different types of asbestos products here. We've got the asbestos-containing material, like in the fibro sheeting. We also got the wall sheeting here, which has being identified as low-density board manufactured with a calcium silicate and a high content of asbestos. Where on the low-density board, when I nailed it, you can't even see the finished product where it's been nailed. What we've got here is we got a soffit sheeting. You can see that this is an asbestos-containing material. Now, in this particular soffit, you can notice there's a diamond pattern. Those holes would've been drilled into it to assist in the venting within the roof cavity. What we've got here, you've got a cast iron pipes made out of metal. But from the gray paint all about through the ceiling, that is an asbestos vent pipe, and that vents out the sewerage line.
Chris Bombolas: Well, Steve, you've taken us through a '50s-style house. What should I do if I find asbestos in my place?
Stephen: Well, if you got a home similar to this, I wouldn't panic about it. Because as long as the product is installed and there's no sign of wear and tear, no one's abrading the product, the product would remain safe.
Chris Bombolas: Okay, then. But what's the safest way to remove it if it needs to be removed?
Stephen: With this particular home here, we've identified low-density board and sheet vinyl. Those require an A class business holder to do the removal, not a B class. These two products are friable.
Chris Bombolas: Okay. Well, that sounds fairly specific. I've got a couple of tradie mates. If I had a house similar to this, could I get them in to do my asbestos removal?
Stephen: No. They are not to touch the friable, the sheet vinyl or the low-density board, unless their business holds that license. The bonded material, which is the normal sheeting, like the soffits, as long as they had the adequate training and awareness and followed the Safe Work procedures and wear the correct PPE, they're allowed to remove up to 10 square meters. But the friable is not permissible.
Chris Bombolas: Fantastic advice, Steve. If you've got any more questions about some of the issues that we've raised today, remember, go online and visit asbestos.qld.gov.au.
