Asbestos In Older Buildings And What Stops A Job

Most of the delays we see on repairs in older buildings come from the same place. Somebody opens a wall, a ceiling or an eave, and what is behind it has to be identified before anything else happens.

In a building constructed or renovated before the late 1980s, that question comes up often, and the jobs that go smoothly are the ones where it was asked before the tools came out.

Where it usually turns up

Eaves and soffit linings on older houses and low rise blocks. Flat sheeting under the roof overhang, frequently painted, almost never replaced.

Wet area wall and floor sheeting in bathrooms and laundries, under the tiles. This is the most common one in apartments, and it is directly in the path of any bathroom repair or shower rebuild.

Vinyl floor coverings and the backing under them, particularly in kitchens and laundries, where a new floor has often been laid straight over the old one two or three times.

Fences and external sheeting on the boundary and on garden structures.

Textured ceiling coatings in buildings from the 1960s and 1970s.

Electrical switchboard backing panels, which is why a switchboard upgrade in an older building is a sequenced job rather than a swap, as described in [switchboard upgrades in older buildings](/blog/switchboard-upgrades-in-older-buildings).

Pipe lagging in plant rooms and on older hot water services.

Why it stops a job rather than slows it

The material is only a risk when it is disturbed. Intact, painted, undamaged sheeting sitting where it was installed is generally left alone.

The moment a repair requires cutting, drilling, sanding or breaking that material, the work becomes a different kind of work, with its own licensed removal, its own containment and its own disposal.

Which is why a repair that looked like a half day becomes a staged job: identification, then removal by the appropriate licence holder, then the repair, then the finish. Each of those is a separate step with its own timing, and none of them can be compressed by starting early.

How we handle it

We look before we open.

On any building of that age, the scoping visit identifies what is likely to be behind the surface, and the quote reflects the sequence rather than the hope. That is the same discipline as the whole approach in [the job you think is one trade is almost always three](/blog/the-job-you-think-is-one-trade-is-almost-always-three), applied to the thing that creates the longest delays.

Where material is suspected, it is tested rather than guessed, because the result changes the method either way. A negative result means the repair proceeds normally. A positive result means a removal step, scheduled properly, with the occupants informed.

What we do not do is open a wall and work out the answer afterwards. That is the version that leaves a unit unusable for a fortnight.

For owners and managers

Three things make this much easier.

Know whether the building has a register. Commercial and strata buildings generally have one, and it tells you where the material is before anybody opens anything. If the register exists, the scoping visit should start there.

Expect the question on any pre-1990 property. A quote on an older bathroom that does not mention it has either checked or assumed, and it is worth knowing which.

Plan for the sequence, not just the repair. The repair cost is the same. The identification and removal step is the part that is new, and planning for it removes the surprise rather than the cost.

Where it most often bites

The leaking shower in a 1970s block is the classic case. The leak is real, the repair is well understood, and the sheeting under the tiles decides the programme. That is the context behind [the leaking shower, why it keeps coming back](/blog/the-leaking-shower-why-it-keeps-coming-back) in a building of that era.

The other is a water leak that has already damaged a ceiling. The damage is done, the material is now disturbed, and the repair cannot start until that is dealt with properly. It is the same situation as [water coming through a ceiling in an apartment](/blog/water-coming-through-a-ceiling-in-an-apartment) with an extra step in front of it.

In both cases, one team scoping the whole sequence at the start is what keeps the job to a programme.

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