How to Remove Asbestos Safely – A Few Helpful Tips

You are planning to remodel your home, and during your preliminary inspection, you find a material that you highly suspect contains asbestos. What do you do?

If you suspect that asbestos-containing materials have been used in your home, the best course of action to take is to enlist the help of a licensed asbestos inspector to evaluate the material. This task is better left to experts because there is danger of accidentally releasing asbestos fibres into the air if you do not know what you are doing.

In some cases, it is not necessary to remove the asbestos-containing material from your home, especially if you are not planning on remodelling or repairing the area where it is located. With the appropriate measures put into place, the risks associated with asbestos-containing materials can be controlled.

Although property owners are well within their rights to remove asbestos-containing materials from their properties, calling in professionals who can safely and correctly perform this task for you is highly recommended.

If you do wish to perform this task by yourself, here’s how to remove asbestos safely.

A few precautions before proceeding
Before commencing with the job, make sure to remove items and furniture that may be contaminated by asbestos fibres. If there are items that cannot be removed from the area, cover these with thick polyethylene sheeting.

As much as possible, keep the work area isolated from the rest of the house by using polyethylene sheeting. The walls, floor and ceiling should also be covered with polyethylene sheeting.

Wear the appropriate PPE
While you are removing the asbestos-containing material, it is highly advisable to wear a respirator. Make sure that you wear rubber gloves, rubber boots, goggles and a disposable coverall while you are inside the work area and remove these before getting out.

During the asbestos removal process
Make sure that the work area is cordoned off and the members of the household are prevented from entering it. It is best to keep the asbestos-containing material as well as the floor of the work area wet with water containing a bit of dishwashing liquid to help contain dust. As much as possible, avoid breaking up the asbestos-containing material. Have a steady supply of waste bags ready.

Cleaning up the work area
Make sure that you use an approved bag for storing all the asbestos-containing material that has been removed. As an added precaution, use another bag to seal the first bag.

Using a damp cloth, wipe all the surfaces in the work area. Avoid sweeping or vacuuming. The polyethylene sheeting that has been used in the work area should be folded, rolled and then disposed of in the same manner as the asbestos-containing material.

Use a damp cloth to clean all the tools and equipment you have used. Afterwards, throw away the cloth that you used as well.

Make sure that you wear PPE while you are cleaning the work area. Afterwards, put all the safety gear that you wore in a garbage bag and then wash your hands and body thoroughly.

Disposal
Local councils have different rules regarding how they receive asbestos waste. It is wise to contact your local council first and make enquiries before starting with the removal of asbestos-containing materials from your home. Alternatively, you can hire a licensed asbestos waste removal company to dispose of the asbestos-containing material removed from your property.

Call Jim’s Asbestos Removal on 131 546 or book online now for your free no-obligation quote!

2 Comments

  1. Tyler Meredith 8 years ago

    It’s interesting to read about the precautions that need to be taken when removing asbestos, as well as the dangers involved. I’ve been considering removing it myself, but I think it might be best to leave it to professionals. I’ll have to keep this in mind when looking to put in an addition as I don’t want anyone getting sick. Thanks for the post!

  2. Max Sayer 6 years ago

    I personally don’t know very much about asbestos so I wanted to look up some information about it. I had no idea that asbestos could be dangerous so I really appreciated the tip about enlisting the help of a licensed asbestos inspector to evaluate the material. I will have to keep my eye out for asbestos so I know what to do in that situation.

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