Asbestos gutters
Are old garage gutters asbestos too?
The short answer
They can be. Fibre cement was used for gutters and downpipes as well as roof sheeting, and HSE names the two together. Where the garage dates from before 2000, treat the rainwater goods as asbestos until a test says otherwise. Whole lengths taken off carefully are one kind of job; cracked and broken ones are another.
Where asbestos turns up around a garage roofline, how to treat gutters you cannot identify, and what a careful replacement involves.
Gutters were made from the same material as the sheets
People expect asbestos in the roof sheets and forget the rainwater system hanging off them. HSE's non-licensed work guidance gives roof sheeting and rainwater goods as its two examples of asbestos cement products. Gutters, downpipes and the hoppers at the top of them were all made in fibre cement for much of the last century.
That matters on a garage, because the guttering is often as old as the roof. A garage built in the 1950s with grey cement sheets will usually carry a matching grey gutter along the eaves. If the sheets are asbestos, assume the gutters could be too until someone confirms they are not.
HSE offers a rule of thumb that covers the whole building: where the work was built or refurbished before 2000, assume asbestos is present. Treat the garage gutters in that spirit, and hold off with the stiff brush or the pressure washer until you know more.
You cannot always tell by looking
A heavy grey gutter with a rough, chalky surface is a fair suspect, but appearance settles nothing. Paint hides the surface, and a later plastic run can sit beside an old cement downpipe on the same wall. Plenty of garages have a mix of both.
HSE makes a related point about insulating board: it is hard to tell those items apart from their non-asbestos equivalents. The sensible position is to treat anything doubtful as asbestos until it has been sampled and tested. Our page on how to tell if a garage roof is asbestos sets out the clues, from the age of the garage to the look of the sheets.
Photographs of the gutter line, taken from the ground, are enough for us to offer a first opinion. Nothing needs to be touched, scraped or sampled by you at that stage, and nothing should be. Leave the brush in the shed and the ladder against the house wall.
Soffits and fascias are a separate question
The boards under and around the gutter need checking too. External soffits appear on HSE's list of places insulating board was fitted, and taking that board down is licensed work in most cases. That is a different rule from the one for asbestos cement, which is why each material needs identifying before anyone chooses who does the job.
The practical risk sits in the fixings. Gutter brackets are screwed or bolted through fascias, so taking a gutter off can mean disturbing the board behind it. If that board is insulating board, the plan for the job changes before the first bracket is undone.
This is why we study the whole roofline and not just the gutter. We photograph the eaves, work out what each part is made of, and start only when each answer is clear. Until then, nothing is unscrewed, drilled or cut.
Replacing cement gutters carefully
Per HSE, rainwater goods made of asbestos cement count as non-licensed work when they are taken off with care and kept in one piece. With gutters, that means unbolting whole lengths at the joints, lowering them to the ground and wrapping them, not snapping them off the wall with a bar.
A length that cracks and throws up dust moves the job into notifiable territory, and the notice has to go in before work continues. The waste then follows the same route as roof sheeting, which our page on asbestos sheet disposal describes.
When the old system is off, the new one goes on in plastic or aluminium. It is pitched slightly towards the outlet, with brackets at sensible intervals and joints sealed properly. The brackets are fixed to sound timber, not into old board, so the run stays true for years.
Leaving them alone is sometimes the right call
Not every cement gutter has to come off. In HSE's guidance, asbestos cement that has weathered without serious damage still belongs with non-licensed work, so a sound gutter that still carries water can often stay put while everything else is dealt with. A new run you do not need is a bill you do not need.
The choice turns on three things: whether the gutter is cracked or leaking at the joints, whether the roof beside it is being renewed anyway, and whether any other work will disturb it. When the roof is being renewed, it usually makes sense to replace the gutters in the same visit, because the eaves are open and access is already in place.
You receive a verdict on each part, with photographs, and the smallest sensible job. The written price covers the whole job as one total, and it states whether waste removal is part of it. Our garage roof replacement page covers the larger job.
Related questions
Gutter queries
Does a plastic gutter on an old garage mean there is no asbestos?
Not by itself. Gutters get replaced over the years while the roof and downpipes stay original, so a plastic run beside an old garage tells you little. Look at the sheets, the soffit and the age of the building, and ask for a sample to be taken before anyone drills or cuts.
Does removing asbestos gutters need a notice to HSE?
Only when the cement is badly damaged or crumbles. HSE requires notice before notifiable work starts, with no minimum notice period. Whole lengths removed with care count as ordinary non-licensed work. Our survey records which case applies before any work begins.