Asbestos sheet disposal
How is asbestos roof sheeting disposed of?
The short answer
Asbestos cement sheets are lowered in one piece, wrapped twice, labelled and kept in a skip that locks, apart from every other kind of waste. Household asbestos waste still travels with a consignment note, filled in by the contractor in the role of waste producer. If the sheets are broken up, the whole job changes category, so careful removal and tidy disposal go together.
How old garage roof sheeting leaves your property, who signs the paperwork, and what to ask before anyone loosens the first bolt.
Sheets come down in one piece
Disposal starts on the roof, and the job there is restraint. HSE's guidance A14 describes asbestos cement roofs as fragile, and it tells contractors to bring big pieces down to the ground by lowering them. Throwing pieces off the edge or tipping them through a chute is ruled out, because every crack sheds dust.
Dust is what moves a job from one category to another. Lifting asbestos cement off a roof in one piece falls under non-licensed work. Once sheets shatter or crumble and the air fills with dust, the job moves into the notifiable category, which means telling the regulator before work carries on.
So the fixings are undone first, and the sheets are freed one at a time. Each one is carried flat and set down gently. On a garage this is slow, deliberate work, and it is the main reason a quote for an old cement roof reads so differently from one for a felt roof.
Wrapped twice, labelled and kept locked
Once a sheet is on the ground, HSE's waste guidance EM9 is specific. Asbestos waste is wrapped twice and labelled, and the sheets go into a lockable skip. The lock keeps rain out of the load and stops anyone helping themselves to a piece for a garden project.
The same guidance says asbestos waste must not be mixed with other waste to bring the share of asbestos below 0.1 per cent. So the old sheets stay on their own. Timber, rotten decking, old felt and general garage rubbish are cleared separately, and any crumbled pieces are bagged with the sheets, not left on the ground to be swept up later.
If you are weighing up methods, ask where the sheets will wait between the roof and the skip. A short, controlled route is the right answer. A heap on the drive, or a pile left against the garage wall overnight, is not. By the end of the job the garage is left clear, with every scrap carried off.
The consignment note follows the load
Asbestos waste counts as hazardous waste, and hazardous waste moves with paperwork. GOV.UK's supplementary guidance says the household exemption covers domestic hazardous waste other than asbestos waste. So a homeowner with an old cement garage roof does not get that exemption, and the contractor must complete the consignment note as the waste producer.
For you, three practical points follow:
- Ask who will complete the consignment note, and ask for a copy afterwards.
- Keep that copy with your house papers, because a buyer's solicitor can ask where the asbestos went.
- Be wary of anyone who says the sheets can go in an ordinary skip, or a household bin.
The paper trail matters because it records the load's journey once it leaves your garage. Our page on asbestos garage roof removal sets out the whole job in order, from first survey to cleared site.
Check who is carrying it away
Whoever moves the waste has to be registered to do it. GOV.UK says an upper-tier waste carrier renews every three years at £130.25, and a new registration costs £191.02. Those fees are the carrier's own cost. What matters to you is that the registration exists, because you can ask to see it and the request takes a minute.
Be cautious when a quotation goes quiet about disposal. A price that looks low for an asbestos roof sometimes leaves disposal out, or leaves it for you to arrange. The written quote should name who removes the sheets, who carries them and who completes the paperwork. Check whether it includes VAT as well, since that changes the comparison.
The licence question is separate from the disposal question. Our answer on whether asbestos removal needs a licence explains where HSE draws the line between licensed and non-licensed work, and what that means for a garage.
What disposal does to the price
Disposal is part of why an asbestos garage roof costs more than a felt one, and it does not scale neatly with size. The number of sheets matters, so does the distance between the garage and the skip, and so does the condition of the sheets, whether sound or cracked. Rooflights and cement gutters on the same garage add to it.
We survey first and photograph the sheets and the fixings. The written price then arrives as one figure, and waste removal sits inside it, not on top. If the sheets turn out to be sound, our page on overcladding an asbestos roof describes the alternative of leaving them in place.
The verdict comes first, ahead of any figure. When a patch will hold, you hear that, because the best disposal bill is the one nobody has to pay. Our garage roof replacement page shows how the rest of the work fits around it.
Related questions
Disposal queries
What if a sheet splits as it comes off the roof?
HSE says the work becomes notifiable once the material breaks up and makes significant dust. Notice goes in before that work starts, with no minimum period, and the register of work is kept for 40 years. This is why careful handling counts from the very first sheet.
Do I get a copy of the waste paperwork?
You should, and you are entitled to ask. The contractor completes the consignment note as waste producer, so a copy is easy to supply once the sheets have gone. Keep it with your property documents for any future buyer or surveyor.