Can a roof inspection find asbestos?

A roof inspection is a careful look, with photographs, at the covering and the parts around it. That is enough to say a material is of a kind that often contained asbestos. It is not enough to say that it does. Asbestos cement sheeting can resemble modern fibre cement, and HSE concedes that insulating board is hard to distinguish from boards that contain none. Looking carefully does not turn a suspicion into a result.

HSE's starting point is cautious: if the building dates from before 2000, whether built or refurbished then, proceed as though asbestos is in it. That is a precaution, not a diagnosis. The sensible response is to leave suspect material alone, avoid breaking, drilling or scrubbing it, and arrange a proper test or survey before any work gets under way. Our answer on whether your garage roof is asbestos covers the clues for outbuildings.

HSE lists asbestos cement products among the common materials, with roof sheeting and rainwater goods as examples, and names insulating board used for external soffits. On a house that means corrugated sheets over a garage, lean-to or outbuilding, old cement downpipes and gutters, and soffit boards fitted when the material was in common use. They are easy to overlook because they are weathered and painted.

Local housing history adds context. The Victoria County History, writing about Middleton-on-Sea, mentions asbestos walls among the cheaper interwar buildings of two estates there, Southdean and Elmer, where old railway carriages were also put to use. That does not mean any particular house contains asbestos; only testing can say so. It does mean older bungalows and outbuildings along this stretch of coast deserve care. Our answer on asbestos garage gutters shows how rainwater goods fit in.

Under HSE's categories, asbestos cement is non-licensed work as long as the sheets are lifted out carefully and intact, and HSE says that covers sheets weathered by age but still in one piece. When the sheeting is substantially damaged or already in pieces, the job moves into notifiable non-licensed work: HSE must be told before it starts, and workers' health records are kept for 40 years.

Insulating board is another matter. HSE describes most removal of it as licensed work, and external soffits are on its list of places it turns up. A soffit that looks like a plain painted board may therefore need a very different route from the cement sheet beside it. That is why nobody should start cutting, sanding or levering off boards before the material has been identified. Our answer on the asbestos removal licence explains who may do which work.

We keep the work to what is safe. Cement sheeting should be treated as fragile at all times, HSE says, so we keep off suspect roofs entirely. We photograph from the ground, the loft or another safe vantage, note the position, size and condition of the material, and mark it in the report as unconfirmed. Then we tell you the next step: arrange testing, or have the work specified by someone competent before a contractor touches it.

The rest of the roof is assessed as normal. You still receive a verdict on everything else, whether mending, holding the line or re-covering makes sense, and a quote in writing follows our visit. Nothing about the suspect material delays that, and the report keeps the two matters apart so you can act on one without the other. Our guide to walking on an asbestos roof explains the fragility problem further, and the answer on the roof inspection report shows how suspect areas are recorded.

Asbestos does not stop being a problem when it leaves the roof. HSE's guidance for asbestos cement is to wrap the waste twice and label it, put sheet in a lockable skip, and keep it separate from ordinary rubbish. On paperwork, the government's consignment note guidance exempts household hazardous waste but not asbestos, and it has the contractor complete the note as the waste producer.

Before you agree to a removal, ask each firm that quotes whether the material is cement or board, whether it will be tested first, who carries the waste and what paperwork you will be given. A vague answer is a reason to wait. Our answer on asbestos sheet disposal goes through the route in full, and our roof inspections and surveys page lists the visits we offer. If you are also unsure how old the covering is, how old is my roof is a useful starting point.