Asbestos removal — common questions

They may be. Asbestos was used as a binder in Australian vinyl floor tiles made from the 1950s through the 1970s — CSR's Vinylflex was still being marketed in 1979 — and installation continued until around 1990. Asbestos content in these tiles ran roughly 20 to 45 per cent. They were made in squares, rectangles, planks and strips, plain or imitating terrazzo, marble and woodgrain, and they turn up most often in kitchens, laundries, bathrooms and the floors of built-in cupboards.

Usually, yes. Fence sheets were commonly set into the ground for stability — the national product guide notes burial depths of up to 600 mm — so what you can see is not all there is to remove. That matters for two reasons: the buried portion has to come out as part of a proper removal rather than be snapped off at ground level, and decades of a weathering fence line can leave fragments in the surrounding soil. A quote that ignores the below-ground portion has not scoped the job.

Asbestos cement roofing is cement, so it is dull grey rather than shiny, noticeably thick at the edge, and it does not rust — old sheets grow lichen and moss instead, and they sound dead rather than metallic. Corrugated asbestos cement made from the mid-1920s onward typically ran a wider, deeper seven-ridge profile, which is where the trade name Super Six came from. Colorbond and galvanised iron are thin, springy, and rust at the fixings. If the shed or garage went up before 1990, treat grey corrugated sheeting as asbestos until it is tested.

Quite possibly, and it is the part people miss. Paint-on flooring adhesives — particularly the black bitumen-based ones — were commonly reinforced with asbestos, and some floors also had an asbestos felt underlay beneath the tiles. So a floor can test positive after every tile has been lifted. If you have black residue on a slab or on floorboards in a pre-1990 home, treat it as suspect and have the residue sampled, not just the tile.

Yes, and it is the single most common surprise on a Sydney quote. Bonded material that has been badly weathered over decades, burnt in a fire, smashed, water-blasted or repeatedly walked on can lose the integrity of its matrix and be assessed as friable. A forty-year-old roof that crumbles at the edges is not automatically the same job as an intact one. It is also why a quote that is dramatically cheaper than the others is worth a second look — the usual explanation is that it has been priced as bonded work.

We do not advise it and we do not publish instructions for it. NSW law restricts how much bonded asbestos an unlicensed person may remove, and any friable asbestos is licensed work regardless of quantity. Beyond the legal position, most of the exposure risk in a DIY removal comes from breaking the material and cleaning up afterwards — the two things people get wrong. SafeWork NSW publishes the current rules.

Sanding, grinding or buffing a floor that might contain asbestos is one of the worst things you can do with it — it converts a bonded material straight into airborne dust, and it contaminates the whole room. We do not publish removal instructions for this work. If a pre-1990 floor is coming up as part of a renovation, have it tested first: the result decides whether it is an ordinary floor job or licensed asbestos work, and that is a much cheaper question to answer before the demolition than after it.

No. Asbestos cement roofing is brittle and gets more brittle with age, and falls through fragile roofing are one of the most common serious injuries in this kind of work. Standing on it also cracks the sheet, which turns a stable bonded material into broken debris. Inspection is done from a ladder at the edge, from a neighbouring vantage point, or from the ground with a zoom lens — and if the roof needs to be walked, it needs a crew with fall protection.

In NSW a Class B asbestos removal licence covers non-friable (bonded) asbestos only — fibro, roofing, fencing, floor tiles. A Class A licence covers both friable and non-friable asbestos, so a Class A holder can also do Class B work, but not the other way around. Friable asbestos requires a Class A licence in any quantity, with no small-job exemption. Both licences are issued by SafeWork NSW and both appear on the free public register.

Leave the debris where it is, keep people and pets off it, and do not sweep, rake or hose it. Smashed asbestos cement is no longer the stable bonded material it was while intact, and badly damaged or crumbling sheeting can be assessed as friable, which changes both the licence class required and the way the site has to be controlled. Photograph it from a distance and get it looked at. Storm damage is one of the situations where a same-week response genuinely matters.

Yes. Asbestos is a regulated waste stream in NSW, so it has to be wrapped, labelled, transported and received at a facility licensed to accept it. You receive the disposal documentation with your invoice. On friable or Class A work you also receive the clearance certificate issued by a licensed asbestos assessor.

Ours includes it, and any quote you compare it against should say so explicitly. Asbestos is a regulated waste stream in NSW: it has to be received at a facility lawfully licensed to accept asbestos, and those facilities charge by the tonne on top of the NSW waste levy. A quote that leaves disposal out is either burying it elsewhere in the price or is not planning to dispose of the waste lawfully. Ask for the disposal line to be itemised before you accept anything.

They are a moulding pattern left by the manufacturing process, and NSW Government asbestos guidance treats dimpling on one face as an indication that a sheet is asbestos cement. You will usually only see it on a broken edge, a cut hole, or the hidden face inside a cupboard or under the house. It is a strong hint, not proof — plenty of asbestos cement sheeting is smooth on both sides, and sampling is the only confirmation.

Partly, and not yet. In July 2026 the NSW Government announced a $16 million asbestos package that includes $9 million for a two-year trial offering NSW households free pick-up and disposal of smaller amounts of household asbestos waste, due to launch in 2027. It is aimed at reducing illegal dumping. It covers the disposal of the waste, not the licensed removal work itself, and the detail of who is eligible has not been published yet — so it is not something to delay an unsafe job for.

Ask for the name of the entity that holds the licence — which is not always the trading name on the van — and search it yourself on the NSW public licence register at verify.licence.nsw.gov.au. It is free, it takes about a minute, and it shows the licence class and its status. Two things to check beyond the fact a licence exists: that it is current, and that its class actually covers the work you are asking for.

You cannot tell for certain by looking at it, and neither can we. Only a NATA-accredited laboratory can confirm the presence of asbestos, by analysing a sample under AS 4964-2004. We refer you to a licensed asbestos assessor, who collects the sample safely and has it analysed, and you get the laboratory's written result. Be wary of anyone offering an instant on-site result — that is an opinion, not an analysis.

Most residential jobs are done in a single day. A garage roof or a fence run is usually a few hours; a full house strip-out or friable removal with air monitoring and a clearance certificate takes longer, because the area has to stay isolated until the clearance is issued. We give you a realistic timeframe with the quote rather than after the job starts.

Under the NSW work health and safety regulation, an unlicensed person may remove up to 10 square metres of non-friable (bonded) asbestos in total — and the 10 square metres is cumulative, so it cannot be split across several small jobs. Anything above that requires at least a Class B asbestos removal licence, and friable asbestos in any quantity requires a Class A licence. SafeWork NSW recommends using a licensed removalist for any amount. We do not publish removal instructions and we do not recommend DIY removal.

No. "Fibro" is a nickname for fibre cement sheeting, and fibre cement is still made today without asbestos. What changed is the fibre: Australian manufacturers phased asbestos out of building products through the mid-to-late 1980s, and stock kept reaching sites until about 1990. James Hardie's Hardiflex, introduced in 1964, contained chrysotile asbestos; the later Hardiflex II did not — and once both are painted they look the same. Age is the clue, not appearance, and only a NATA-accredited laboratory can settle it.

If your home was built or renovated before the late 1980s, it is likely to contain asbestos somewhere. In Sydney the usual places are fibro wall and ceiling sheeting, eaves, corrugated roofing on garages and sheds, boundary fencing, and the backing under old vinyl floor tiles. Bonded asbestos that is intact and undisturbed is generally stable — the risk comes from breaking, cutting, drilling or weathering it.

If it is grey cement sheeting between posts and it went up before about 1990, it very likely is. Asbestos cement fencing was sold in flat, corrugated and moulded profiles under names including Super Six, Durawall, Ribwall, Shadowline and Coverline, and some moulded versions were painted to imitate steel or timber. Modern replacements exist that look similar, so age and a laboratory test settle it — not the look of the panel.

Bonded asbestos cement that is intact, sealed and undisturbed is generally stable, and the usual advice is to leave it alone and keep an eye on it rather than rush into removal. The risk arrives when the material is broken: drilling, cutting, sanding, water-blasting, or sweeping up debris all release fibres from a sheet that was safe five minutes earlier. Removal becomes the sensible option when the sheeting is damaged, weathered, or in the way of work you are about to do.

The national Asbestos Product Guide warns that weathering and daily expansion and contraction shed fine asbestos-containing material off the surface of old roof sheeting, which then washes into the gutters and downpipes. It advises against using runoff from an asbestos cement roof for drinking or for filling a tank. Gutter sludge under an old asbestos roof should be treated as contaminated debris rather than garden mulch, and it is a common reason a roof gets replaced rather than patched.

Price depends on the material, how much of it there is, how accessible it is, and whether it is bonded or friable. Small jobs such as a fence run or a shed roof are priced as a fixed job; larger jobs are usually priced per square metre with a minimum call-out. Disposal is a real cost in every quote because licensed facilities charge by the tonne. Our cost guide sets out the ranges, and a free quote gives you the actual number.

Friable asbestos is asbestos-containing material that is in powder form, or that can be crumbled, pulverised or reduced to powder by hand pressure when it is dry. Pipe and boiler lagging, sprayed insulation and some old backing materials are friable by design. Everything else — fibro sheeting, roofing, fencing, floor tiles — is non-friable, or bonded, because the fibres are locked into a cement or vinyl matrix. The distinction is not cosmetic: it decides the licence class, the controls and the paperwork.

For friable (Class A) removal, the clearance certificate must come from a licensed asbestos assessor who is independent of the business that did the removal — SafeWork NSW treats an existing working relationship as a conflict that disqualifies independence. The same assessor carries out the air monitoring, and the enclosure cannot be dismantled until measured fibre levels are below 0.01 fibres per millilitre. For non-friable removal, a clearance can be issued by either a competent person or a licensed assessor.

Friable asbestos — material you can crumble by hand when dry, such as pipe lagging or sprayed insulation — is Class A licensed work in NSW no matter how little of it there is. The job needs the area sealed and placed under controlled conditions, air monitoring while the work runs, and a clearance certificate from a licensed asbestos assessor before anyone can go back in. That is a different job from lifting intact fence sheets, and published Sydney rates for friable work run several times higher per square metre than for bonded sheeting.

Because most of the cost is fixed before anyone picks up a sheet. A licensed crew has to travel to site, set up controls, wrap and label the waste, then drive it to a facility licensed to accept asbestos and pay a gate fee that has its own minimum. Those costs are almost the same whether you have two sheets or twenty, which is why removing two sheets does not cost a tenth of removing twenty. Published Sydney price guides put the practical minimum for a licensed job somewhere around $1,500 to $2,500.