Asbestos Removal Katoomba
Katoomba has more fibro per street than almost anywhere in Greater Sydney, and mountain weather has been working on it for sixty years — which is why so much of it is cracked rather than intact.
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Asbestos in Katoomba homes
Katoomba's housing runs from Federation guesthouses and weatherboard cottages through a very large layer of inter-war and post-war fibro: holiday cottages, sleep-outs, garages and rear additions built in asbestos cement because it could be carried up by rail and put up quickly. In much of the town the sheeting is the external wall and the internal lining of the same building, and decades of damp, frost and moss have left it far more weathered than equivalent material on the coastal plain.
Condition is the first thing we assess on a Katoomba job. Bonded sheeting only stays bonded while the cement matrix holds together, and up here it often has not: hairline cracking around the fixings, moss growing in the surface, edges soft enough to crumble under a thumbnail.
Material in that state cannot be unscrewed and stacked the way sound sheeting can. It needs wetting down, careful support as it comes off, and containment underneath — and it produces more waste volume than the same area of intact sheet, because the fragments have to go too.
The second Katoomba factor is disposal. Bonded asbestos from a Mountains job goes down to the council facility at Blaxland by prior booking; the Katoomba tip does not take it. That is a round trip built into the price, and it is why we would rather do a whole structure in one mobilisation than come back for the shed next month.
Guesthouses and older tourist buildings around the town centre are their own category — larger areas, roof sheeting at height, and usually a heritage builder waiting on us.
Where it turns up locally
- Fibro sheeting on walls, eaves and garages
- Corrugated asbestos-cement roofing and sheds
- Asbestos-cement fencing along boundaries
- Vinyl floor tiles and their backing adhesive
Disposal
Asbestos waste from Katoomba has to go to a facility lawfully licensed to accept it. We transport to Blaxland Resource Recovery and Waste Management Facility in Blaxland — the Blue Mountains council facility that accepts bonded asbestos, by prior booking — the Katoomba facility does not accept it You get the disposal documentation with your invoice.
Katoomba at a glance
- Postcode
- 2780
- Council
- Blue Mountains City Council
- Nearby
- Leura, Medlow Bath, Wentworth Falls, Blackheath
- Disposal
- Blaxland Resource Recovery and Waste Management Facility
Servicing Katoomba
We service Katoomba NSW 2780 and the surrounding area.
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What we remove in Katoomba
Asbestos removal
Bonded and friable asbestos removed by SafeWork NSW licensed removalists, with sealed transport and lawful disposal documentation on every job.
View asbestos removal →Residential removal
Asbestos removed from homes, garages, sheds, eaves and bathrooms, with the site left clean and the disposal documented.
View residential removal →Roof removal
Corrugated asbestos-cement roofing removed and replaced in the one job, so the building is watertight the same day.
View roof removal →Inspection
On-site identification, asbestos registers and surveys, clearance and air monitoring, carried out by a licensed asbestos assessor we refer you to.
View inspection →Demolition
House and commercial demolition and internal strip-outs, with any asbestos removed under licence before demolition starts.
View demolition →
Asbestos removal in Katoomba — common questions
Do I get documentation showing it was disposed of properly?
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.
How do I know for certain whether it is asbestos?
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.
How long does asbestos removal take?
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.
Is there likely to be asbestos in my home?
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.
Other suburbs we service in Blue Mountains
Need asbestos removed in Katoomba?
Do not touch it, break it or sweep it up. Send us a photo from a safe distance and we will tell you what you are looking at and what it costs to remove.
Monday – Sunday, 9am – 5pm · Greater Sydney & the Central Coast