What to look for
An asbestos cement fence reads as a sheet product rather than a built one. Timber palings are individual boards with gaps; a colorbond fence is thin ribbed steel; asbestos cement is a continuous grey panel spanning between posts.
- Continuous panels between posts, typically in bays a couple of metres wide, with a visible vertical joint at each post rather than every 90 mm.
- Capping along the top edge. Corrugated fences frequently carry an asbestos cement capping or barge moulding over the top, which is itself asbestos.
- Steel or concrete posts, often with the sheet slotted or bolted into a channel, and sometimes with a timber rail behind.
- Cement colour and texture — grey to off-white, matt, holding moss and lichen on the shaded side, with no rust anywhere on the panel itself.
- Cracks radiating from bolt holes, and chipped or crumbling bottom edges where the mower and the whipper-snipper have been going for thirty years.
Flat, corrugated and moulded
Asbestos cement fencing was not one product. The national product guide records it incorrugated, flat and moulded forms, which is why two asbestos fences a street apart can look nothing like each other.
- Corrugated. The same ridged sheeting used on roofs, stood on end. Usually capped along the top.
- Flat. Plain grey panels, the profile most people picture, and the one most easily mistaken for modern fibre cement.
- Moulded. Pressed with a profile and often painted — some imitate steel panels, others carry a woodgrain texture that reads as timber from three metres away.
The same materials were used for pool surrounds, garden screens, patio screening and ramp infill, so an asbestos fence is often not on the boundary at all.
Brand names and the woodgrain trap
Fencing and screening sheets were sold under names including Super Six, Durawall, Ribwall, Shadowline, Coverline, Durabestos, Deep Six, Master Seven, Hardiplank Smooth, Hardiplank Woodgrain, Fibrolite, Tasbestos, Asbestolite and Montana. Australian manufacturers stopped using asbestos in these products around 1983, and near-identical asbestos-free versions were then sold under the same or similar branding.
This is the trap. A painted woodgrain fence panel from 1980 and one from 1995 can be the same shape, the same colour and the same brand family — and only one of them contains asbestos. Neither the name on the panel nor the look of it settles the question. The installation date does, and a laboratory test settles it properly.
It continues below ground
Fence sheets were set into the ground for stability. The national product guide records burial depths of up to 600 mm. Two things follow, and both cost people money when they are discovered late:
- The buried portion is part of the removal. Snapping a panel off at ground level leaves asbestos cement in the soil along the entire boundary — which is a problem for the next person to dig a garden bed, and a problem for you at sale time. Proper removal excavates it.
- The soil along the fence line may need attention. Decades of a degrading fence, plus any past breakage, can leave fragments in the surrounding ground. Where that has happened it becomes a soil question rather than a fence question — see asbestos soil removal.
When you compare quotes, ask specifically whether the below-ground portion and the backfill are included. A quote that has not mentioned them has probably not priced them.
Why fences degrade fastest
A roof gets weather on one face. A fence gets it on both, plus mower strikes, plus soil contact at the base, plus whatever the neighbour's tree does to it. The product guide notes that weathering exposes fibres at the surface of asbestos cement sheeting and that organic growth on the surface accelerates the deterioration.
So the asbestos fence is the product most likely to have crossed from stable bonded material into something that crumbles — which matters legally as well as practically, because friable material is Class A licensed work in any quantity. The friable vs bonded page explains where that line sits and who decides.
If it is already broken
Storm damage, a fallen tree, a reversing car and a neighbour's over-enthusiastic demolition all produce the same situation: broken asbestos cement on the ground. What to do:
- Keep people and pets off the area, and close windows on that side of the house.
- Do not sweep, rake, hose or vacuum the debris. Every one of those spreads it.
- Do not put pieces in a bin, a skip or a trailer. Asbestos waste is a regulated stream in NSW.
- Do not pick fragments out of the lawn by hand.
- Photograph the area from a distance and have it dealt with as a removal job, not a clean-up.
We do not publish DIY removal instructions. What NSW law does and does not allow an unlicensed person to do is set out on the asbestos licensing page.
How it gets confirmed
A NATA-accredited laboratory analysing a sample under AS 4964-2004 is the only way to confirm asbestos. Fences are one of the easier products to sample safely, because the material is at ground level and a small piece can be taken wet and sealed without scaffolding or roof access. See asbestos testing.
Removal and replacement
A single boundary run is usually quoted as a fixed-price job rather than per square metre, because the crew, the truck, the wrapping and the disposal minimum dominate the cost — the cost guide explains that arithmetic and publishes the market ranges. See asbestos fence removal for how the work runs and what happens about the replacement fence.
One piece of practical advice that saves real money: if you also have an old shed roof, some eaves, or a bit of fibro on a laundry wall, get them all quoted in the same visit. The fixed costs are incurred once.
Where this information comes from
Profiles, brand names, the 600 mm burial depth and the weathering behaviour are from the national Asbestos Product Guide (opens in a new tab) published by the Asbestos and Silica Safety and Eradication Agency. Identification guidance and the pre-1990 rule of thumb are from asbestos.nsw.gov.au (opens in a new tab).