Asbestos

Asbestos is present in most properties built before 2000 and all materials with any trace of asbestos in its make up has been banned since 1999. A lot of roofing products prior to 1999 contain Chrysotile (white asbestos) which is not deemed as dangerous as Amosite (brown asbestos) or the deadly Croclidolite (blue asbestos) but enough to be taken out of building products.  It is mostly found in cement fibre board which is used for corrugated garage roofs, soffits and cemented gable verges (see photos above). This was also found in asbestos slate like tiles found in Durham St, Monifieth. I had samples of all these materials tested by Dundee Council Public Annalist (see report photo below). In the latter found trace of white and brown asbestos (see photo below), stripping this roof and removing the asbestos was costly affair. The skip had to be lined with double thick Visqueen, two layers and sealed before taken away to an Asbestos Disposal Unit.

Cemented gable verges have a cement fibre strip running up the underside of the cement (see photo below) and testing positive for Chrysotile (white asbestos). We recommend having this removed and dry verges fitted. Most new build houses are fitted with dry verge these days and are maintenance free, help ventilate your roof, a replacement for cement fibre board and give a nice cosmetic look to your roof.

Durham Street

(test report)

These materials can become a problems when buying a selling a property if picked up on home report surveys. Corrugated garage roofs also contain white asbestos and we recommend replacing   them with a flat roof system asphalt or single ply although we still restore existing ones if requested (see photo below). None of these materials can be taken to local skips, they have to be double bagged and specially disposed of sometimes at a great expense.     

By Steve James,  Proprietor of John James Roofing Services  

Filon asbestos over roof system

This is a commercial product which Steve has
introduced to domestic roofing as an answer to
re-roofing corrugated garage roofs which are
made up of cement fibre with a slight content of
white asbestos, although not dangerous which
can be costly to dispose of.

Filon is specifically designed to fit over existing
corrugate roofs in any profile which is metal
or cement based. Sheets are made of GRP and
run the full length of a domestic garage with no
centre overlap which can cause water ingress in
this type of flat roof. The product comes ‘made to
measure’ with coated metal flashings and new
bolts. It is maintenance free and usually fitted
with PVCu fascia and gutter which complements
our PVCu roofline jobs.