Where can asbestos be found?
Asbestos in the home.
Asbestos could be present in any building that was built or refurbished before the year 2000.
- Water Tank – Is usually made of asbestos cement and is often found in older properties (pre 1980).
- Pipe Lagging – Asbestos insulation on pipes. Used to keep heat in or cold out. Often painted over or protected by outer coating so not obviously asbestos.
- Property Insulation – Loose asbestos can be found as insulation in wall and floor cavities and in lofts.
- Textured coating (eg artex) – Can be found throughout property on ceilings and sometimes walls.
- Soffit Board (roof overhang) – Soffit board sits behind fascia at eaves level. Board can be made from asbestos cement or asbestos insulating board.
- Toilet cistern – Toilet cisterns can contain asbestos-reinforced resin composite materials.
- Wall Panelling – Asbestos can be found as external wall cladding and as internal wall panelling both particularly around windows.
- Fuse box – Often found in hall or under stairs. Each fuse wire has an individual asbestos flash guard. Panel behind fuse box can be asbestos.
- Heater Cupboard -Heater cupboard around domestic boiler often contains asbestos insulating board.
- Floor tiles – Vinyl and thermoplastic floor tiles can contain asbestos. The tile backing may also contain asbestos paper.
- Rainwater items – Roof gutters and down pipes can often be made of asbestos cement.
Asbestos in the work place.
Some of the places where you may find asbestos in the work place include:
- Asbestos cement products
- Textured coatings
- Floor tiles, textiles and composites
- Sprayed coatings on ceilings, walls and beams/columns
- Asbestos insulating board
- Lagging
- Loose asbestos in ceiling or floor cavity