Answering your questions

No, you do not always need to remove asbestos – asbestos is not necessarily posing a risk to your health unless it is disturbed or damaged. That is when fibres are released into the area and you may breathe these in, causing damage to your lungs.

If you have asbestos or think you do, you should have a survey carried out to see what risk there might be. Following this, recommendations will be given as to what steps you should take and removal may be one of these. Another option could be asbestos encapsulation.

A professional who has training and a licence to remove asbestos must be the one to remove any asbestos material. You must not do this yourself – it can be dangerous (and the damage to your lungs develops very slowly over time) and it is also crucial that the material is disposed of correctly.

There are two types of asbestos surveys. A management survey and a refurbishment and demolition survey. The management survey is usually a visual inspection of the asbestos and noting the condition of the asbestos. This is the simplest form of an asbestos survey. Generally, you need the management survey if you have found asbestos in your property.

The refurbishment and demolition survey is required when you are actively disturbing the structure of a building and causing the fibres of asbestos to release. This, in turn, can cause long term health effects. This usually happens when you are building, refurbishing, or demolishing a structure that has asbestos in it.

If you need your asbestos removed urgently, we can help. In terms of how long it takes, this depends on a few factors:

1. How much of it there is
2. What state it is in
3. What access is like

Most jobs we do are completed within the same day of starting. However, if your property has asbestos in a number of rooms, it may take slightly longer. When we provide you with a quote, we will tell you how long we think it will take.

Most buildings that were built before 2000 can contain asbestos. In the domestic setting, asbestos can usually be found in:

• Old floor tiles
• Ceiling tiles
• Roofing panels
• Water tanks
• Sheds

In the commercial setting, asbestos can be found in:

• Fire blankets
• Fire doors
• Roofing panels
• Floor tiles
• Artex on the walls

Asbestos can be dangerous, it doesn’t present a health risk if left undisturbed. If the material containing asbestos is damaged or work that has been undertaken nearby that may have disturbed it, fine dust can be released containing asbestos fibres. This can cause irreversible damage to your lungs.

Generally speaking, if asbestos is left undisturbed then it will not cause you any harm. Unfortunately, however, with long exposure to asbestos, you can get some awful conditions and diseases.

• Asbestosis – a serious lung condition caused by the prolonged exposure of asbestos
• Cancer
• Mesothelioma – a tumor that is caused by inhaling fibres and is found in the lining of the heart, liver, and lungs

Asbestos abatement is the removal of asbestos in a controlled environment. We will need to identify where the asbestos is, remove it, or encapsulate it. The reason why you need to do this is to eliminate the risk of long term health problems relating to asbestos. It is best to work with an asbestos removal company, like Colchester Asbestos Services, to ensure that the process is done with minimum risk.

We do! Colchester Asbestos Servicess complete asbestos testing in Essex, Suffolk, and London. We do not just cover Colchester.

Find out more about where we work.

It is certainly not advised for you to complete asbestos testing by yourself. If you were to disturb the asbestos, then this can have a long term effect on your health and you won’t know whether you have been exposed or not. What you can do is to check for possible locations of asbestos in your home or commercial building. Testing of the asbestos then needs to be carried out by a certified professional.

Find out more about asbestos testing and how Colchester Asbestos Services can help you.

We understand if you are moving into a new home and you think or know it has asbestos in it, you will want to understand the costs involved in removing it. If you speak to the current homeowner and check that they are happy for us to provide a quote, then we can do this. It might be that we are sent pictures and measurements and can do this over the phone, or we do an in-person visit. Furthermore, the homeowner may actually want to get the asbestos removed before the sale to help prevent it from falling through.

We always dispose of the asbestos we remove and can also dispose of any asbestos in your property that may have been removed by someone else or that you have come across. We have a licence that allows us to dispose of asbestos safely.

No – we work all over Essex, London and the South East of England. If you are in Essex, Suffolk, Kent, London, Norfolk or Cambridgeshire then give us a call and we can help.