The short answer
The care HSE asks for does not depend on who owns the roof. Asbestos cement must be handled without breaking the sheets, the roof is fragile to stand on, and the waste is hazardous: double-wrapped, labelled and sent by a registered carrier on a consignment note. Handing it to a contractor who plans for each step is the safer route.
The sheets look like plain grey roofing, which is why people are tempted. The risk is in the dust, the fall from a fragile roof and the waste that follows.
What HSE expects, whoever does the work
On its page for non-licensed work, HSE lists asbestos cement, with the proviso that sheets are carefully handled or removed without being broken up. Nothing in that wording softens because the person holding the sheet owns the garage. The aim stays the same for everyone: whole sheets, lowered rather than dropped, with no breaking, no scraping, no power tools and no jet washing.
Is it really asbestos?
Look at the age before the surface. For a garage put up, or reworked, before the year 2000, HSE says to proceed as though asbestos is there. Old asbestos cement is hard to tell from modern fibre-cement by eye. A sample examined in a laboratory gives the firm answer. Until it arrives, treat the roof as asbestos.
When sheets crack or come away in pieces, the work moves into notifiable non-licensed work, which carries its own rules and records. A householder who snaps a sheet halfway down the ladder has changed the category of the job, and the dust is already in the air. Our answer on overcladding an asbestos garage roof looks at the option of leaving the sheets in place and building over them.
The roof itself is the first hazard
HSE's guidance calls AC roofs always fragile. Even a good-looking sheet may break under a person's weight with no warning, and the drop onto a concrete garage floor is a long one. Moss makes the surface slippery, and age makes the sheets brittle. That combination is why the roof is treated as a place nobody walks.
What access does the work need?
Safe access means a platform or scaffold along the eaves, crawling boards or staging that spreads a person's weight, and edge protection. The sheets themselves must never be stepped on. Even finding a stable footing for a ladder against a garage wall can be awkward, particularly on a slope or soft ground.
The sheets are heavy for their size and flex when held at one end. They are bolted to purlins, the long supports beneath them, and the bolts are often corroded, so lifting without cracking takes patience, the right tools and a second pair of hands at each sheet. Our page on whether you can walk on a garage roof goes into the safety side in more detail.
Where the waste goes
The surprise for many owners comes after the roof is down. The household exemption for hazardous waste covers domestic waste other than asbestos waste, so asbestos is not handled like old paint or batteries. It does not belong in a general skip, a bag for the tip or the back of the car without arrangements made beforehand.
How does asbestos waste travel?
HSE's guidance, EM9, tells you to double-wrap it and put a label on it. The load then goes with a hazardous waste consignment note, and whoever carries it needs upper-tier carrier registration. Disposal is at a site permitted to accept it, and the paperwork follows the load from your drive to the tip.
Sheets waiting for collection should stay covered and out of reach of children and pets, so a stacking plan is part of the job. The paperwork also protects you, since it shows where the waste ended up. A contractor arranges the carrier and the note as part of the plan. Read about the contractor route on our asbestos garage roof removal page. Expect the planning around the waste to take longer than the lifting itself.
The safer route, and how we approach it
Hiring a contractor does not make asbestos harmless. It puts the work in the hands of people who plan for it. Careful removal of AC sheets counts as non-licensed work, and we approach it that way: identify the material first, lift the sheets whole, wrap and label them, and send them away under a consignment note with a registered carrier.
What should a contractor tell you first?
A good one asks what the sheets are, how they are fixed, what the supports look like and what you store below. They should give you the method in writing, say who is applying for any scaffold licence, and show how the waste will leave. Be wary of anyone who offers to take sheets away for cash with no paperwork.
For Taunton and the villages around, we begin by surveying the garage and showing you what the sheets and supports look like, and a single written price for removal and the new covering follows. The garage and asbestos roofs hub lists the related guides. If you can tell us the year the garage was built, it helps the survey start in the right place.
More on asbestos garage roofs
Can I take a few asbestos sheets to the tip myself?
Asbestos waste is excluded from the household exemption, so it needs a consignment note and a registered carrier. Sites that accept it set their own conditions, so ring ahead before loading anything. Double-wrap and label the sheets, and keep them whole. A contractor can arrange the full chain for you.
What if a sheet cracks while I am lifting it?
Stop work and keep other people away from the area. Do not sweep, hoover or hose the debris, because that spreads the dust. Cover the broken pieces, then ask a professional to assess the situation. Broken sheets change the category of the work, and HSE guidance sets out what follows.
The full picture: Garage and asbestos roof replacement in Taunton ยท More short answers