The mere mention of asbestos can strike fear into anyone and immediately starts you worrying about how much the asbestos removal is going to cost you.  First of all there’s no need to stress, not all instances of asbestos need to result in removal and it is possible to keep the costs down or even remove them altogether.

There’s a few steps to take before you need to consider what the actual asbestos removal costs are likely to be but first things first, you need to ascertain if you do indeed have asbestos in your building.

The Likelyhood of Asbestos and Age of the Building

Asbestos was a widely used material in the UK construction industry until its phasing out due to its threat to health. Banning its use started in 1985 with the removal of brown (Amosite) and blue (Crocidolite) asbestos until its complete banning in November 1999 when white asbestos (Chrysotile) was included in the ban making all buildings free of this hazardous material from then onwards. So if your building was constructed before 1999 then you should be aware of the possible existence of this hazardous material somewhere in the structure and quite possibly in more than one place too.

If you suspect that your building contains asbestos then your next step is to get a survey carried out. To keep the costs down you can get a kit and do this yourself, however as this is such a dangerous material to health it is recommended that you get a professional company in to carry out a survey. The peace of mind you’ll get from having a professional assessment will far outweigh the cost of getting in the experts and may even save you over spending on your asbestos removal costs.

Cost wise a DIY kit can be around £30 – £50 per kit and most come with PPE as well as cover the cost of testing the samples that you send away.  The cost of a professional survey is obviously slightly higher, starting at around £50 to £80 for a basic survey and rising to over £200 for a full building survey.

Once completed a survey will tell you whether it is recommended to have the asbestos removed or whether it is better to leave it in place and encapsulate it. This may sound counter intuitive at first, as once you know that you have harmful material in your home your instinct will be to have it removed, and you’re probably right.  However there are occasional circumstances where the safest option could be to leave it where it is and encapsulate it, but this decision is probably best left to the experts.

Should encapsulation be the recommended option for you, you can expect to pay around £8 to £10 per sq mt to have this done for you.

In most cases though the best course of action is going to be removal and this is where you need to call in a legally qualified team to take care of the removal safely.

The only type of asbestos that does not necessarily require professional removal and disposal is cement based asbestos items such as soil pipes.  However, when you weigh up the advantages of letting the experts take care of the problem rather than going down the DIY route, it still makes sense to pay a company used to handling hazardous products who have all the equipment and skills needed.

Removing an Old Asbestos Soil Pipe

Here’s a quick comparison of asbestos soil pipe removal costs between us and the DIY route;

Expect these Costs Doing it the DIY Route

PPE – Min requirement – FFP3 masks, goggles, footwear, disposable coveralls and gloves. Approx. £30 to £80

Materials – asbestos waste bags, tapes to seal bags, polythene to protect the areas surrounding the pipe plus all areas to and from.  Approx £100

Disposal – Your local authority may have a collection service that charge per kg for removal, approx. £1 to £1.50 per bag or you could find a local licensed waste disposal centre who are slightly cheaper at approx. 50p to 90p per kg.

The JS Removals Route

Fully removed, with all of the above taken care of for you and an Environment Agency Certificate provided on completion £495

At first glance the DIY route may seem the better option for simple cost cutting. However when you consider the time involved in sourcing all the materials needed, setting up and clearing away and ensuring that it is disposed of safely, it makes more sense to put the whole job in the hands of experts like us.

For all other types of asbestos products it is a legal requirement to have it removed by a professional body who are qualified to do so and hold the necessary certification.

There are several factors that will affect your cost of removing asbestos and these include the amount of material to be removed, what sort of material needs removing, whereabouts in the property it is located and its condition.

One of the most common jobs we get asked for is garage roof or whole garage removal and you will find the costs associated with this type of removal on our main asbestos page. Costs all include an Environment Agency Certificate provided.