Asbestos, Fibrous Asbestos Cement Sheeting,F.A.C. or Fibro.

On this page. Background | Asbestos Products Around The Home. | Fibro in Your House | Corrugated Fibro Roof Sheeting | Buying a House with Fibro in It | Renovating a House Containing Fibro. | Removing FAC | A Question From a Reader | My View, Take the Risk or Not. |

---

Background

• A naturally occurring silicate, asbestos is mined in various areas of the world, with Russia and Canada being major suppliers.
• In Australia was first mined at the now infamous Wittenoon mine in 1938.
• The ancient Greek word for inextinguishable gives us the modern word Asbestos. The used it for the wicks in continually burning lamps.
• The Romans are said to have had a cloth made out of it. Get this, they cleaned them by throwing them in a fire.
• Both the Greeks and Romans knew of the health problems it caused and "a sickness in the lungs" in the material workers was noted by the Roman scholar Pliny The Elder.
• Asbestosis was recognised officially in 1924.

Asbestos - 1930's house with wall and roof sheeting of fibro materials.

Fibrous Asbestos Cement products, like the wall and roof sheeting on this classic 1930's house, are commonly called Fibro in Australia. Building specifications used to refer to " FAC sheeting". Some people still use the term Fibro for any flat cement sheet, but here I will use the term to mean products containing asbestos fibres.

Thin cement sheets, which are as thin as 4.5mm thick, have to be reinforced with fibres which for a long time were asbestos. Now the reinforcing fibres are usually cellulose.

Fibro is a building product that has been around for a long time. In the post WW2 years, the 50's and 60's, it is estimated that a third of new houses built in Australia used Fibro somewhere.

Asbestos - 1960's style elevated house with fibro external cladding.

Here is a less than classic old Darwin house, that I worked on in 1965 (I did the second fix). It was obviously re clad with Fibro after cyclone Tracy (1974). This and other photos taken May 2007.

FAC was cheap, easy to use and maintenance free. Look at the house above, the external walls have never been painted. That's nearly 40 years. Why wouldn't you use it?

Well I don't think there would be many people considering using it after all the publicity with the various Asbestosis claims against James Hardy and Co.

Asbestos - Loose fibres open to the environment.

In the above photo, of a hip flashing on a "Super Six" corrugated FAC roof you can get an idea of how many asbestos fibres are actually in there. There is also an indication that the corrugated sheet underneath was cut with a grinder or more probably a power saw with an abrasive disk.

Asbestos - Free fibres ready to blow away.

Another shot of the same roof. The coating of cement has just about weathered off in a lot of places, and the fibres are free to blow away.

Breathing in asbestos fibres can cause asbestosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma.

Only cement sheet products made before 1987 contain asbestos. In NSW, for example, the use of asbestos was discontinued in cement sheets by 1982, in corrugated sheets by 1984 and in all other products by 1986. Products containing asbestos have been totally banned in Australia since 2004.

But, that means there are still a lot of houses out there that contain it.

Back to top

Places You May Find Fibro and Other Asbestos Products Around The Home.

• Walls, and eaves, externally as in the photos, easy to pick, especially if they still have the original fibro cover battens on the joints and corners. Also there was a fibro sheeting product that looked like imitation brickwork.
• Not so easy to pick if the external cladding has been covered with something newer. Sometimes you can see the old stuff under the new at the very bottom under the new sheeting.
• Internal wall and ceiling linings sometimes used the old fibro battens, but more often it was fit into "H" shaped aluminum or plastic trims. Or the old battens may have been removed in the past, and the joints filled. It is almost impossible to fill the old fibro joints and make them invisible. (they invented plasterboard for that).
• Fibro used to be fixed with, wait for it, fibro nails. They were also called shear points. The blunt point punched through the brittle fibro, where a sharp pointed nail would split it. The nails were heavy galv. and had flat heads that tend to stick out a bit, and not be driven in flush with the surface, so if you see the nail heads showing through years of paint, it could be an indication of fibro.
• In the wet areas, Bathroom, WC, laundry and kitchen splashbacks we used a Hardy product called "Tilux". A pre painted coloured wet area sheeting. Usually in mottled patterns and using aluminium trims. Almost always in my experience fixed with chromed screws in loose caps. Often this stuff has been left in place and ceramic tiles fixed over it.
• Corrugated roofing, as in the photos above.  The super six roofing has also been used or fencing.  A narrow trench was made with a chain excavator about 400-600 deep and the sheets were stood in it vertically and then back filled.  A capping held the top straight.
• Gutters, rainwater pipes, storm water pipes, water main pipes. Only about three years ago I disposed of 40 or 50 lengths of 150mm Fibro water pipe that had been used as garden bed edging. It was deteriorating badly and the owners hadn't a clue what it was.
• There used to be a lot of moulded type planter boxes out of Fibro. I think that these type of moulded products had a lot more percentage of fibres, or just longer fibres in them than the plain flat sheeting.
• There was a roofing shingle with asbestos in it but I have not come across any. Things like vinyl floor tiles that we never suspected contained asbestos, started appearing with asbestos warning labels on them in the phase out period (late 70's early 80's).

Fibro in Your House

If you have a house with Fibro on the walls and ceilings, don't stress out.

Fibro is OK if it is not deteriorated to the extent that the surface is losing it's cement layer.

The flat sheets are very stable and if they are not disturbed, it is perfectly OK to live in a house with internal and external Fibro sheeting.

Just make yourself aware of it and take sensible steps to avoid damaging the sheeting.

Back to top

---

Corrugated Fibro Roof Sheeting

If your house has the corrugated sheeting on the roof:-

Start thinking about replacing it. (The roof). Unlike the the flat sheeting which has a different ratio of cement to asbestos the corrugated has a definite "use by date" and I guess that any roof that still has it on won't have a lot of life left in it. This is only my experience, I have not seen this documented anywhere. Keep off the roof. Full stop.

If you must go on the roof, be EXTREMELY careful walking on it. It seems to attract mold and mildew and when only slightly wet it is very slippery. Walk only on the battens. (They are under the nails or screws).

It loses it's strength with age and if it is damp after rain it is far worse. It very easy to go through the roof. I did an extension to a large Fibro roof years ago and I had no less than three guys go through the old roof, experienced tradesmen all. Not all the way through of course, a foot or a leg, a few cuts and bruises, but large holes that needed fixing.

I have sealed one large Fibro roof to stop the thing deteriorating, and I am surprised it has not been done more often. Now this type of preventive measure is a bit too late. For a start it is illegal to use a water blaster on Fibro and any type of work on Fibro has to be done by a licensed contractor.

Back to top

Buying a House with Fibro in It

The only way I would knowingly buy an old house with a lot of Fibro in it, is for the land value. I would allow the cost of a licensed asbestos removalist to get rid of the stuff and the cost of the demolition on top of the house price.

They are not "renovator's dreams".

So how do you avoid unknowingly buying a house with asbestos in it?

• Buy a recently built house.
• For old houses of the right era, there is no absolute way to know, but an inspection by an approved person could pick up the obvious signs, but for the rest, the only definitive way is to get lab. tests done, which is expensive.
• Buy a brick/masonry house, solid plaster inside. You could still get fibro lining the ceilings and eaves.
• An obvious way to sell a problem property is by auction. Buyer beware.
• A lot of fibro houses have been re clad, to cover up the stuff, but it is still there underneath. This is OK health wise, but could become a costly problem if you are planning renovations.

Back to top

Renovating a House Containing Fibro.

If you own a place that you suspect may contain fibro, find out what is what. It could cost you heaps if you get it wrong. Otherwise for small jobs treat any cement sheets that you know were fixed before 1990 as containing asbestos. The problem with asbestos is in the breathing in the fibres or dust. It doesn't cause any external symptoms like rashes or itches. It all goes on inside your breathing system. So follow these guidelines.

• Wear a recommended dust mask. Aus Standards P2 .These are a throw away type, half face with a filtered inlet valve and two straps. Throw away after each use.
• Don't use power tools on fibro, that is grinders or drills etc.
• If you want to say cut holes in your eaves for vents, then change the whole sheet for new, then cut out what you want. Dispose of the old sheets correctly.
• Look at my section below, that describes a typical removal job that we used to do, and maybe think if you could use some of the procedures.

I am working from memory now, but here in the NT a home renovator can remove up to ten square M. of asbestos related materials from his own home. This is provided that he does it to "Worksafe" recommendations. This quantity is not much at all, but I believe in other states it is a lot more.

More than this he has to use a licensed asbestos removalist.

Back to top

Removing FAC

So if you are thinking of doing it yourself, you could save some money, but you will have to put some effort into it. I will give you a run down on what I used to do when I had a license.

• Inform the authorities at least a week before commencing work, giving the extent of work and the method of removal.
• The whole thrust of the regulations is to SAFELY remove ALL the material.
• We used to go to a lot of pains cleaning up as much as we could around the work area, before starting to lay protective plastic.
• We would fix signs and barrier warning tape around the block.
• Inform neighbours what was going on.
• We always hired a skip or dumpster. Never used our own vehicle, even for small jobs.
• We lined the skip with two layers of 200um thick black poly plastic sheeting with plenty overhanging the sides to use for covering the top up.
• The whole floor of the work area and access to other areas not being worked in was sheeted with two layers of plastic. Each night the top layer was carefully rolled up with whatever dust it contained and put in the skip. A new layer was put down the following morning.
• Before going into the work area we put on disposable overalls, dust masks, hard hats, safety glasses, gloves and rubber boots.
• If the job was a public building or school we would have to set up an air monitor, to measure the amount of asbestos dust in the air, this would be a check on us that we were following the right procedures.
• The only tools we used were hand tools, pry bars, hammers etc.
• The whole idea when removing the material was to do it in as large a piece as possible to minimise the creation of dust. To do this we punched the nails through the sheets with nail punches or cut around the nails with small wadding punches.
• The pieces were carried out carefully and placed, not thrown into the skip.
• All the time we were doing this one guy had a hose and was spraying us, the work, the skip, and the area in general with a fine mist of water.
• Smaller pieces were were swept up and placed in clear plastic bags with asbestos warning signs on them. These were placed in the skip.
• There was no carting the small stuff to the skip in wheelbarrows and shoveling it in. It was all bagged and placed into the skip.
• We sprayed the nail heads that were left behind in the timber, to seal the fibres under them with watered down PVA glue in a hand spray bottle.
• At the end of each day we rolled up the top layer of floor plastic and put it into the skip. We left our boots inside the work area, we dumped masks and overalls in the skip and covered the skip in plastic and sealed it. We put another layer down at the start of the next days work. Using fresh suits etc.
• A day before the job was finished I would ring up the dump (waste disposal facility) and tell them that we had a load of asbestos material.
• The dump manager would give me a time for delivery and he would have a hole dug out ready for burying the stuff.
• The skip was sealed and asbestos warning tape put around it. I would give the driver of the skip truck a letter to the effect that the load contained asbestos material, which he had to give to the dump manager.

I had a license that is typical for builders, that allowed me to work with FAC only. Not the far more dangerous types of asbestos, blue asbestos, found in pipe lagging etc.

I have seen guys working with that stuff removing the lagging from pipes at a power station. They wore waders and worked in what was similar to an above ground swimming pool. The lagging was separated from the pipes and bagged completely under water.

Back to top

A Question From a Reader

Chris from Sydney writes:

Dear Bill
I've just read through your article on Asbestos. Its excellent - well done.
I'm a home owner in Sydney. I've got a under house double-garage where ceiling is abestos sheeting put up in the 70's.
The plumber and the electrician had to punch through parts of ceiling to get access for their maintance activities. So now I'm looking at clearing out the garage and removing the FAC sheeting.
I've not had much luck in finding a licenced removalist. Either they aren't prepared to visit in order to quote (and provide me with some certainty of their skill) or they visit and I think to myself: 'dodgy guy without the experience'.
Got any recommendations?
cheers
Chris

Hi Chris,
I am assuming that you have say 6mm thick F.A.C sheets on the ceiling. The very brittle stuff, not much bend in it.

Your first and cheapest option is just to cover up the holes with say panels of cement sheet. Or cover the whole ceiling with a new lining. There is no requirement for you to remove it.

Otherwise, I would say check out your local regulations in regard of home owners being able to remove up to a certain small amount without a license.
I am guessing here, but you could have 40 Sq.M. which is more than the limit in the NT. You may be able to split it into two separate jobs.

To do it yourself is not hard, and you would be working in just about the easiest conditions you could get. If your garage is lockable the dust can be contained in that area easily.
The plastic, disposable suits and masks are cheap to buy.
Just an aside here, remember that pulling down a ceiling is a very dusty job, there is heaps of it up there in any ceiling. Only a very tiny fraction of it will contain fibers if you do the job right.

If you can't do it yourself, go to the "Worksafe" authority and get a list of licensed removalists. There will be a lot of names on the list who will be similar to myself, people who have the license so that they can do the work for themselves as jobs crop up, but they don't advertise the fact. You may find someone in your area.

If you have already been using the list, you could try suggesting that you are prepared to do the job yourself under someone their supervision. I have done this myself for a builder mate of mine. I told him what I wanted him to do and how to do it, I did all the paper work and charged him a fee for supervision.
Every person removing Fibro does not have to be licensed, they just have to be working under the supervision of a licensed removalist.

Good luck with it Chris
Cheers
Bill.

Back to top

My View, Take the Risk or Not.

Asbestos - Demolition of an old timber frame building. How could we be so ignorant? This was on a government contract, 1973.

The photo on the right was taken with a bit of humour at the time, but now I cringe when I see It.

In my early days in Australia I handled an awful lot of FAC. For the most part it was flat sheets and was cut with fibro cutters, which made little dust. Even so, sweeping up the scraps etc. exposed us to the dust.

When we fixed the corrugated sheeting, there was only one tool, an abrasive disk in a grinder or saw to cut the stuff, and it had to be cut a lot. There were not the same diamond / wet cutting tools that are available now.

Obviously at at the hips all the the sheets had to be cut. Sheets did not come in long lengths like today's modern metal roofing, so each overlapping sheet in the length also had to have a corner cut off, also by disk.

In the 60's and 70's there were vague warnings about using masks etc. and for the most part we used them, but again they were not as good and as cheap as modern masks.

So, myself and thousands like me got were exposed to asbestos dust. I am still OK and so are thousands of others. Would I do it in the same way again? NO WAY.

I believe it's a bit like a lottery, millions of us don't get that ticket to hospital, but are you willing to take the risk, not only for yourself but for your family and others as well, just to save a few dollars? DO IT CORRECTLY, FOLLOW THE GUIDELINES.

Here is a US site, with more information on asbestos and air quality, public health issues that I found interesting.

If you happen to live in Sydney and are looking for a contractor to remove and replace you old asbestos roof, check out Lidoran Roofing.

Back to top

Leave this page and back to home page

---