Asbestos Cement

Asbestos cement was a widely used construction material throughout the 1900s, Its most common use was in the form of corrougated roofing sheets on garage roofs. Asbestos cement sheeting was used to construct walls of garages or as internal fireproof boarding in homes. 

When people refer to asbestos cement they are usually meaning cement roofing sheets or boarding, however asbestos cement was moulded into a wide variety of products. The term simply means any material where a mix of cement and asbestos was used to construct it - some examples include asbestos flu pipes, waste pipes and soffits. We’ve created a seperate guide for each of these products so click on the links read more about them

Like most asbestos-containing materials, asbestos cement is indistinguishable from cement products which do not contain asbestos.

Cement (with or without asbestos) is often grey in colour and smooth in texture . It can be found on roofs, walls & ceilings all over the UK in homes, garages & commercial properties.

Most of us will be familiar with the "wavey" corrugated asbestos sheets when we see them. A glance at the pictures below will bring feelings of familiarity no doubt, as they can be seen everywhere all over the UK.

There's only one way of knowing for sure if the cement sheeting you're looking at contain asbestos, and that is to have the material tested in a laboratory. If the building was built before 1999 and you spot a wavey corrugated sheet or a flat thin sheet cladded to a wall it is recommended that you assume that it may contain asbestos.

Here are some frequently asked questions about identifying asbestos cement, if you have any questions which we've missed in this article please contact us and one of our asbestos specialists will respond to your question.

Asbestos cement sheeting is most commonly found on the roofs of garages and outbuildings built pre-2000. It was used heavily in residential properties and on commercial warehousing.

Asbestos cement boarding was commonly used was the walls of external garages and also used to fireproof / insulate internal garage walls and ceilings.

Asbestos cement sheets are considered a lower-risk asbestos-containing product. This is due to the material makeup. With the material being heavily bonded and non-friable (Friability is the tendency to break down, chip or crumble under pressure or as a result of abrasion) this means when the product is disturbed or broken there is a minimal release of asbestos fibres. 

Whilst asbestos cement is considered lower-risk by the HSE (Health & Safety Executive)[1]this doesn't mean that the product isn't harmful and certainly doesn't mean it is safe to remove without protection. If you intend to work on asbestos then ensure you wear appropriate RPE & PPE. 

We would always recommend getting an asbestos removal company in to do any removal/maintenance on your asbestos sheeting.

According to the HSE  an asbestos license is not required to remove asbestos cement. However in certain circumstances a notification (NNLW) will still be required (for example on larger / higher risk projects)

We carry out thousands of  tests per year, and as such we have accumulated an extensive data set that we can call upon. According to our data around 9% of the samples we test are cement sheeting samples. Of those tested, a whopping 64% of the samples came back with a positive result (containing asbestos).

If we are to generalise this data we could assume that if you find a cement sheeting on your property there is a 67% chance that it contains asbestos. Regardless of the stats you can never assume the material is non-asbestos contain and so you should always exercise caution.

• 1. "A9-A36 - Asbestos Essentials", Health & Safety Executive [view source] . Retrived 6th August 2023