ASBESTOS
Mr & Ms M/G
Address: IG8,
2 storey mid-terraced property constructed around 1979
Background
On a Bank Holiday Monday, this client came home from being away since the previous Friday to find the mains water feed to the sink had broken off at the flexi-hose end.
The client turned the mains water off and a plumber attended to fix the pipework. However, water had escaped for hours, causing significant water damage to both their kitchen and lounge.
Inspection:
Both the kitchen and lounge had laminate flooring which had blown and was beyond economic restoration and on further investigation beneath the laminate, marley tiles on Bitumen were found and these had started to lift.
Survey method;
As well as the usual readings for moisture taken in all areas, due to a potential risk of Asbestos within the tiles and bitumen, samples were taken and the lifting Marley Tiles were encapsulated for the customers’ safety, whilst awaiting results of asbestos testing. No action was taken until those results were available, other than encapsulation.
The asbestos tests came back positive for chrysotile asbestos fibres in both the marley tiles and bitumen in kitchen and lounge.
Our recommendations/Actions;
As recommended and agreed, we arranged to complete asbestos removal of both tiles and bitumen to both lounge and kitchen.
Once this work was completed and both areas deemed ‘safe’ and clear of any contaminants, we also installed our drying equipment for the client on the same visit. This meant that the period of upheaval and inconvenience was reduced for our client.
We completed the asbestos removal of marley tiles and the bitumen using diamond grinding under ACM conditions.
As the newly exposed concrete flooring below gave us readings of maximum moisture content, the planned drying regime was then installed which included Targeted Heat Systems to dry the concrete floor via capillary action and LGR Dehumidifiers to extract the moisture from the air.
Conclusion;
We achieved suitable moisture thresholds within two weeks of the asbestos removal and once the areas were dried to a suitable moisture level, we laid a new damp-proof membrane on our final visit, allowing the homeowner to get their Kitchen and Lounge back, ready for further reinstatement, in a very timely manner.