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[Sailor]

I’m trying to find out what actions strata unit owners have taken after receiving an asbestos report that indicates there might be asbestos sheeting in the common areas.

What do most strata blocks do in response to an asbestos report?

I had intended to search the site for information about whether there’s a consensus on what action one should take when an asbestos report that only deals with a visual inspection of the building from outside is received. The report we got appears to be based on suppositions about whether it’s likely or possible that asbestos materials were used when the block was put up. The suppositions seem to be governed by the date of completion.

No testing of any kind was done when the inspection was carried out.

Now, for building dates more recent than about, say, 1982, I imagine the reports would give them a “low likelihood of asbestos” result, but older buildings seem to attract a “possibly/probably” summary.

Our building was completed in about 1978-9, so I can imagine there MIGHT have been some asbestos sheeting used during construction, thus I understand why our recently received report states that asbestos might be present, or suspected, in some sheeting used in the common areas.

However, if I were a tradie I’d rather know for sure before I started doing some maintenance work. Is it the usual procedure to get some samples of “suspected” asbestos material in the building tested to confirm whether asbestos is actually present? I don’t know how much that would cost, but I would like to know what the general consensus about confirmation testing has been.

I suppose workmen could suit up completely just in case before doing any sawing or drilling of the suspected sheeting, but that seems very inconvenient and difficult in practice.

I know there’s a physical test to determine whether or not you have a piece of fibre asbestos sheeting – it involves breaking a small piece and examining the broken edge – but so far I’ve not been able to find a chemical or other physical “on the spot” test for presence or absence of asbestos in a sample of sheet.

I used to run my own chemical analytical laboratory, so I’m aware of the need for samples to be taken carefully and in such a way that they’re representative of the whole material. I could liaise with a suitably accredited test laboratory in Sydney to determine what test samples would be needed, and get them to analyse a group of samples I supply, but there’s a cost to that. I’m not sure it’s necessary to do a lot of tests, or any, but I dislike the idea of leaving the whole question hanging.

Alternatively, one could get a specialist company to remove all the suspected material – in our case it’s almost all sheeting, not insulation – and get a builder to replace it with known safe sheeting, but that would probably be even more expensive & I’m not sure I could make a strong enough case to the Executive Committee to support such action.

I’m just starting to look into what others do in this situation, so it’s quite possible I’ve missed something helpful. If you know of some other place I should be checking for some direction on this, please let me know.

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