Asbestos has now become a serious problem for home owners and contractors repairing the flood damaged houses caused by the recent floods in Queensland.
These flood waters tore through many properties, farms and regional towns in the rural areas where many of the homes damaged were originally built in the late 1940 – 1980 era.
Many of these houses were built using Asbestos material such as “Fibro”. Fibro is the shortened name for Fibrous Asbestos Cement (FAC). It is a cement mixed with asbestos fibers and was banned from use in the mid-80’s. It was replaced by another Jasmes Hardie product simply called Fiber Cement Siding.
These older fibro homes are now requiring repair after the water has inundated them. When houses are filled with water, once the water has been drained away and the houses have been dried out, all the internal and many external walls have to be torn out and replaced otherwise every time it rains and the material gets wet or damp, the house will stink.
Ripping out and replacing these internal and external walls that are made from Fibro is not too much of a problem when they are damp because the fibers hold together. Mind you, I’m certainly not recommending anyone touch this stuff if they so much as suspect that the material is made of Fibro!
The very serious problem is once the Fibro dries out as it has to do to be removed, or even after it is removed and dries out on the footpath or outside anywhere, these asbestos fibers float and become airborne and represent a very, very serious danger to everyone’s health and James Hardie’s wealth.
Under no circumstances, if you suspect the material to be made from asbestos, should any non-professional, non-hazmat qualified trade’s person attempt to dispose of the materials.
The Queensland floods that covered 75% of Queensland and a substantial percentage of our capital city Brisbane; put many older properties under water and as many of them were ‘older’ homes, they had substantial quantities of fibro used in their building materials. Many of these homes have had the asbestos material treated and sealed but many had/were not.
On the ‘Salvage Saturday’ immediately after the flood waters had started to recede, when thousands and thousands of volunteers appeared from the non-waterlogged suburbs to help those less fortunate home owners to clean up their homes, many of these volunteers may have been exposed to wet-Fibro materials.
These were internal and external walls that were washed down or damaged and needed to be removed. They were carried outside and put into a garbage collection pile ready for the dump trucks to take the rubbish to the tip.
Because the materials would have been wet at that stage, hopefully the asbestos fibers would have been contained. But if there was a pile of this material lying and drying out in the sun still waiting for pickup, and then beware.
Do not go near the stuff or stand downwind from it. Asbestos is a killer. It causes mesothelioma and can only be handled by a HazMat team of fully trained professionals.
The asbestos will be coming out of flood damaged houses for years to come while repairs are made. The current advisory for contractors working in this area is that if there is ten square meters or more of asbestos material then the Hazmat team must be called in to dispose of it. These are the official guidelines and must be adhered to.
If there are smaller quantities to be removed, then call in a professionally trained and certified trade business that specializes in asbestos removal. They are listed on the Internet and don’t charge the earth for their services. If you are a Queensland house owner who has no building experience at all, then don’t even hesitate to call and wait for a professional trade’s person.
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