How to tell if your house contains asbestos

Asbestos is a natural mineral fibre that comes in several forms. After World War II, materials such as bricks, tiles, and pipes were expensive, so many Australians used asbestos-filled fibro sheeting to build their homes. Builders liked it for its fire resistance, low cost, flexibility and strength, and it ended up in more than 3,000 building products in the years when it was included in building materials.

The peak years for asbestos in Australian homes ran from 1945 to 1987, according to the national Asbestos Management Review of 2012. Schools, offices, and factories went up the same way as homes. If your place dates from that era, it’s worth knowing what to look for, how to get it checked, and what you can and can’t do yourself.

Can you tell if it’s asbestos just by looking?

You can’t tell just by looking that it’s asbestos. It will look different depending on what it was mixed with and whether it has been painted over. Raw fibres can be blue, brown, green, or white, but colour won’t settle it once the material is in a sheet or a tile. The fibres are 50 to 200 times thinner than human hair, and the material has no smell.

Use the rule the regulators use: if you think it might be asbestos, treat it as though it is, and leave it alone until you know.

Is asbestos always labelled?

Some products carry a label reading ‘WARNING: CONTAINS ASBESTOS’. Plenty don’t. No label doesn’t mean no asbestos, so the age of the house and the type of material are better guides than any marking. Only authorised inspectors can verify if the product contains asbestos.

The age of your home can be an important clue

If your home was built or renovated before 1990, assume it contains asbestos until a test says otherwise. Asbestos cement products such as fibro sheeting and roofing stopped being made in Australia around 1987, but stockpiled sheets kept going up for years afterwards, which is why regulators settled on 1990 as the practical cut-off. That date is safety guidance rather than a legal test, and it is deliberately cautious.

Manufacture, use, import, supply, and installation of all forms of asbestos have been prohibited throughout Australia since 31 December 2003. The prohibition sits in the work health and safety laws of each state and territory, and in the Commonwealth Customs (Prohibited Imports) Regulations 1956 and Customs (Prohibited Exports) Regulations 1958.

It’s worth being clear about what that ban does: it stops new asbestos going in, and it does not require asbestos already in place to be removed.

Friable and non-friable asbestos: why the distinction matters

Friable asbestos can release fibres more easily, making it the higher-risk form of asbestos.

Non-friable asbestos has fibres bound within another material, which reduces the risk while it remains intact.

However, as asbestos-containing materials age, deteriorate or become damaged, the risk of fibre release can increase regardless of how they are classified.

What is loose-fill asbestos insulation?

Loose-fill asbestos insulation, sold under the brand name Mr Fluffy, was installed in ceilings in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory between 1968 and 1979. It is raw crushed amosite and crocidolite and poured or sprayed into roof spaces and wall cavities.

New South Wales keeps a register of homes confirmed to contain it, and a listing is disclosed on the planning certificate that comes with a contract for sale. Read that register carefully, though. Absence from it does not mean a house is clear, because it lists only properties that were registered for testing with NSW Fair Trading and tested positive.

How is asbestos identified and tested?

Laboratory analysis is the only way to be sure. Under the work health and safety regulations, a sample must be analysed by a laboratory accredited by the National Association of Testing Authorities, Australia (NATA) for the relevant test method. The standard of those regulations is named AS 4964:2004, ‘Method for the qualitative identification of asbestos in bulk samples’. What you get back is a certificate of analysis that says plainly whether asbestos was found.

Identifying and sampling the material is a job for a competent person, which in practice means an occupational hygienist or a licensed asbestos assessor. An assessor’s licence is legally required for air monitoring, clearance inspections and clearance certificates on friable (class A) removal work. Identification alone doesn’t call for one.

Can you safely renovate a home that contains asbestos?

In many cases of asbestos in the house, there’s no need to do anything. If a material within your house contains asbestos and is intact and undamaged, then the product is low risk as long as it remains undisturbed.

What matters is knowing where the material is, or might be, before anyone starts work on the house.

Exposure to asbestos through building products is most likely to occur during a renovation or demolition when asbestos-containing materials are disturbed, removed, or cut. You can renovate a house that contains asbestos, but regulators recommend using a licensed removalist even where doing it yourself is allowed. It’s worth considering the long-term risks you could be facing if you do it yourself.

If you choose to DIY, don’t treat the material like any other building product, and avoid these four things:

• power tools such as angle grinders, circular saws, and electric sanders, which cut, drill, grind, or sand fibres straight into the air
• high-pressure water or compressed air for cleaning, which can not only loosen fibres but transmit them in ways you wouldn’t expect, like fibres carried by water being released hours or days later as they dry
• dry sweeping with a broom, or a household vacuum even one fitted with a HEPA filter, when the job calls for a hired class H vacuum

What to do if you think you’ve been exposed

If you’re concerned about asbestos dust exposure or begin to develop any illness, it’s important to see a doctor as soon as possible. These conditions generally follow high exposure over a long period, and symptoms can take about 20 to 30 years to appear. None of that makes a one-off exposure nothing, and it does mean the sensible response is a conversation with your GP rather than alarm. Tell them what the material was, when it happened, and how long you were around it.

It’s also a good idea to document any asbestos exposure in case you do develop an asbestos-related disease later in life. The Asbestos and Silica Safety and Eradication Agency runs the National Asbestos Exposure Register, which is free, voluntary and open to anyone. Our free Dust Exposure Register is another way to keep the record. Recording the details of your exposure, regardless of how recent or long ago it was, can help any future claims for compensation you may need to make.

For more information on recognising asbestos or on registering your exposure to it, visit the Asbestos and Silica Safety and Eradication Agency.

Health conditions linked to asbestos exposure

When asbestos fibres enter the air, the dust can enter your lungs and potentially cause serious health problems, such as lung-related asbestos disease or mesothelioma. Asbestos can also cause asbestosis, asbestos-related lung cancer, and pleural thickening and pleural plaques, which affect the lining around the lungs. Each of these is set out in more detail, along with how a claim for it works, on our asbestos diseases page.

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