Profiled asbestos cement roofing is still everywhere on Hull’s older commercial stock. Sheds and warehouses around the docks, units on the trading estates built out in the 1960s and 1970s, and farm buildings across the East Riding all carry it. Most of these roofs were never meant to last sixty years, yet plenty are still structurally sound: just porous, moss-laden and shedding surface fibres as the cement weathers. If you own or manage one, the law expects you to deal with it, and encapsulation is often the most proportionate way to do so.
The duty to manage asbestos in Hull premises
The Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 place a duty to manage on whoever controls the maintenance of a non-domestic building. In practice that means finding out whether asbestos is present, assessing its condition, keeping a register, and putting a written plan in place to manage the risk. Crucially, the regulations do not say asbestos must be removed. Health and Safety Executive guidance is clear that asbestos-containing materials in good condition, left undisturbed, are often safer managed in place than ripped out. Encapsulation is one recognised way of managing a roof in place: it deals with the weathering problem rather than just recording it.
What encapsulation involves on a sound roof
The work starts with a careful clean. Abrasive blasting and aggressive pressure washing are out, because anything that grinds the surface releases fibres. Moss and biological growth are treated and removed under controlled methods, defective fixings and minor laps are attended to, and a purpose-made encapsulant coating system is then applied across the sheets. The coating seals the weathered surface, locks down fibre release, sheds water properly again and slows further decay. The job is done from outside the building, so in most cases the operation underneath carries on.
Cost and disruption: how it compares with removal
Stripping an asbestos cement roof is a major undertaking: controlled removal, wrapping and disposal of the sheets as hazardous waste, then the cost of a complete replacement roof, usually with the building out of action while it happens. Encapsulation avoids the strip, the disposal and the new roof, which is why it typically involves less cost and far less disruption. We will not pretend it is always the better deal: coating a roof that is close to the end of its structural life is money wasted, and we say so when we see it.
When encapsulation is the wrong answer
Coatings cannot rescue a failed roof. If sheets are extensively cracked or holed, delaminating, crumbling at the edges or soft enough to be friable, encapsulation is not appropriate and we will not offer it. The same applies where storm or impact damage has gone through the sheet, where the structure beneath is suspect, or where the building is due for redevelopment, in which case removal is the honest recommendation. Badly degraded material needs a removal contractor working under the proper controls, not a coating. Telling you that costs us a job; not telling you would cost you far more.
Survey first, recommendation second
Every enquiry starts with a condition survey, because nobody can price or specify this work honestly from a photograph. On a Hull roof we assess:
- Sheet condition, surface erosion and any softening
- Cracks, holes, previous patch repairs and their extent
- Fixings, flashings, gutters and roof lights
- Moss, lichen and biological growth load
- The underside, where access allows, for damp and delamination
If the roof is sound, you get a written specification for encapsulation. If it is not, you get told plainly that removal is the right route. We are a South-East based contractor working across England, and Hull and the East Riding are well within our normal range. Either way, the survey decides, not the sales pitch.
