Cheltenham and the duty to manage asbestos
If you own or manage a commercial building in Cheltenham, the starting point is Regulation 4 of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012, which places a duty to manage asbestos on whoever controls maintenance of non-domestic premises: find it, assess it, record it, manage it. That duty does not mean automatic removal. Sound asbestos cement can be kept in place, sealed and monitored, and encapsulation is a planned, recorded measure inside your management plan rather than a costly strip-out.
Where these roofs sit around Cheltenham
Cheltenham is a Regency town with a substantial working edge. Asbestos cement roofs from the 1960s to 1980s are common on the Kingsditch and Lansdown industrial estates, across the town’s commercial and trade premises, on the business parks that grew up around its technology and professional-services economy, and on the ageing units that sit behind the elegant frontages. Beyond the town, the Cotswold-edge farmland carries agricultural barns and stores roofed in the same corrugated sheet. After decades of weather these surfaces are porous, moss-covered and leaking at fixings even where the sheets themselves are still sound.
What encapsulation actually involves
The roof is surveyed sheet by sheet, then cleaned under controlled conditions so moss and debris come off without releasing fibres or treading sheets. Failed fixings are replaced, brittle rooflights are addressed, repairs are made, and the prepared surface is sealed with a coating system designed for asbestos cement. The cured coating binds the surface, locks fibres in, restores water-shedding and adds a further service life, with the building staying in use throughout and at far less cost than removal and replacement.
When we will say no
Some roofs should not be coated, and it is better you know before the survey. Encapsulation is wrong where sheets are extensively cracked or holed, where the cement is soft and friable, or where structural movement has gone too far. It applies to asbestos cement only – insulation board, lagging or sprayed coating is licensable and must be removed by an HSE-licensed contractor. Where removal is the right answer, we say so in writing.
A survey-led service for Cheltenham
Cheltenham is well within our regular survey area, and we cover the wider county too – see asbestos roof encapsulation across Gloucestershire. The route is simple:
- A condition survey of sheets, fixings, rooflights, gutters and structure
- A photographic record for your asbestos management plan
- A plain written recommendation: encapsulate, repair first, or refer for removal
- A specification and price only where coating is genuinely appropriate
- Work carried out under controlled, documented conditions
If your building dates from the 1960s to the 1980s and the roof has never been assessed, a free asbestos roof encapsulation survey answers compliance and cost together.
