Encapsulation or removal? The question facing Lancaster building owners
Owners of older commercial and agricultural buildings around Lancaster eventually face the same decision: what to do about an ageing asbestos cement roof. Removal is expensive, disruptive and creates a hazardous waste stream. Doing nothing leaves you exposed under the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012. The third option, encapsulation, sits between the two: where the sheets are sound, a specialist coating seals the roof, manages the risk and extends its life, usually for considerably less than the cost of stripping and re-sheeting.
The qualifier matters. Encapsulation is only right where the sheets are sound, which is why our process in Lancaster starts with a survey, not a quotation.
Where asbestos cement turns up in north Lancashire
Asbestos cement was the workhorse roofing material of the post-war decades. Around Lancaster it is typically found on the workshop and storage units of edge-of-town trading estates, on extensions and outbuildings attached to older industrial premises, and on barns and agricultural sheds across the surrounding countryside. Any profiled grey sheet roof on a building from before 1999 deserves to be treated as suspect until identified, because the ban on asbestos only arrived that year. Identification matters because not every grey corrugated sheet contains asbestos; some later roofs use non-asbestos fibre cement. Testing settles the question quickly, and until it does the safe and legally correct position is to presume asbestos is present.
Your legal position under CAR 2012
Regulation 4 of CAR 2012 places the duty to manage on whoever controls non-domestic premises: identify asbestos-containing materials, assess their condition, keep a written management plan and act on the findings. The regulations do not force removal. HSE guidance accepts, and in many cases prefers, that material in good condition is managed safely in place. The plan does not need to be elaborate, but it does need to exist, to be kept up to date, and to reflect decisions actually taken about the roof rather than intentions never acted on. An encapsulated roof, properly surveyed before and documented after, is strong evidence that you are doing precisely that.
What an honest survey looks for
Before recommending encapsulation we inspect the roof in detail and report on:
- Cracking, holes and impact damage across the sheet area
- Whether the cement surface is firm or softening with age
- Fixings, laps, ridges, flashings and roof lights
- Moss growth and surface erosion
- Gutters and drainage, which often need work before any coating
If the roof passes, we specify a controlled clean, the necessary repairs and an elastomeric encapsulant coating built up to a specified thickness. The sheets stay put, the fibres stay sealed, and the building stays in use throughout.
When removal is the only honest recommendation
Some roofs are past saving, and we will tell you so. Sheets that are extensively cracked or crumbling, roofs damaged by storm or fire, asbestos insulation board misidentified as cement, and structures too fragile for safe access all rule encapsulation out. So does a building earmarked for demolition; coating it would simply waste your money. In these cases the correct route is removal, by a licensed asbestos contractor where the material requires it, and our survey report will say exactly that. National Coating Specialists is based in the South East and works England-wide, Lancaster included, and the recommendation you get is based on the roof in front of us, not on what is easiest to sell.
