Asbestos cement and Sheffield’s industrial buildings
Sheffield’s workshops, fabrication sheds and trading estate units, built in the post-war boom, were often roofed in asbestos cement. It was a good fit for the time: cheap, fireproof and quick to install across big spans. Fifty years on, those same roofs are weathered, mossy and leaking. If you own or run one, you’ve got a legal duty to deal with it.
Dealing with it doesn’t automatically mean ripping it out. If the sheets are still sound, we can encapsulate them. That means cleaning, repairing and then sealing the roof with a specialist coating. It’s a recognised way to manage the material in place and it’s far less disruptive than removal.
Duty to manage, in plain terms
The Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 are clear: if you control a non-domestic building, you have to identify any asbestos, assess and record its condition, and keep a written management plan. The law is pragmatic about sound asbestos cement. Leave it alone, keep it in good condition, and monitor it. You only have to remove it if its condition demands it, not just because it’s there.
For building owners in Sheffield, that means an ageing but intact roof is a management problem with options. Sealing it is often the cheapest compliant solution, rather than stripping it.
How encapsulation extends a sound roof
Encapsulation gets to the root of the problem: fibre release from a deteriorating surface. We follow a deliberate, controlled process:
- We start with a survey. Our recommendations are always based on what we find.
- We clean the roof carefully, removing moss and dirt without damaging the sheets.
- We repair fixings, laps and flashings. If a sheet is too far gone, we’ll replace it.
- We apply a coating system specifically formulated for asbestos cement. It seals the fibres in and keeps the weather out.
- We provide documentation for your asbestos register and management plan.
What you get is a watertight, sealed roof that won’t shed fibres or dust anymore. It typically costs a fraction of what removal and re-sheeting would, and your building stays in use the whole time. We can usually deal with rooflights and gutters in the same programme. That’s often where these roofs start leaking anyway.
When encapsulation would be the wrong call
This is important, so we’ll be straight with you. Encapsulation only works if the sheets are still sound enough to be worth keeping. If a roof is friable, delaminating, soft or widely broken, no coating will make it safe. Applying one would just hide the fact that it’s still falling apart. Those roofs need to be removed by a licensed asbestos contractor and replaced. Our surveyors will tell you which side of that line your roof sits on. If it’s the wrong side, we’ll recommend removal, even though it’s not the work we do. Overstating what a coating can achieve helps nobody.
Survey-led, UK-wide
We’re based in the South East, but we carry out asbestos roof encapsulation across the UK. Sheffield and South Yorkshire are definitely within our working area. Every enquiry follows the same process: survey, written findings, an honest recommendation, then a price. If you manage an industrial unit, workshop or farm building in Sheffield with an asbestos cement roof that’s seen better days, get a survey booked before it deteriorates too much and encapsulation is no longer an option.
