Where asbestos cement roofs hide around York
York is a historic city, but step onto its trading estates and out into the Vale of York and the roofs change character completely. The industrial and warehouse units on the city’s edges, the depots and workshops serving local trade, and the farm buildings across the surrounding agricultural land were largely roofed in corrugated asbestos cement between the 1960s and 1980s. It was the standard, economical sheet for a portal-frame shed, a grain store or a livestock building. After decades of exposure, many of those roofs are now porous, moss-bound and leaking at fixings and laps, even where the underlying sheets remain sound. That gap between a tired surface and a genuinely failed roof is what a survey exists to measure, and it is the difference between a roof that can be sealed and one that has to come off.
Encapsulation explained, and why owners choose it
Encapsulation is an engineered process rather than a cosmetic coat. The roof is inspected sheet by sheet, then cleaned under controlled conditions so that moss and debris are lifted without releasing fibres or cracking sheets underfoot. Failed fixings are renewed, minor repairs are made, brittle rooflights are dealt with, and a coating system designed for asbestos cement is applied. Once cured, the coating binds the surface, locks fibres in, restores water-shedding and gives the roof a further span of useful life. Against stripping the roof, disposing of sheets as hazardous waste and paying for a full replacement, the cost saving is usually significant, and the building below stays in use throughout the works rather than being shut down.
The duty to manage under CAR 2012
Regulation 4 of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 places a duty to manage asbestos on whoever controls maintenance of non-domestic premises. That means identifying asbestos-containing materials, assessing their condition, keeping a written record and managing the risk over time. It does not mean automatic removal. Asbestos cement in sound condition can be kept in place, sealed and monitored, which is exactly where encapsulation fits: a recorded, planned measure inside your management plan rather than a workaround. For a business or estate in the area, that makes coating a compliant choice, not a corner cut, provided the sheets are genuinely in the condition the survey confirms.
The honest part: when encapsulation is wrong
There are roofs we will not coat, and it is better you know that before a survey than after a failure. Encapsulation is the wrong answer where sheets are extensively cracked or holed, where the cement has gone soft and friable through long saturation, or where storm damage and structural movement have broken the roof’s integrity. It is also limited strictly to asbestos cement. If a survey finds asbestos insulating board, lagging or sprayed coatings, that material is licensable and must be removed by an HSE-licensed contractor. Where removal is the right course for your building, we say so in writing and stand back rather than apply a coating that will not hold.
Survey-led work across the city and the Vale
We work from a South-East base and cover England, which keeps the city and the wider Vale of York inside our regular survey area. The process is straightforward:
- A condition check of every sheet, fixing, rooflight and gutter run
- A photographic record you can keep on file with your management plan
- A straight written answer: encapsulate, repair first, or refer for removal
- A specification and price only when coating genuinely fits the roof
- Workmanship under controlled, documented conditions
If you own a building from the 1960s to the 1980s whose roof has never been assessed, the survey answers both the compliance question and the cost question in a single visit.
