Home › Identifying › What an asbestos check actually covers

What an asbestos check actually covers

By · Updated

A look you do yourself, an inspection by a licensed assessor, and a laboratory analysis are three different jobs producing three different kinds of answer. Booking the wrong one is why people end up with a document that does not answer their question.

An asbestos check is not one thing, and that is the source of most of the confusion around it. In Australia the phrase covers three separate activities that give three different kinds of answer. The first is a look you do yourself, which decides whether it is worth spending anything at all.

The second is an inspection by a licensed asbestos assessor or occupational hygienist, which produces a written report of where suspect material sits and what condition it is in. The third is a laboratory analysis of a physical sample, the only one of the three that can identify asbestos at all. Knowing which one you are actually asking for is most of the battle.

Why no check identifies asbestos by sight

Every honest answer on this subject starts in the same place. Asbestos fibres are microscopic, and asbestos cement looks the same as the modern asbestos-free fibre cement that replaced it.

A licensed assessor with thirty years in the trade, standing in your hallway, is doing the same thing you would be doing (reading age, location, form and condition) and arriving at the same kind of answer: this material is consistent with asbestos-containing material, or it is not. Only a sample analysed in a laboratory turns that into an identification, and NATA accreditation is what makes it dependable.

That single fact reorganises the whole subject. It means the visual stages of a check are not weaker versions of the laboratory stage; they are a different job. Their purpose is to work out what, if anything, needs sampling, and what needs to be left alone in the meantime.

1. The check you do yourself

This is free, it is legitimate, and for most people it is the only step they ever need. You are establishing four things:

  • Age. When was the house built, and when was this particular part of it last renovated? Manufacture, use and import of asbestos were banned outright in Australia at the end of 2003, after a long phase-out through the 1980s.
  • Location. Eaves, wet-area linings, ceilings, roofing, fences, meter box backing boards and the backing of old vinyl flooring are where asbestos cement most often survives in a house.
  • Form. Sheet thickness, edge profile, texture on the reverse face, fixing pattern, corrugation profile on a roof.
  • Condition. Intact and painted behaves completely differently from cracked, weathered or crumbling: and condition, not identity, is usually what decides how urgent anything is.

What this stage cannot do is give you a verdict. And it is worth being blunt about the things that look like evidence but are not: colour, moss, chalkiness, whether it is painted. And the word fibro itself, which names a material type and has always covered both the asbestos and the asbestos-free generations.

2. The inspection: what an assessor's report covers

An asbestos inspection of a house is a systematic walk-through of the areas the inspector can reach, producing a written report. A report worth paying for covers, at minimum:

  • every material identified or presumed to contain asbestos, with its location recorded clearly enough to find again;
  • the type: bonded (fibres held in cement or backing) or friable (crumbles under hand pressure), because that distinction drives everything that follows;
  • the condition of each material and whether it is likely to be disturbed;
  • a recommendation for each item (leave in place and monitor, seal, or remove) and, where removal is recommended, which licence class the work would need;
  • which items were sampled, and the laboratory results for those samples.

Note the word presumed. An inspector is entitled to record a material as presumed asbestos-containing and treat it accordingly without sampling it. And in many cases that is the sensible outcome: presuming costs nothing and changes nothing you were going to do.

What an inspection does not cover matters just as much. A standard inspection is non-destructive, so it sees accessible surfaces only. It does not see the inside of a wall cavity, underneath a fixed floor covering, a sealed roof space or a slab.

If your renovation is going to open those up, the report you have describes the house as it appears, not as it will be once the wall is open. A pre-purchase building inspection is a different product again, and it is not an asbestos survey.

You may also see the terms asbestos register and asbestos management plan. Those are workplace obligations that fall on whoever manages a workplace, not on someone living in their own house. If you own a rental, a strata block or premises where people work, that is the point at which they stop being somebody else's paperwork. And it is a question for your state regulator rather than for this site.

3. The laboratory analysis

This is the only stage that answers the actual question. Someone takes a small sample of the material and sends it to a laboratory accredited by NATA for asbestos identification. The lab analyses it under a microscope using the Australian Standard method for identifying asbestos in bulk samples. The result comes back as asbestos detected or not detected, and where detected, which fibre types were found: chrysotile, amosite, crocidolite.

Two limits are worth holding on to. The result applies to the sample, not to the house: a negative on the eaves says nothing about the bathroom lining. And taking the sample is itself the moment of greatest risk in the whole process, which is why the rules about who may take one vary between states. And why nobody should ever take a sample from material that is friable or visibly damaged.

Which check fits which situation

  • You are about to renovate, drill, demolish or have trades in. This is the case that genuinely needs answering before work starts, because the work is what creates the hazard.
  • You are buying. An asbestos inspection is a separate engagement from the standard building inspection, and worth arranging deliberately on anything built before the phase-out.
  • Material has been damaged by storm, fire or impact. Do not clean it up and do not sweep or hose it. Keep people away from the area and contact your state or territory regulator for the procedure that applies where you live.
  • Sheeting is intact, painted and nothing is planned. Recording it and leaving it alone is frequently the correct answer, and the check that gets you there costs nothing.

Who is allowed to do which part

Anyone may look. Beyond that, each state and territory sets the rules under its own work health and safety laws, administered by its own regulator: SafeWork NSW, WorkSafe Victoria and their counterparts elsewhere.

Two things hold everywhere. Friable asbestos work is always Class A licensed work, with no homeowner exception. And bonded removal becomes licensed work above an area threshold that your jurisdiction sets. Do not take a figure for that threshold from a web page, this one included. Check it with your own regulator, because it is one of the details that genuinely differs.

What an asbestos check will never tell you

It will not tell you whether you or your family have been exposed, or what any exposure means. That is a conversation with a doctor, and Australia maintains a national asbestos exposure register for recording exposures.

It will not tell you what your obligations are when selling, letting or insuring a property. That is for your state consumer affairs or fair trading body and your insurer. And it will not tell you the one thing people most want to hear, which is that a photograph settled it. Nothing settles it except the laboratory.

Frequently asked questions

Is an asbestos check the same as a building and pest inspection?

No. A standard pre-purchase building inspection is not an asbestos survey and is not carried out by a licensed asbestos assessor. If you want asbestos assessed on a house built before the 2003 ban, arrange it as a separate engagement and ask specifically what the report will and will not cover.

Can an inspector tell me it is asbestos without taking a sample?

They can record a material as presumed to contain asbestos and recommend that it be treated accordingly, which is often the practical outcome. What they cannot do is identify it. Only analysis of a sample in a laboratory produces an identification rather than an assessment.

Does a negative laboratory result clear the whole house?

No. A result applies only to the material that was sampled. Houses are built and renovated in layers, so a negative on one sheet says nothing about a different room, a different era of work or a different material.

Do I need an asbestos check before selling my house?

What a seller has to disclose is set state by state, and it is a question for your state or territory consumer affairs or fair trading body rather than for this site. What we can say is that an inspection report gives a buyer facts instead of guesses, which tends to make the conversation shorter.

Can I take the sample myself and send it to a laboratory?

The rules on who may take a sample differ between states and territories, so check with your own regulator first. What does not differ: nobody should take a sample from friable or visibly damaged material, and sampling is the step in the whole process that most easily creates the exposure you are trying to avoid.

Sources

What this page explains is based on these official sources. If you check one and it does not match what you read here, send it to us and the article gets corrected.

Keep reading