Asbestos Eaves Removal in Geelong: What to Expect, What It Costs and What Replaces Them
If there is one place asbestos turns up on a Geelong house, it is the eaves. From the post-war homes of Corio and Norlane to the 1960s and 1970s brick veneers across Belmont, Highton and Grovedale, and the beach houses of Ocean Grove and Barwon Heads, asbestos cement sheet was the standard eaves lining for decades. It was cheap, flat, fire-resistant and easy to cut, and builders used it almost by default until the late 1980s.
That means asbestos eaves are one of the most common jobs we do, and one of the most common reasons homeowners first contact a licensed removalist: a repaint, a new gutter, solar panels, a renovation or simply a sheet that has cracked and started to crumble. This is what the job involves.
How to tell if your eaves are asbestos
You cannot tell for certain by looking, but there are strong indicators. Eaves lining installed before about 1990 should be assumed to contain asbestos until tested. Asbestos cement sheet in eaves tends to be a flat, slightly dimpled grey sheet, often with a pattern of small nail heads along the joins, and joins covered by timber or plastic strips. It is harder and more brittle than the modern fibre cement that replaced it, and old sheets sometimes show a golf-ball surface where the paint has weathered.
The only way to be sure is a sample sent to a laboratory. Our asbestos testing and identification service does this, and a test is quick and inexpensive compared with the cost of guessing wrong in either direction.
Why eaves matter more than they look
Eaves asbestos is bonded, which means the fibres are locked into cement and are not released while the sheet is intact and painted. The risk is in disturbance: drilling for a downlight or a security camera, cutting for a new fascia, a gutter installer's screws going through the lining, a painter sanding the surface, or weather damage cracking the sheet so it sheds. Every one of those is a normal thing that happens to a house, which is why eaves removal is usually done before other work rather than after.
How the removal is done
Removing eaves is a Class B, non-friable asbestos removal, and it needs a licensed removalist because more than a small area is involved on almost any house. The process on a typical Geelong home runs like this.
The area below the eaves is cleared and the ground sheeted with plastic to catch any debris. Warning signs go up and the work area is controlled. The sheets are wetted down to suppress dust. Each sheet is unfastened, not broken, and lowered intact wherever possible; nails are removed or the sheet is eased off them. Sheets are wrapped in heavy plastic or placed in lined bins as they come down, then labelled for disposal. The timber framing behind the sheets is inspected and vacuumed with an asbestos-rated vacuum, and any debris is cleaned up before the plastic below is folded and disposed of as asbestos waste.
Removed sheets go to a licensed asbestos disposal facility, and you receive the disposal documentation and, where required, a clearance certificate. Our EPA-compliant disposal and clearance certificates page explains what you should expect to be given at the end.
On most single-storey homes the removal takes a day. Two-storey homes, homes with wide eaves or verandah ceilings in the same material, and homes with difficult access take longer.
What it costs
Eaves removal is priced on the lineal metres of eaves, their width, the height and access, and whether verandah, carport or porch ceilings in the same material are included. As a rough guide, a standard single-storey Geelong home is usually a modest job compared with an asbestos roof or a full-house strip-out, and it is often bundled with the replacement lining to save a second contractor. Two-storey homes cost more because of the access equipment. We give a fixed quote from photos or a site visit, and it includes disposal, which is a meaningful part of the cost.
What replaces them
The standard replacement is modern fibre cement eaves lining, which contains no asbestos and looks much the same once painted. It is fixed to the existing framing, with any rotten or damaged timber repaired first, and the joins are covered with new strips. Some homeowners take the opportunity to install vented eaves lining to improve roof-space ventilation, which is worth considering in Geelong's summers. The new lining is then painted, either by us as part of the job or by your painter.
If the eaves are being removed as part of a wider renovation or a full-house asbestos removal, the replacement is usually done by the builder as part of the new work.
Combining it with other jobs
Because disturbing eaves is what triggers most removals, it makes sense to sequence the work. If you are planning a repaint, replace the eaves first so the painter is working on new sheet. If you are having solar installed, a new gutter and fascia fitted, or downlights added to a verandah ceiling, the asbestos should be out before those trades arrive. And if the house also has an asbestos roof or fence, removing the eaves at the same time saves on setup and disposal.
A note on doing it yourself
Victorian rules allow a homeowner to remove a very small area of non-friable asbestos themselves, but a full set of eaves is well beyond that and requires a licence. Beyond the legal side, eaves are overhead work with brittle sheet, and breaking them up is exactly what releases fibres. It is not a job worth doing yourself.
If you are in Geelong, Corio, Norlane, Newtown, Belmont, Ocean Grove or anywhere across the region and suspect your eaves are asbestos, send us a couple of photos. We can usually tell you whether a test is warranted, and give you a price for removal and replacement from there.