Asbestos cement roof leaks?

Asbestos cement roof leaks, if your garage has a cement asbestos roof and it is currently leaking then you might be considering re-roofing.

The problem with asbestos cement roof leaks and roof replacement is often greatly inflated cost associated with taking off the asbestos cement sheets and disposing of them. They have to be disposed of by authorised contractor and any breaking of the sheets that might release dust and fibre can have extremely unhealthy consequences for your lungs.

It is widely excepted that asbestos cement sheeting is actually perfectly safe providing it remains undisturbed so a solution to dealing with your leaking asbestos garage roof is actually to leave the roof in place but add a second roof on top. This has the added advantage that it provides a layer of trapped air that partially insulates the garage.

This actually is quite a simple process all that needs to be done is to screw 50 mm x 50 mm tanalised battens to the roof from underneath. To do this you have to drill the asbestos cement roof sheeting and clearly precautions should be made not to inhale the dust generated these are very small penetrations and the use of a mask and goggles are clearly essential but the disruption is small and manageable and we considered this to be a perfectly acceptable risk. To minimise the risks further we soaked the area to be drilled with water from a hand spray but if you have any doubts about it then simply don’t proceed.

The battens were placed at 1.5 meter centres across the roof before we installed the 0.8 mil thick corrugated metal sheeting we sealed  the perimeter of the garage with a fibre reinforced acrylic product called “Cromapol” this has proved to be very effective in dealing with asbestos cement roof leaks you can see its application in the enclosed pictures.

Then it’s just a case of overlapping the corrugated sheeting and screwing down with roofing tek screws that have rubber washers. See pic.