Hazardous Materials

Hazardous materials are building materials and components that can harm people when they deteriorate or are disturbed: asbestos, lead paint, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), synthetic mineral fibres, mercury in lamps and controls, ozone-depleting substances in plant, and ground hazards such as radon and contaminated land. Most are not a hazard while sound and undisturbed. They become a capital issue when they deteriorate, when works disturb them, and when the building is refurbished or demolished.

What drives risk:

• Works: refurbishment, services installation, drilling and demolition disturbing materials that were stable.
• Deterioration from weather, water and vibration.
• Out-of-date registers that do not reflect what is there.
• Contractors who are not told what they may disturb.

Disturbance during works

Most exposure happens when trades drill, cut, sand or remove materials without knowing they contain asbestos or lead: electricians in ceiling voids, plumbers in risers, painters preparing old surfaces, flooring contractors lifting tiles. The register exists to prevent this, and the refurbishment survey before works is the critical step.

Deterioration in place

Weathered asbestos cement roofs and walls shed fibre and cannot be safely cleaned or coated; friable lagging and sprayed insulation deteriorate with vibration and water; lead paint flakes and chalks around windows and doors, contaminating soil and interiors.

Register failures

Registers that are out of date, incomplete, marked "not accessed" for large areas, or not shown to contractors give false assurance. A register that says "no asbestos detected" in areas that were never inspected is a common trap.

PCB leaks

Capacitors in old light fittings and transformers leak oily PCB fluid as they age, contaminating fittings, ceilings and the surrounding fabric.

Cost on refurbishment and demolition

Hazardous materials turn refurbishments and demolitions into licensed removal projects, often with significant cost and programme effects, especially where friable asbestos is extensive.

Ground hazards

Radon enters buildings through floors in affected areas; contaminated land and landfill gas affect basements and ground floors.

Fire and storm damage

Fire, storms and impact can break asbestos materials and spread debris across a site and neighbouring land, turning a managed material into an emergency clean-up.

On site

• Grey cement sheeting on roofs, eaves, walls and fences in buildings of the relevant era.
• Lagged pipework and boilers in plant rooms; sprayed coatings on steel and soffits.
• Vinyl floor tiles of older sizes and patterns; textured ceiling coatings.
• Asbestos labels or warning stickers; areas marked "not accessed" in registers.
• Flaking paint on older window frames, doors and railings.
• Old fluorescent fittings with capacitors; oily residue.

In the records

• Asbestos register and management plan with dates.
• Refurbishment and demolition surveys.
• Removal and clearance certificates.
• Lead and PCB test results.
• Radon results in affected areas.

• Debris, dust or broken fragments of suspect materials on floors, in ceiling voids or around plant, a sign that materials have already been disturbed.

Treat the register as a starting point, not a conclusion: its age, scope and any areas not accessed decide how much reliance it deserves.

Findings are graded by what they demand: safety (can hurt someone now), failure (failed and damaging the building), condition (distress present and progressing), lifecycle (renewal due on age and exposure), deadline (a regulator or ordinance sets the date), check (investigate before sizing works) and nil (cosmetic or stable).

A licensed or accredited asbestos assessor or surveyor; lead and PCB specialists as needed.

• Management survey to identify accessible materials for the register.
• Refurbishment and demolition survey, intrusive, before any works that will disturb the fabric.
• Sampling and laboratory analysis of suspect materials.
• Condition assessment and risk scoring of each material.
• Lead paint testing by laboratory or XRF.
• PCB identification of capacitors and sealants.
• Air monitoring where release is suspected.
• Radon testing in affected areas.

The report should give a register with locations, materials, condition and risk, actions, and the removal scope linked to planned works.

Surveys must be matched to purpose: a management survey supports day-to-day safety but is not enough for refurbishment or demolition, which needs intrusive sampling of the areas to be disturbed.

• Manage in place: label, protect from damage and inspect sound materials on a schedule, recording condition in the register.
• Encapsulation of sound bonded materials with sealants or enclosures where removal is not yet needed.
• Licensed removal with enclosures, air monitoring, decontamination, disposal and clearance certificates.
• Lead paint: stabilise or remove under lead-safe work practices, with clean-up and clearance testing.
• PCB removal of capacitors, transformers and sealants as hazardous waste, with cleaning of contaminated fabric.
• Register updates after every removal or change, with the management plan reviewed.
• Contractor controls: permits requiring register checks before any work that drills, cuts or removes materials.
• Radon mitigation by sealing and sub-floor depressurisation where tests exceed action levels.

Surveys and register reviews recur. Removal is priced per area or per item, with containment, air monitoring, disposal and clearance. Friable removal costs much more than bonded. Removal is usually carried in the works line that disturbs it.

Register, management and safety items are code compliance; removal with refurbishment is lifecycle; emergency remediation is immediate.

Removal discovered mid-project costs far more than removal planned from a refurbishment survey, through delays, re-sequencing and decontamination.

• Australia. The model work health and safety regulations require an asbestos register and management plan for workplaces built before the end of 2003, reviewed at least every five years and after works; licensed removal; the Asbestos and Silica Safety and Eradication Agency coordinates national strategy; AS 4361.2 covers lead paint.
• United Kingdom. The Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 impose a duty to manage asbestos in non-domestic premises; HSG264 sets survey practice; the Control of Lead at Work Regulations 2002 apply.
• United States. OSHA regulates asbestos exposure; EPA rules govern renovation and demolition notification and, since 2024, ban ongoing uses of chrysotile asbestos; the Renovation, Repair and Painting Rule governs lead in pre-1978 housing.

Disclosure obligations at sale and lease vary but commonly include known asbestos in all three countries.

• Asbestos register and management plan.
• Refurbishment and demolition surveys.
• Removal and clearance certificates.
• Lead paint and PCB testing.
• Radon results.
• Contractor permit procedures.

• Air monitoring results after removals.
• Records of incidents involving disturbed materials.
• Lead paint disclosure documents for residential property.
• Hazardous waste disposal records.