Before a renovation: homes, shops and offices
A strip-out is a room taken back to its sheets.
A strip-out is the job before a renovation: the flat things come off a room, loose finishes first and installed material last, down to the sheeting on the walls. Each thing that comes off has its own rule.
General information, published by Dotto as a guide. Every rule on this page is stated for the state or territory whose regulator states it, and the pages it came from are linked at the foot of the page.
It is not recommended that you handle or remove asbestos yourself, and in some places the law goes further. That is the Asbestos and Silica Safety and Eradication Agency’s advice to householders. In the Australian Capital Territory any removal needs a licensed removalist, unless it is part of minor routine maintenance or other minor work. In Queensland a home owner must be trained before taking out more than 10 square metres of non-friable material, and only a removalist holding a Class A licence may remove friable material.
- The floor coverings
- The wet-area sheeting
- The wall sheeting
- The ceiling, and the void above it
- The eave sheet
- The board, and the lagging behind it
Ten square metres of non-friable asbestos: at a workplace, the most that needs no removal licence, in the licensing table of the national model demolition code
The eave: 1.6 m² of the ten
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The floor coverings
Vinyl (PVC) floor tiles, laid loose across a floor. Queensland’s code of practice on removing asbestos puts them at 5 to 7 per cent very fine chrysotile.
In Western Australia, the state government’s asbestos page puts the years this way: before the mid-1980s, highly likely; between the mid-1980s and 1990, likely.
Some felt carpet underlay is friable: in Queensland only a licensed removalist holding a Class A licence may take that out.
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The wet-area sheeting
The cement sheet behind the bathroom tiles. The national workplace code puts the years on it: sheet installed by 1990 probably holds asbestos, bonded into the cement.
WorkSafe ACT says a home built or refurbished in the territory before 1990 is likely to contain asbestos containing material.
Queensland treats lifting the tiles off a bathroom wall as non-removal work, which needs no certificate, though precautions still apply.
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The wall sheeting
Flat cement sheeting, fixed with nails or screws. SafeWork NSW says you might find Class B asbestos when removing walls on a building built or renovated before 1990.
Victoria’s Better Health Channel: before the mid-1980s, highly likely; from the mid-1980s to 1990, possible; after 1990, unlikely.
The NSW EPA says the contractor you engage to take out more than 10 square metres of non-friable sheet, or any amount of friable material, must be licensed.
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The ceiling, and the void above it
The ceiling sheet. Above it, a cavity: the NSW EPA says some NSW homes had loose-fill asbestos, raw crushed friable asbestos, put in as ceiling insulation during the 1960s and 70s.
In the ACT, a small number of homes may still hold loose-fill asbestos insulation in the roof cavity, the wall cavities or the sub-floor space.
For NSW homes with loose-fill insulation, the state says the only complete removal of it is demolition of the building and remediation of the land.
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The eave sheet
The asbestos cement eave under the roofline. The national code’s own worked example puts an eave at 1.6 square metres in total.
Safe Work Australia’s model code records that asbestos was widely used in buildings until the late 1980s, when bans began, and that its use was only completely banned on 31 December 2003.
The code’s workplace examples count this eave among the jobs a self-employed person without a removalist licence may do, if the code’s Chapter 4 requirements are met.
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The board, and the lagging behind it
The switchboard and its meter board, and the lagging wrapped around pipes. In Western Australia, asbestos saw wide use as insulation on pipes, boilers and heat exchangers.
Queensland’s asbestos site says switchboard panels and meter boards made or imported before 1 January 2004 may contain asbestos containing materials.
Queensland’s advice to a household is a warning sticker in the switchboard, so a tradesperson sees it before any work starts.
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Where nothing has been tested
“If you are not sure whether a building material contains asbestos, play it safe and assume that it does,” Queensland’s asbestos pages say.
“Where materials have not been tested you should assume that it could contain asbestos and take adequate precautions before handling, removing or disturbing it.”
WorkSafe Victoria asks anyone unsure whether a house or structure holds asbestos to treat it as though it does until the site has been assessed.
No licence is required for a person to take out up to ten square metres of non-friable material, together with the dust left by that work where it is only a minor contamination. That row is the licensing table of the national model demolition code, and it is a workplace rule. The model demolition code.
How a home’s job is measured is settled by the state. Queensland says to count the entire job, not each section of it, and that the job cannot be broken into days, or shared with helpers, to stay under the line: each helper would need a certificate of competency in the safe removal of asbestos approved by the Chief Executive. Queensland’s answer for homeowners.
Above the line, or where the material crumbles under hand pressure, the job needs a licence: Class B covers non-friable material and the dust from removing it, Class A covers anything friable and any amount of it. The licensing table.
Not every jurisdiction follows that table for a home. The Australian Capital Territory requires a licensed removalist for removal work, unless that removal is part of minor routine maintenance or other minor work, having removed the exception for non-friable material of 10 square metres or less, and the Northern Territory places no limit on what a person takes out of their own house, whatever its type, though the transport and disposal rules still apply. The Northern Territory’s homeowner answers.
The notes, one per sheet
Each note carries the regulator or the code of practice that states it. The links at the foot of the page go to the exact pages.
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The floor coverings
Queensland’s code of practice on removing asbestos records vinyl (PVC) floor tiles at 5 to 7 per cent very fine chrysotile asbestos, and the state’s homeowner certificate page puts some felt carpet underlay with the friable material, which only a licensed removalist holding a Class A licence may take out.
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The wet-area sheeting
The national workplace code puts the years on cement sheet: sheet installed by 1990 probably holds asbestos, bonded into the cement. In Queensland, lifting the tiles off a bathroom wall counts as non-removal work, which needs no certificate, though the state still asks for precautions against fibres getting into the air. WorkSafe ACT reaches a little further: it puts homes built or refurbished before 1990, and commercial buildings put up before 2004, among those likely to hold asbestos containing material.
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The wall sheeting
SafeWork NSW says removing walls on a building built or renovated before 1990 might turn up Class B asbestos, and the page for the other class says the same buildings might turn up Class A. Above 10 square metres of non-friable sheet, or any amount of material that crumbles under hand pressure, the NSW EPA says the contractor you engage must be licensed.
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The ceiling, and the void above it
In some NSW homes, loose-fill asbestos insulation was installed in the 1960s and 70s: raw crushed friable asbestos, used as ceiling insulation.
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The eave sheet
The national code’s own worked example is an asbestos cement eave: 1.6 square metres in total, a job the code counts among those a self-employed person without a removalist licence may do, if the code’s Chapter 4 requirements are met.
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The board, and the lagging behind it
Queensland’s asbestos site says switchboard panels and meter boards made or imported before 1 January 2004 may contain asbestos containing materials, and in Western Australia asbestos saw wide use as insulation on pipes, boilers and heat exchangers. Queensland’s advice to a household is a warning sticker in the meter box or switchboard, so a tradesperson sees it before any work starts.
What is never done to it, and where the load ends
- Queensland’s asbestos site says not to saw, sand, scrape or drill holes in asbestos materials.
- The Asbestos and Silica Safety and Eradication Agency says never to use high-pressure water, or an abrasive process such as scrubbing, sanding or grinding, on an asbestos cement roof or on any other asbestos material.
- Queensland’s page on the health effects of asbestos gives the reason the disturbance matters: it is when asbestos is worked with or disturbed, and asbestos fibres are released, that the risk of developing an asbestos related disease is increased.
- The Asbestos and Silica Safety and Eradication Agency states the rule for the load: all asbestos waste has to go to a landfill site that is licensed to accept it. New South Wales words the same rule for its own state: only a landfill licensed to accept asbestos waste may take it for disposal.
Six guides, one sheet at a time
Each guide takes one part of the strip-out and answers the question that part raises, from the pages that settle it.
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Which of these can I take out myself, and which need a licensed removalist?
The 10 m² line, the two licence classes, and the sentence each state and territory uses to settle the question for a home.
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What hides behind the tiles and under the vinyl?
The floor coverings, the sheeting behind the tiles and the wall sheet, walked surface by surface through one room.
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Can you tell asbestos by looking, and what does a test take?
What a laboratory sample can answer, how small it is, who may take it, and the two rules that let you skip the test.
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My strip-out is a shop or an office: what does the workplace law add?
The register that a workplace must keep, the survey that stands in when there is none, and who answers for the work.
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When is the room safe to use again?
The clearance certificate that follows licensed removal work, and who may sign it in each state.
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Where does the load go?
Wrapping, labelling, which sites may take the load, and the weight and area thresholds each state uses to decide who tracks it.
What this page will not tell you
- What it costs. The pages this guide is written from carry no prices for removal work, for a survey or for a test, so none is printed here.
- Who to use. This is a guide published by Dotto, not a directory: no removalist, assessor or laboratory is named or recommended.
- How long your job takes. No page cited here holds a duration for a strip-out, in any state.
- Whether your building holds asbestos. The third guide sets out what a laboratory sample can answer, who may take it, and when the regulators say to assume asbestos instead.
- Anything about your own health. No first aid is written out here, and no treatment advice is given. Where a state health page is used for a fact, the page using it links that page.