The strip-out, one sheet at a time
What is behind the tiles and under the vinyl
A strip-out is a tour of the backs of things. The tile faces the room; the sheet behind it faces nobody, and it is the one that decides the job. This guide walks one room surface by surface, in the order a strip-out lifts each one, and gives each surface the answer the regulators give it.
General information, published by Dotto as a guide. Every rule below is stated for the state or territory whose regulator states it, and each sentence carries a link to the page it came from.
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.
Ten square metres, and what stands on it
- The floor coveringsYou are here
- The wet-area sheetingYou are here
- The wall sheetingYou are here
- 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 first three sheets of the strip-out: the floor coverings, the wet-area sheeting and the wall sheet, each read from the back. The whole strip-out, on the home page.
- Home: the whole take-down, and the one measure on it
- Which of these can I take out myself, and which need a licensed removalist?
- What hides behind the tiles and under the vinyl?
- Can you tell asbestos by looking, and what does a test take?
- My strip-out is a shop or an office: what does the workplace law add?
- When is the room safe to use again?
- Where does the load go?
One room, walked surface by surface
Start at the floor, because that is what comes up first. In Queensland, vinyl (PVC) floor tiles often hold a few per cent of very fine chrysotile asbestos, and the state’s code of practice records the range as 5 to 7 per cent. Queensland’s code of practice on removing asbestos. Western Australia’s health department adds two quieter relatives of the same sheet: the paper backing on linoleum flooring, and the textured coating sprayed onto some ceilings in older homes, which may contain white asbestos. WA Health on asbestos removal.
Below the vinyl, there is the floor itself, and between the two there is often an underlay. Some felt carpet underlay is considered friable asbestos: in Queensland that material may only be taken out by a licensed removalist holding a Class A licence. Queensland’s homeowner certificate page.
Tasmania’s workplace regulator keeps the clearest short list of how far this reaches. It records more than 3,000 products that asbestos has gone into, among them the places a renovator works: under vinyl floors, behind tiles, and inside carpet underlay. WorkSafe Tasmania.
The years frame all of it. In NSW, a home or building worked on today that was built before the late 1980s may contain asbestos, and the state lists flooring, kitchens, bathrooms, roofs and ceilings, alongside the walls, among the common places to meet it. SafeWork NSW’s asbestos pages.
The tiles on the bathroom wall
The wet areas are next, and here the question is not what the tile is made of but what the tile is stuck to. Queensland draws a line that surprises people: preparing a surface for painting, drilling a hole, or removing the tiles from a bathroom wall counts as non-removal work, which needs no certificate. The state still asks for precautions to keep fibres out of the air and for safe work procedures to be followed. Queensland’s renovating tips.
The sheet behind those tiles is another matter. The national workplace code states the position for cement sheet plainly: sheet that was installed up to 1990 is likely to hold asbestos, bonded into the cement itself. The model code on managing asbestos in the workplace.
South Australia has one narrow exemption that sits close to this material, and it is worth reading exactly. The state’s Building Work Contractors Regulations 2026 do not apply to the installation, maintenance, repair or removal of carpet or vinyl floor covering where it is not used for water proofing. That is a rule about which building work needs a licensed contractor, and it does not change what the asbestos rules ask of the same job. The South Australian regulations.
The wall sheet, turned over
With the tiles off, the next surface is the wall itself. SafeWork NSW gives the years and the classes together: removing walls on a building built or renovated before 1990 might turn up Class B asbestos, and the same buildings might turn up Class A. SafeWork NSW on the Class A licence. The distinction matters because the two classes are not interchangeable: a Class B licence covers non-friable material and the dust that comes off it, while a Class A licence covers friable material, and contaminated dust in any quantity.
This is also where a room stops being a series of surfaces and becomes one job. Queensland measures the whole of it: the entire job is counted, not each section of it, and the work may not be split across days, or shared with unqualified helpers, to stay under the ten square metres. Queensland’s homeowner answers.
The answer that keeps the sheet on the wall
Not every sheet needs taking off, and NSW Health says that a house made with non-friable (bonded) asbestos does not mean your health is at risk, and that bonded asbestos which is undamaged and in good condition does not generally need to be removed. NSW Health’s asbestos page. A strip-out that stops at the finishes, and leaves sound sheeting in place, is a smaller job with fewer questions attached.
Where the sheet does have to come off, what it is cannot be settled by looking at it. The backs of things look like the fronts of other things, and the next guide in the strip-out deals with the one question this one cannot answer: whether a particular sheet is asbestos at all. You cannot tell asbestos by looking.
One more habit from the regulators is worth carrying through a room. Where a material has not been tested, Queensland’s advice is to assume it contains asbestos and to take precautions before handling it, removing it or disturbing it, and WorkSafe Victoria asks anyone unsure whether a house or structure contains asbestos to treat it as though it does until the site has been assessed. WorkSafe Victoria.
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.