The strip-out, one sheet at a time
The clearance certificate, and who may sign it
The last sheet leaving a room is not the end of the job. Where licensed removal work has been done, one document sits between the end of the work and the room going back into use, and the states do not agree on who may sign it. This guide sets out the certificate, the person who arranges it and the person who issues it, jurisdiction by jurisdiction.
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 coverings
- The wet-area sheeting
- The wall sheeting
- The ceiling, and the void above it
- The eave sheet
- The board, and the lagging behind itYou are here
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 last sheet out of the strip-out, and the opening it left behind.
- 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?
No certificate, no room
Where licensed removal work has been done, the codes of practice state the rule in nearly the same words: until a clearance certificate has been obtained, the asbestos removal area cannot go back into normal use or into other work. The national model code states it for workplaces, SafeWork NSW states it for NSW in its code of practice, and the codes of Queensland, South Australia and the Northern Territory carry their own versions.
Queensland ties the inspection to the workplace setting. A clearance inspection is required when a person commissions licensed asbestos removal work to be carried out at a workplace Queensland’s clearance inspections, and the certificate itself is a statement that the assessor or competent person is satisfied the area is safe: Queensland’s clearance page gives one of the conditions in numbers, where air monitoring formed part of the inspection, the measured fibre concentration has to be below 0.01 fibres/mL.
Who arranges the clearance
Who organises the inspection follows the setting, and the split is not the same from state to state. In Victoria, whoever commissioned Class A or Class B removal work must get a clearance certificate from an independent person once the work is finished and before anyone moves back into the area The Victorian compliance code, a duty the state’s regulations repeat. In Western Australia it is the removalist who organises the clearance where the asbestos came out of residential premises, and who must ensure a certificate is issued before the premises are occupied again. WorkSafe WA on air monitoring and clearance.
The Northern Territory draws the same line and states both sides of it. A business that has engaged a licensed removalist for work at its workplace organises the clearance inspection itself, while a homeowner who has hired the same removalist for a residential premises leaves that arrangement to the removalist. NT clearance inspections. South Australia splits it the same way: the business commissioning licensed removal work at a workplace arranges the air monitoring, and where the workplace is a residential premises, the removalist arranges it. South Australia on removing asbestos.
Who may sign it: the state-by-state split
This is where the answers genuinely diverge, from a licensed assessor at one end to a competent person at the other.
- Queensland. An independent licensed asbestos assessor carries out the functions connected with Class A removal work, which are air monitoring, clearance inspections and issuing the clearance certificate. Queensland’s air monitoring page.
- New South Wales. Independent asbestos assessors issue the certificates for friable removal work before a site is reoccupied; for non-friable removal, a competent person or an assessor may issue one. SafeWork NSW’s asbestos pages.
- Victoria. The certificate must come from an independent person, whoever the removalist is.
- Tasmania. In Tasmania the class decides who signs: licensed assessors clear Class A work, where a competent person clears Class B. WorkSafe Tasmania’s licensing page.
- Western Australia. A certificate is required for Class A and Class B work, and for Class B the minimum the state asks for is a thorough visual inspection. Air monitoring at clearance can be appropriate for Class B work depending on risk, such as where there are close neighbours or the job is large and complex. WorkSafe WA.
- South Australia. For a job of more than 10 square metres, clearance before reoccupation includes a visual inspection and air monitoring results below 0.01 f/mL. South Australia on removing asbestos. SA’s EPA adds that a licensed asbestos assessor has to monitor every licensed removal job.
- Australian Capital Territory. The ACT replaced the references to a competent person with a licensed asbestos assessor, so that in the territory only a licensed asbestos assessor may provide asbestos assessment, clearance inspections and air monitoring. The ACT lists that among its specific requirements, alongside the licence duty that applies to removal work in the territory. WorkSafe ACT.
- Northern Territory. The clearance duty sits with the removalist at residential premises, and with the business at a workplace, as above.
Where air monitoring is not optional
SafeWork SA states that in that state, air monitoring is required for removing both friable and non-friable asbestos SafeWork SA’s asbestos page, and the state’s asbestos authority puts the same rule in terms of the classes, applying it to Class A and Class B removal work alike. Asbestos and the law, South Australia.
The load that left the room is the last thread of the job, and it has rules of its own. That is the final guide in the strip-out: where the wrapped load goes, and which of the states keep track of it. Where the asbestos waste from a strip-out goes.
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.