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stripouts.com.au

The strip-out, one sheet at a time

Which sheets of a strip-out you may take out yourself

One line decides most of it: ten square metres of non-friable material. Where that line lands, and whether it applies to you at all, is answered differently in each state and territory. This guide puts the eight answers side by side, each in the words of the regulator that gives 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

  1. The floor coverings
  2. The wet-area sheetingYou are here
  3. The wall sheeting
  4. The ceiling, and the void above it
  5. The eave sheetYou are here
  6. 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

The wet-area sheet, second in the strip-out, and the eave at the end of it. The strip-out, and the measure, on the home page.

The line, and the two classes of licence

The line comes from a licensing table in the national model Work Health and Safety Regulations, as set out in the model demolition code of practice. The table’s first row sets the line: a person without a removalist licence may take out up to ten square metres of non-friable material, and the dust left by that work where it is only a minor contamination. The model demolition code.

The table then splits the work into two licensed classes. A Class A licence covers friable asbestos or ACM in any quantity, contaminated dust or debris in any quantity, and non-friable material in any quantity as well. A Class B licence covers non-friable asbestos or ACM, and the contaminated dust that comes off it. The licensing table.

That table is a workplace rule. Each state and territory answers a homeowner’s question in its own words, and the eight answers are below.

Eight answers to one question

Each row is the regulator’s own answer for its own jurisdiction, linked at the foot of this page. Where two pages of one state word the limit a little differently, both are given.

  • New South Wales

    The NSW Environment Protection Authority puts the limit this way: non-friable material past 10 square metres, or friable material of any quantity, calls for a licensed contractor. The EPA’s household page. The NSW asbestos site addresses the same figure to tradespeople: a tradesperson does not need to be a licensed asbestos removalist to take out less than 10 square metres or 100 kilograms of non-friable asbestos from a home. The NSW asbestos site on the under-10 rule. The state’s asbestos site adds its own view of the same rule: a homeowner removing asbestos without a licence is within the law, it says, and the work is best left to licensed professionals.

  • Victoria

    WorkSafe Victoria states the general position first: removal is usually licensed work, and the state allows unlicensed removal of small amounts of non-friable material in certain circumstances. WorkSafe Victoria’s basics page. The Better Health Channel, the state health service’s page, says a householder may legally take asbestos out of their own property, and that loosely-bound material is best left to a licensed professional.

  • Queensland

    Queensland states a figure and a certificate. As a homeowner or owner-builder you may remove 10 square metres or less of non-friable (bonded) asbestos without a certificate, and must still take safety precautions. Queensland’s renovating tips. Above 10 square metres, the work needs a certificate under section 8(1) of the Public Health Regulation 2018. Queensland’s homeowner answers. Queensland then closes the obvious loopholes: the entire job is counted, not each section of it, and the job may not be split across days to stay under the line. Nor may other people be brought in to help, unless each helper holds a certificate of competency in the safe removal of asbestos approved by the Chief Executive.

  • Western Australia

    WorkSafe WA allows a homeowner to remove up to 10 square metres of non-friable asbestos, described on the page as solid and not easily crumbled, and asks that strict safety steps be followed. WorkSafe WA on asbestos and the law. The regulator’s licensing page words the same limit from the other side: a homeowner can remove less than 10 m² of non-friable asbestos themselves.

  • South Australia

    South Australia’s asbestos authority states the position plainly: there is no legal requirement for individual homeowners to have a licence to remove asbestos containing material from their own property. The same page recommends engaging a licensed removalist, whose training and equipment suit the work. SA’s homeowners page. The authority also records, on the same page, that dealing with asbestos is the responsibility of the homeowner.

  • Tasmania

    Tasmania’s Work Health and Safety Regulations 2022 carry the state’s own version of the line, as a workplace duty: the duty to ensure a licensed removalist is used does not apply where the job is non-friable asbestos of no more than 10 square metres, or the contaminated dust from removing that amount. The Tasmanian regulations.

  • Australian Capital Territory

    The ACT removed the exception. Its rules require a licensed asbestos removalist for removal work done at a house or a business ACT City Services, and WorkSafe ACT lists among the ACT’s own requirements that all removals be carried out by a licensed asbestos removalist, with the national exception for non-friable removal of 10 square metres or less taken out. WorkSafe ACT names one exception: removal that is part of minor routine maintenance or other minor work. It describes minor routine maintenance as small scale routine work, often short and sometimes unscheduled, and gives sealing, painting or coating non-friable asbestos to maintain its condition as an example. WorkSafe ACT’s minor work page. Disturbing loose-fill asbestos insulation, the insulation in the ACT’s “Mr Fluffy” homes, is not minor work.

  • Northern Territory

    The Northern Territory has no amount limit for a homeowner: the Territory places no limit on what a person takes out of their own house, whatever its type. The transport and disposal requirements still apply, and the Territory’s answers page points to the local council for how the waste is handled. The NT’s homeowner answers.

One worked example, from the code itself

The model code does not leave the ten square metres abstract. Its 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. The model code’s examples.

Set against the ten square metre line, the eave is a small part of one job, and Queensland asks for the whole job to be counted as one job, rather than section by section.

When the work is yours, what still applies

A permission is not a procedure, and the regulators say so even where the law allows the work. SafeWork NSW asks anyone who removes non-friable asbestos covering less than 10 square metres themselves to read and follow the code of practice on safely removing asbestos before starting, and says that anyone not willing or able to meet those obligations should engage a licensed professional. SafeWork NSW on the under-10 rule. South Australia asks that the work be done in a way that is without risk to yourself and to other people. South Australia on removing asbestos. Western Australia allows the removal of intact asbestos from your own home, and strongly recommends a competent person for the job. The Northern Territory asks a renovator to work out, before starting, whether any asbestos containing material is going to be disturbed.

There is also an answer that is not removal. 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. The NSW asbestos site puts the same point as a duty: suspecting asbestos brings a responsibility to keep other people from harm.

None of that changes the agency’s advice at the top of this page, and none of it is written here as steps to follow. The removal procedures themselves are the regulators’ own, in the codes linked above, and the codes are where a person doing the work should read them. Guides on this site that touch on the work keep to what the regulators state: what the material is, where it hides, who may take it out, when a room may be used again, and where the load 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.