Replacing an asbestos cement roof in Traralgon

If your Traralgon house or shed has corrugated cement roof sheets and was built or renovated before 1990, treat them as asbestos until a laboratory test says otherwise. Replacing that roof is a two-trade job: a licensed asbestos removalist takes the old sheets off and disposes of them, then a roof plumber fits the new roof, usually in steel sheeting. Through this site your enquiry goes to independent local businesses who quote and carry out those stages; nobody here removes asbestos or fits roofs.

How do you know if a roof is asbestos?

The state’s asbestos hub, Asbestos Victoria, treats any house built or renovated before 1990 as likely to have asbestos somewhere in it. Its list of common roofing and exterior locations includes:

• corrugated roof sheets
• ridge capping
• guttering and downpipes
• eaves
• external wall cladding and fences

The same page says you cannot confirm asbestos by looking at a material: only laboratory testing of a sample can tell you for sure. Asbestos Victoria’s homeowner page suggests arranging a professional assessment or assuming it is present and taking precautions, and links to NATA-accredited asbestos surveyors and laboratories.

What not to do with suspect sheets

Asbestos Victoria is clear: do not drill, sand, cut or use high-pressure water on materials that may contain asbestos. For a roof that means:

• no water-blasting or pressure cleaning of a cement roof, even to prepare it for paint
• no drilling holes for new fixings, aerials or brackets in the sheets
• no cutting sheets to fit a skylight, flue or extension
• no walking on the sheets, which disturbs them and puts your weight on a material nobody has assessed

Do not assume an intact-looking roof is fine either. Asbestos Victoria’s explainer on asbestos says that even where the fibres are bound in cement, the cement matrix degrades over time, and a product that looks sound on the surface may already be compromised inside. Roof sheets that have sat in the weather for decades are among the most exposed.

Who removes it and who re-roofs it?

Stage	Who	What they do
1. Test	Asbestos assessor or accredited laboratory	Takes or analyses a sample and confirms whether asbestos is present
2. Removal	Licensed asbestos removalist	Removes the sheets, ridge caps and any asbestos gutters or downpipes safely, wraps them and takes them to a site authorised to receive asbestos
3. Roof frame check	Roof plumber or builder	Inspects the battens and rafters once the sheets are off, replaces rotten or undersized timber
4. New roof	Registered or licensed roof plumber	Fits sarking if specified, new metal sheeting, ridge capping, flashings, gutters and downpipes
5. Paperwork	Licensed roof plumber	Issues the plumbing compliance certificate for the new roof when the job is over the set value

Asbestos Victoria says a builder, electrician or plumber generally is not licensed to remove asbestos and the law heavily restricts what they can do. A roof plumber who offers to “just pull the old sheets off” is a warning sign. Some roofing businesses arrange a licensed removalist as a subcontractor, which is fine; ask for the removalist’s business name and licence so you can check it.

All asbestos waste must go to a place authorised to receive it. It must not be buried, dumped or put in skips or household bins.

Your roof job is a workplace

Asbestos Victoria’s homeowner page makes a point many owners miss: once you engage someone to work on your home, it becomes a workplace under Victorian law. The contractor then has to comply with workplace safety law, the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 among it, and that includes identifying asbestos before starting. In practice, ask every roofer who quotes:

• how they found out whether the roof contains asbestos, or whether they are assuming it does
• who will remove it and under what licence
• how the sheets will be handled during removal, and how the waste leaves the property
• what happens if they find more suspect material, such as old flue pipes or eaves linings, once work starts

A roofer who has no answer for these is not ready to quote an asbestos roof. When you ask for a test and removal plan, say whether a laboratory result already exists.

Why replace with metal?

Once the cement sheets are gone, many owners choose steel sheeting in a corrugated or similar profile. Installing, repairing or replacing metal roof coverings is listed as typical roofing (stormwater) work on the BPC class page, so a registered or licensed roof plumber does it. For a house, that has to be the full roofing (stormwater) class; the restricted class only covers sheds, garages and carports.

The metal re-roofing page covers the new roof in more depth: profiles, colours, sarking, insulation and what to expect on the day. For an asbestos-roofed shed, garage or carport, see shed and carport roofing.

What does the new roof cost?

What’s The Damage’s Melbourne roofing cost guide gives re-roofing in Colorbond, supplied and fitted, at $84 to $190 per square metre, including GST, for Melbourne metro. That band is for the new roof only. Asbestos testing, licensed removal and disposal are priced separately by the removalist, and timber found rotten once the sheets are off adds to it. Roof area is larger than floor area because of the pitch and the eaves, so measure from the roofer’s figure, not the house plans.

Paperwork and permits

A whole-roof replacement on a house can trigger more than one set of rules: a compliance certificate for the roof plumbing, possibly a building permit for a change in roofing material, and, for larger contracts, a written major domestic building contract and Home Warranty cover. Each of those depends on the scope and value, and the guide to roof permits and contracts in Victoria sets them out. Ask your roofer or a building surveyor which apply before signing.

Check your home insurance as well. Asbestos Victoria notes that many home and contents policies exclude asbestos.

Local background

Latrobe Valley towns grew fast in the mid twentieth century. Victorian Places records that by the 1950s the Housing Commission had built over 2000 homes in Morwell for the growing workforce, and similar growth happened in Traralgon and Moe. Houses and sheds from those decades fall inside the pre-1990 window Asbestos Victoria warns about. That does not mean any particular house has an asbestos roof; it means a test is worth doing before any work. The Morwell roofing page covers that town’s older housing in more detail.

What a careful contractor does and refuses to do

• asks the age of the house and whether the roof has been tested before quoting
• names the licensed removalist and says who is responsible for disposal
• quotes removal and the new roof as separate lines so you can compare
• includes an allowance for replacing battens or rafters once the roof is open
• covers the house against rain between removal and the new sheets going on
• refuses to water-blast, paint or drill into suspect sheets
• refuses to remove asbestos sheets without the licence to do it

Use the roofing quote checklist to compare two quotes line by line.

Next step

Put the year the house or shed was built (a rough decade is fine) into the form, and say whether the roof has ever been tested. Attach a photo of the sheet profile from the ground, one wider shot of the roof and, if possible, one of the eaves. Say whether it is the house, a shed or both. Then request an asbestos roof replacement quote and a local roofer can explain how they would sequence the removal and the new roof.

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