I am in negotiations for a house in the Gironde region and there is asbestos on the property so i was wondering if anyone has recently paid for the removal of asbestos from their property so i can get an idea of the cost. Its all on the outbuildings so there is 20 m² on a chicken hut roof, about another 20m² of loose corrugated panels then 50m² the barn roof but this is quite high up and i can’t imagine anyone tackling this without scaffold due to the condition of the roof beams.
Does it need to be removed?
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Ah… this is prior to a purchase…
Unless one of us has had recent work done, you might be best advised to seek quotes from some professionals and then use the sums quoted to get the price reduced… 
.
or simply ensure via the Notaire, that the Seller has the stuff professionally removed, with the paperwork to prove it… before the Sale is finalized…
I’ve known this to be done in recent years…
best of luck
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Ditto, Does it need to be removed? Are you going to lick it or something? Around here the local tip will supply the disposal bags and will take 20m² at a time, for free.
I don’t think licking it is the problem, it’s inhaling it 
More seriously, you can’t just rip it off the roof, bag it up and drop it off at the local tip, it’s highly, highly toxic. Even if utimately left it in place I’d get a quote for disposal and use it to negotiate the property price, because you can bet your booties whoever comes along in due course to buy it rom you will do so 
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I have asked the agent to get me a quotation but this may take some time as the specialist companies are quite far from the location so i thought someone on this forum may have had some removed recently by professionals to get an idea of price. This is just for negotiating the final price but as the property is to renovate the seller obviously doesn’t want to get involved in time consuming works to rectify anything on the diagnostic.
As its not on the actual house there is no immediate urgency to remove it but as asbestos related cancer kills 70,000 plus a year in Europe alone it’s really not the kind of thing you’d want on your property and a canal tile roof looks much nicer than a grey corrugated one.
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We have corrugated roofs on our garage (5x12m) that ‘may’ contain asbestos. None of the specialists we consulted could definitively confirm whether the roofing dates from before 1 July 1997, when it would probably have contained 10-15% inert asbestos, or post 1 July 1997 when I understand it shouldn’t have any. We assume it’s the former.
The advice was that unless the roofing was damaged, scratched or perforated, it was sensible to leave it in place as the risk was judged very low.
The cost was estimated to be the physical time for unscrewing the panels, bagging them up and taking them to the local company that processes amiante ie less than 500€…No special permission etc was required and to be honest, after dealing with similar in the UK, the process appeared to be remarkably relaxed, even casual.
We left the fibro in place and had it treated to prolong its life. The amounts we were quoted wouldn’t have been a significant factor in any purchase negotiations (unlike our non compliant Fosse!).
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I agree - get rid of it while it can be a negotiating point in the current sale, rather than find you’re dealing with it at some future date and absorbing the full cost. We watched our neighbour’s large barn roof taken off prior to solar panels being fitted. All the specialists were fully kitted out in protective clothing and had special lorries to deal with taking the panels away. Sorry, no idea how much it cost them.
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Just muttering the word asbestos puts people in a spin.
As @George1 has experienced leave it where it is and it will do no harm. If or when you decide to replace the roof coverings then the cost will be negligible. The sheets are cement asbestos which even when broken dont release clouds of asbestos. Remember these are out in the open air. Asbestos in buildings used for lagging or insulation is the killer as it is basically dust that can get everywhere and anywhere if disturbed.
Back in the day I have cut and fitted many many asbestos cement sheets without harm (yet!) And that was 30, 40, 50 years ago. For those who worked in the asbestos manufacturing industries it was different as it is they who have suffered.
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interesting.
In many cases, leaving asbestos where it is can be the best thing to do, Unless as @George1 says, it’s damaged.
I lived in a small village in Yorkshire for some time where nearby used to be one of the largest asbestos manufacturers in the country. They used to tip the asbestos waste down a large steep slope in our village down into what is now protected ancient woodland. This stopped around 1950. Some years ago, there was a vociferous campaign to remove said asbestos, which in the intervening years had been well covered in a thick layer of soil and mulch because of the thick covering of trees. The locals were all up in arms demanding it be removed for safety reasons. My OH, who is a waste management expert had to explain to them that removing the waste was the worst option as the disturbance caused could lift fibres into the air and deposit them anywhere. The council did employ an expert to make a report - someone who the OH had worked with many times in the past.
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I have amiante on my house, built [jerry-built!] 1958. As has been noted, leaving it in situ is a perfectly sound option.
When I took a 2-3 loose panels I found in the cave … +/- 30 x 60 cms … and some broken bits the guy at the dechet wouldn’t take them, told me to take them home and leave them be.
If they form the roofing of my house I can’t afford to have them removed and replaced with slate or whatever.
Our dechetterie took ours, they said as long as it was in cement sheet or pipe form and not loose, they supplied the bags and I bagged it up and took it to them without any problems.
As i mentioned earlier there is no urgency to remove it and i am happy to leave it for now as it is in good condition and is cement asbestos , i’d probably one day suit up with PPE and remove it myself as it’s outdoors. As JohnBoy mentioned if it was asbestos insulation in a loft space i’d go nowhere near it.
I rented a workshop in Spain for 15 years with a cement asbestos roof that never really concerned me but when i was leaving they started to look at renovating the place and made a real big deal about the roof with inspections and specialists coming to look at removing it. There is a lot of concern about asbestos these days and it’s true to say that some forms of it are not as bad as others but they can’t start grading asbestos from good to bad. It is considered a health hazard in any form so if i don’t have it removed it will come up on the diagnostic when i sell the place by which time there could be even stricter rules regarding the removal.
The seller is more concerned than i am about the fact they have something that is considered a health hazard on the property so to this point they are willing to discuss a solution which will inevitably be a reduction in price, so was just trying to get a ball park figure to negotiate. I have requested quotations but waiting for someone to turn up to do one seems like two to four weeks is the normal waiting period these days.
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I dont wish to know what you have offered for the property but if the seller is more concerned than you and worried that the sale might not go through then why not ask them what they arer prepared to reduce the price by, you might be surprised.
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As the property is not lived in and is for renovation there are a few issues but nothing unexpected apart from the asbestos, so i am still waiting for a response as to how they want to deal with these issues as initially they indicated they would sort everything out pre sale but now they are realising all this is going to put the sale back for months. I am sure some time next week they will tell the agent they will have to sell as is. This is why i wanted to get a rough idea of what a professional company would charge for the asbestos removal so i can then calculate my offer.
I know it’s a bit late now, but I knew I had a leaflet for a company that did a sealer for asbestos and I found it yesterday, it is in the link below.
Std SBR would do the same at less cost. We used thinned down varnish in the past
Just to update on this topic, i eventually got an estimate that was done using google earth to remove 70m² of the remaining barn roof thats at about a 6 meter height and another outbuilding of 30m² thats about 2.5 meter height and a few loose panels of 10-20m² already removed. To remove and dispose of all the asbestos sheets €12,000 - 15,000 
including tax.
In the end the seller wouldn’t entertain a discount on the price for this as the buildings are not connected to the house or even close to the house and to use as habitable space totally new roofs would be needed anyway.
Not surprised at that cost. About 15 years ago I remember when we, on the local council had to study reports about the flooring in the village school cantine which had asbestos tiles on the floors. The cost was back then well over €30,000 to remove and dispose of by specialist firm but as it was deemed dangerous because of the age of the floor tiles, we felt we had no choice but to protect the children and staff and agree to it. Asbestos removal done by a professional firm is expensive as they have to get rid of it as well fortheir customers.
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