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Asbestos fences, sheds and garage roofs

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Back-yard asbestos gets handled casually because it is outdoors and familiar. It is also the most weathered material on the property, and it sits at knee height where children play.

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For a great many Australian households, the asbestos on the property is not in the house. It is the fence, the old shed, the garage roof, or fragments that surface in the garden whenever somebody digs.

Why outdoors is not the same as harmless

Outdoor material is the most weathered asbestos on the site. It has had decades of sun, rain and thermal cycling working on the cement matrix, which is exactly the process that turns bonded material into something closer to friable at the surface.

It is also in the part of the property where people are least careful. Fences get leaned on, drilled for hooks, hit by wheelbarrows, reversed into and used to hang things from. And a broken fence sheet sheds at ground level, in the yard, which is where children and pets are.

The shared fence

A boundary fence is rarely one household's decision. If the fence contains asbestos, then removing it, replacing it, or even doing something that disturbs it involves a neighbour, and in most states fencing between properties is governed by dividing-fences legislation that is separate from the asbestos rules.

Practically, that means the conversation comes before the quote. It also means a neighbour's enthusiasm for taking down an old fence themselves is your problem too, because the debris does not respect the boundary.

Storm and impact damage

A fence or shed roof broken by wind, hail or a falling branch is no longer intact bonded material. The correct response is not to start picking pieces up:

  • Keep people and pets away from the area.
  • Do not sweep or vacuum the fragments, and do not put them in the household bin.
  • Do not break the remaining sheets to make them easier to handle.
  • Get licensed advice, and if the material is badly degraded, expect it to be treated as friable.

Insurance and emergency-repair processes after a storm are a matter for your insurer and your state's rules rather than for this site — but the physical handling advice above does not change while you sort that out.

Sheds and garages

Old sheds and garages often combine two suspect materials at once: corrugated asbestos cement on the roof and flat sheet on the walls. They also tend to be the least maintained structures on a property, which means the material is usually in worse condition than anything on the house.

Demolishing one is licensed removal work, not a weekend with a crowbar. The most common mistake is treating a shed as beneath the rules because it is small and nobody lives in it.

Fragments in the soil

Asbestos in soil is a different problem, because it cannot be painted, sealed or left tidily alone. It usually comes from a demolition or renovation that predates everyone currently involved, and it surfaces during landscaping or excavation.

If you turn up fragments of cement sheeting in a garden bed: stop digging, keep the area damp rather than dry so nothing becomes airborne, keep people off it, and get advice. Spreading the soil around the yard — or worse, taking it somewhere else — turns a contained problem into a distributed one.

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Frequently asked questions

Is an asbestos fence dangerous if I leave it?

Intact, undisturbed bonded sheeting is generally low risk. What changes that outdoors is weathering, impact and breakage, and a broken fence sheds material at ground level where children and pets are.

Who decides about a shared asbestos fence?

Both households. Boundary fences are governed by dividing-fences legislation separate from the asbestos rules, so the conversation with the neighbour comes before any quote — and a neighbour removing it themselves is your problem too, because debris does not respect the boundary.

A storm broke my asbestos fence. What do I do first?

Keep people and pets away, do not sweep or vacuum the fragments, do not put them in the household bin, and do not break the remaining sheets to make them easier to handle. Get licensed advice; badly degraded material may be treated as friable.

I found pieces of fibro in the garden. Is that a problem?

Asbestos in soil cannot be sealed or left tidily alone, so it needs advice rather than a shovel. Stop digging, keep the area damp rather than dry, keep people off it, and do not spread or relocate the soil.

Sources

What this page explains is based on these official sources. If you check one and it does not match what you read here, send it to us and the article gets corrected.

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