Asbestos roof removal in Gippsland

How to tell if you have a super six asbestos roof

Super six has a deep, wide corrugation, about 150 millimetres between ridges, a lot broader than modern Colorbond. The sheets are grey cement, often mossy on the south side, and the ridge capping is a separate moulded piece. Built or renovated before 1990, assume it may contain asbestos; the national ban took effect on 31 December 2003. A sample test settles it.

Drilling, pressure cleaning or walking on an old asbestos roof is where people get into trouble. Don't paint it or pressure-clean it: the state's homeowner guidance is not to seal or paint over asbestos or use high-pressure water on it. Test it first and ask a licensed removalist.

What the job involves

• A licensed removalist inspects, measures and quotes. For a house roof they'll also want to know what's going back on, because the two trades need to be scheduled together.
• WorkSafe is notified before the job starts: at least five days ahead for friable material or more than 10 square metres of bonded sheeting, at least 24 hours ahead for a smaller bonded job. A house or shed roof is over 10 square metres, so it's the five-day notice.
• The crew sets up drop sheets and signage, wets the sheets, and removes the fixings without breaking the sheet. Roofing screws come out; old nails are cut or levered.
• Sheets are lowered, never dropped, and double-wrapped on site in heavy builders' plastic, labelled asbestos.
• The roof space is checked for fallen fragments and dust, and the frame is wiped down. On a house this is where a good crew earns their money: the ceiling battens and the tops of the walls collect decades of dust.
• Waste goes to an EPA-licensed facility. Domestic tips in Latrobe and Bass Coast take homeowner loads only, so a removalist's load has a different destination; ask which, and whether its tip fee is in the price.
• Because a roof is more than 10 square metres, a clearance certificate from an independent person is required before the roof space is used again. Air monitoring is required only for Class A work indoors, or outdoors where others are at risk; ask which applies.

What a roof runs to

Area times rate, then the extras. Bonded roofing sits at $50 to $150 a square metre on the published 2026 guide figures, with a minimum call-out of roughly $800 to $2,000, and Melbourne figures don't carry Gippsland travel. A 6 by 4 metre shed roof is about 24 square metres and usually lands at or a little above the minimum. A single-storey house roof is 150 to 250 square metres: work it from the metre rate on the cost guide, then add the minimum and travel, and the new roof is on top of that.

The extras: height and whether edge protection or a scaffold is in the number, pitch, sheets gone chalky (sheet that crumbles by hand is priced at the friable rate, two to four times the bonded rate; chalky or cracked sheet that is still hard stays at the bonded rate), the roof-space clean on a house, the drive to an EPA-licensed facility, and the independent clearance.

Lining up the roofer for the roof replacement

Removal and re-roofing are different trades and different licences. The removalist takes the roof off and clears the frame; the roofer needs to be booked to follow within a day or two, with tarps in between if the weather turns. Some crews work with a regular roofer and can quote the pair; ask. Either way, don't take an old roof off without the new one booked.

Sheds, garages and dairies

Rural sheds are the bread and butter of Gippsland asbestos work. Old dairies, machinery sheds, chook sheds, hay sheds with fibro walls and cement roofs. Farm buildings count as commercial for disposal purposes even on a family farm, which is one more reason the removalist arranges the tip. See farm and commercial for the specifics.

Signs it's asbestos cement, not modern fibre cement

• Wide, deep corrugations, around 150 millimetres between ridges, rather than the tighter profile of steel.
• Grey cement colour, mossy or lichen-covered on the shady side, with a chalky surface where the paint has gone.
• Moulded ridge capping in short lengths, often cracked.
• No brand stamp, or an old Hardie or Wunderlich mark. Modern fibre-cement roofing is rare; most post-1990 roofs of this shape are steel.
• A house or shed built or renovated before 1990.

If two or more of those fit, assume asbestos and test before anyone climbs on it. An asbestos cement roof won't take a person's weight between the purlins. On the day, the fall is the risk that gets people.

The morning of the job

Book the roofer for the day after removal and agree who supplies the tarps if the weather turns. Clear the roof space of stored items if you can, because the crew will be cleaning the tops of the ceiling joists. Move cars, cover the veggie patch, and keep animals in. Tell the neighbours; a roof removal is visible and people worry when they see the suits.

After the roof is off

A cleaned frame, a clearance certificate from an independent person (a roof is always over the 10 square metre line), and a clear site. Any timber battens too dusty to clean go with the waste and the roofer replaces them. Keep the clearance with the house papers; the next buyer, and their building inspector, will ask.

Gutters, downpipes and the rainwater tank

The gutters and downpipes usually come off with the roof, go in the same wrap, and the roofer fits new ones. Count them at the quote. If the roof feeds a rainwater tank, tell both trades and ask for the downpipe to be disconnected from the tank before the first sheet moves. Whether the gutters, and the water already in the tank, need dealing with is a question for whoever you engage and the council's environmental health officer.

What you'll see from the kitchen window

Signs and barricades go up first; the regulations require the area marked and everyone but the crew kept out. Coveralls and fitted respirators are the rule, not a sign something has gone wrong. A garden hose on mist keeps the sheets damp from the first fixing to the last wrap. Fixings come out with hand tools, because the compliance code says to avoid power tools on asbestos, and a pressure washer, broom or brush can't be used on it unless the use is controlled. If you see a grinder, a pressure washer or a broom, stop the job. Before any of it starts, the removalist must hand you the paperwork; the four documents a licensed job produces are listed on the friable asbestos page.

What a super six roof is

A super six roof is the corrugated asbestos cement profile that went on countless sheds, garages and houses across Gippsland before the 1980s: deep corrugations, grey, often lichen on the south side. It comes off sheet by sheet, wetted and lowered rather than dropped, and goes out wrapped. If your roof is the flatter, tile-look asbestos cement shingle, the job is the same in law and in method, only fiddlier.

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