Farm and commercial asbestos removal in Gippsland

Farm asbestos: what's different about a farm job

• Scale. A dairy or hay shed can carry several hundred square metres of super six roofing and fibro walls. The per-square-metre rate is at the low end, but the total is real money and worth two quotes.
• Disposal. Waste from a farm or business is commercial asbestos regardless of who owns the farm. The domestic tips at Hyland Highway, Grantville and Koonwarra do not accept it. It goes to an EPA-licensed facility, and the removalist arranges that as part of the quote.
• Access and services. Power lines, water troughs, stock, and a track that's fine for a ute but not a truck all shape the quote. Say so early.
• Friable extras. Old milking machine pipe lagging, boiler and heater flues, and sprayed coatings in workshops need Class A work.

How a farm asbestos shed job runs

Inspection with sampling, a written quote that separates bonded and friable material, WorkSafe notification before starting (five days for a shed of any real size), staged removal so the shed can keep some function if needed, wrapping and loading on site, commercial disposal, and a clearance. On a working dairy the crew will plan around milking; on a workshop they'll plan around your trade.

Workers' cottages and old homesteads

Older farm cottages are the same as any pre-1990 house: eaves, wet areas, sometimes whole fibro walls, plus a super six roof. If the cottage is being renovated for a worker's rental, the same removal rules apply as to any pre-1990 house. See walls, ceilings, eaves and bathrooms.

What a farm job runs to

On the 2026 Melbourne guide figures, bonded material at $50 to $150 per square metre, friable at two to four times that, with the total driven by area, height and the distance to a licensed facility. A large shed roof is a multi-day job with a truck, not a trailer. Some rural crews price per sheet for super six; ask for the equivalent per square metre so quotes compare.

Dairies and shearing sheds: what to look at before the quote

The old dairy is usually super six on the roof, fibro on the walls and lagging on the hot water line to the plant; the shearing shed is the same without the plumbing. Walk it before the removalist does and note four things.

• Where stock rub. Sheet ground back until it crumbles by hand is friable and priced that way, which changes the licence class for that wall.
• What's stacked behind the machinery shed. Old sheets leaning on a wall are asbestos waste already: wetted, double wrapped in 0.2 millimetre plastic, taped, labelled, and on the removalist's truck to an EPA-licensed facility, because a farm load is commercial and the council tips won't take it.
• What's rubbing on the roof. Branches wear through super six. Cut them back before the crew arrives.
• Power, water and the track. Lines over the shed, a tap the crew can reach, and whether a truck gets in after rain.

All of it goes into the written quote, split into bonded and friable, with the licence class against each.

Asbestos cement water pipe

Old asbestos cement pipe runs under a lot of Gippsland farms. Buried and intact, it isn't removal work; leave it. The problem starts when a run is cut, ground or crushed during a repair or an excavation. EPA's transport guideline treats pipe like sheeting: wet it, avoid cutting or breaking it, wrap it in two layers of 0.2 millimetre plastic, seal and label it, and take it only to a site licensed to receive asbestos. If a plumber is replacing a section, ask who is handling the old pipe and where it's going.

Old burial pits and paddock dumps

Somewhere on most old farms there's a pit or a gully where a previous owner pushed the house-site rubbish, and it will include asbestos. If you turn it up with a bucket, stop. Don't dig further, don't push it into the gully, don't burn it, and keep stock and machinery off it. Photograph it and get a removalist or an occupational hygienist to look. Picking up fragments and dealing with contaminated ground is licensed work, and the waste is a commercial load. Burying it again isn't an option; the regulations require asbestos waste to go to a place authorised under the Environment Protection Act.

Whose job the clearance is on a workplace

This one catches farm businesses. At a private home the regulations treat the removalist as the person who commissioned the work, so the removalist obtains the clearance. On a workplace, the person who commissioned the work, meaning the farm business or the shop, must obtain the clearance certificate from an independent person before the area is reoccupied. Ask whoever you engage to arrange it, but the duty is yours, so have it in the quote in writing. One more point: a removalist's control plan must take your asbestos register into account, a step waived only for domestic premises, so expect whoever quotes to ask for any asbestos register the farm holds.

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