Asbestos - a silent killer! How safe's your home?
Welcome to Heal Your Home, the podcast dedicated to ensuring your home environment is safe, healthy, and efficient.
I'm your host, Jason Ratcliffe MSc, BA (Hons), AssocRICS, the home health expert.
It's my goal to ensure you're equipped with all the knowledge you need to be safe and happy with your own home. It doesn't matter if you're a homeowner, a renting tenant, or a landlord, my aim is the same - to help you get the best from the property.
In this episode, titled "Asbestos - a Silent Killer," we're looking into the pervasive and often overlooked dangers of asbestos in UK homes.
We start by shedding light on what asbestos is, why it was widely used, and the serious health risks it poses when disturbed.
Also, joining us in the episode is Lisa from Smart Estate Agents.
Lisa provides us with insightful advice on the home buying process.
We also tackle a listener's question from Colin in Newquay about handling bathroom condensation, and offer vital tenant tips for managing household moisture to prevent mould.
This episode is packed with essential information every homeowner and renter should know.
So, follow in your favourite podcast app to ensure you keep up with our discussions and practical advice that can help you create a safer living space for you and your family.
Click play, and let's get started.
Timestamped summary of contents
00:00 Asbestos: history, risks, and health implications summarised.
03:01 Asbestos in drains needs specialist advice. Blockages from chemicals can be fixed.
06:48 Ensure proper protection when inspecting potentially hazardous materials!
10:20 Speak to financial person, view many houses.
14:28 Dealing with condensation in bathroom: extractor fan.
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00:00 - None
00:55 - Asbestos - the silent killer
10:12 - Tips for buying with Lisa from Smart Estates Agents
15:01 - Listener question - condensation
16:25 - Tenant top tip!
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Do you have asbestos in your home? We're about to find out.
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Hello, I'm Jason Ratcliffe, the home health expert, and this is the
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latest episode of heal your home. Heal your home is a podcast
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designed to help you and your family feel safer within your home environment
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and ensure that you have better energy efficiency, lower running
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costs for your home, and most importantly, your home is right for
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you. In this episode, asbestos the known killer just
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how common is asbestos in UK homes? I'll be going on
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location with Lisa from smart estate agents to discuss
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buying a property from a buyer's perspective. We'll be sharing
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a new tenant top tip with you and a listener email from Colin
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in Nookie. But first, let's talk asbestos
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heal your. Home with Jason Ratcliffe, the home health
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expert. Today we're going to be looking at asbestos.
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Now this can be quite a dry subject, but is very important and I
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needed to get this into our podcast because as the title of this
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episode suggests, asbestos the gnome Killer. We've known about this for
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some time, which is why it's been banned across the UK from
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1999. But obviously there are so many of
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those materials still in existence, still in homes today
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that are potentially at risk of containing asbestos.
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Now these have direct links to issues
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with health, especially if you inhale those. Typically if you
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leave asbestos alone, the risk of anything
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happening is very minimal. But then the issue lies with when you start
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knocking it about, breathing in any of the fibers, and then this
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can cause really nasty issues with your
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health. Now asbestos has been around for so
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many years, it's actually been around, as research suggests, for about
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4500 years. And there are some
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suggestions that this was used within ceramics, pots and
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utensils. So there's this whole
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use of asbestos within general human progression
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and utilization has actually been for many, many
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years and way outside of just in homes.
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And this is because of the chemical resistance, fire
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resistance and brilliant natural insulation that it
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can actually produce and perform, and also the
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structural restrengthening of things such as pipework.
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So you can have things like pitch fiber impregnated
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conduit or asbestos impregnated pitch fiber conduit,
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different ways of saying it, same thing. Basically it was
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a pipe work typically used within
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the fifties up to the seventies in homes.
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It does look like a black, almost like a UPVC
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pipe, but a bit thicker, a bit more texture. This is
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something that a expert, a drain expert can actually
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identify. So I wouldn't expect you would, don't worry about
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identifying it yourself. But if you do have something that fits that description in your
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drains, it would be worth getting a specialist advice. This type of
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asbestos is the least at risk of being
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affecting your health because obviously it's outside, it's well ventilated
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and also it's in your drains. So actually, as long as you leave it
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alone and leave it up to the experts, it should be absolutely fine. But the
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issue with this is more if chemicals such as domestic chemicals
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like bleaches, cleaning products, things like that get flushed down your
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toilet or your sinks, this is when it can cause
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reactions with pitch fibre conduit. This can cause bubbling
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and blistering, which can then increase the risk of blockages
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occurring within your foul drainage and then you get backing up drains and
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also collapsing of drain pipes. Nowadays it's a lot
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more economical and a lot easier to fix this problem. So there
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are resins and all sorts of coatings that can be put in place. Whereas
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previously, not that long ago, actually, you would have had to have dug up
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everything in the road or would have been very messy, it would have been
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very intrusive and also very expensive. But nowadays it's
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a relatively easy fix, so it's always worth looking out for
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that. But more importantly, with asbestos in your home,
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it's more to do with what's inside your home because this is an area
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that you're going to most likely be looking at doing DIY
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work yourself or getting contractors in that may not necessarily
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identify these issues and therefore can then start
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allowing harm full fibrous materials
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that contain asbestos to become airborne and then once
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this then gets breathed in, this can actually then start causing
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issues. So what are the asbestos
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types out there? And also what are they?
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Well, asbestos is a naturally occurring
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mineral. There are typically six types of asbestos that
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are or have been mined. Some are still legal and legally
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mined within certain areas of the world. But to be honest, in the
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UK, everything, all asbestos has been completely
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banned from 1999. But we've got
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actinolite, amosite, anthophilite, which
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is typically brown, cross cydalite, which is blue, which is
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typically the most deadly. But don't worry, this isn't something which
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is typically used within homes. Tremolite, which is
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typically known as infamobile minerals,
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and crystallite, which is otherwise known as serpentine
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minerals. All of which, again, are from natural deposits, deposits all
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over the world. But the ones that we are focused on and the ones that
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are most commonly used within households or
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homes is crystallite and amosite. Amosite is typically
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brown. Crystallite is the most common. And
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yes, so these are the things that can be
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in existence within all sorts of things within a
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home. So we're looking at areas such as
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asbestos, cement within water tanks. This is a big one.
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You cannot just chop away at a water tank in your roof void and expect
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then to remove it without any specialist equipment or testing.
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This can be a really big issue, especially with contractors that may not
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be able to identify this just due to a lack of training really, or
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understanding. You can get pipe lagging. So the surrounds to
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pipes, pipes themselves loose fill insulation
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within roof voids. So this is what's called vermiculite.
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And typically the best way to describe it is it looks like cat
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litter. So if you go in your roof void and there's chippings
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within your roof that were put down for insulation, you may have even
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put them down or your grandparents put them down for
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increased insulation. These can cause a lot of asbestos
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fibers to become airborne. So it is very, very important
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to make sure if you're going in your roof void and you're checking about for
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this type of thing, make sure you're wearing appropriate breathing
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apparatus to make sure, just to be on the safe side, that you're not
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causing a disturbance to such insulations
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or potentially asbestos containing materials which you can then breathe in
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and it can cause you harm. So other things
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such as textured decorative coatings, such as Artex.
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Artex is a big one. So obviously asbestos
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would have potentially been used to give it that bit more robustness.
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And it's just an easier, makes the material easier to work with and handle
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and get those patterns. So if you have Artex in your property
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at predates 1999, it would be worth then getting that
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checked as well. Now you can have asbestos insulating
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boardings, which can be in almost anything. So you can have ceiling
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tiles, bath panels, behind fuse
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boxes, you can have ceiling tiles from
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it. Air and cupboards can have it in there, spray insulation
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around the boilers. These can be also
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including asbestos partitioning. Walls can also have it
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interior window panels around boilers, even
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vinyl flooring and behind fireplaces. So these are all kind
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of go to common areas within houses, also
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in night storage heaters. These are only some
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examples. So please don't think this is a complete list
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of things that asbestos can be included in. They are not. It can be in
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almost anything. So it is always good if you're unsure,
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make sure you get it checked. And also because these are areas
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inside a property, they're not ventilated. So therefore
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you're going to have these fibers coming up and kind of
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almost condensing and becoming a lot more
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sort of per cubic meter of your property. There's going to be a lot more
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of them, so therefore it's going to potentially be a lot of
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a greater risk. So just bear in mind, when you're looking at this
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stuff, make sure you're not disturbing it. And if you're looking for these things,
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you may have correct apparatus and you keep windows open, have a nice
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natural airflow through your property. Also outside your
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property, gutters and asbestos, cement
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downpipes. These are also really common and soffits
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and fascia boards. So these are kind of the panelling around
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the wall and roof junctions, typically
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behind rainwater goods, asbestos, cement roof coverings,
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panels. So you can have, if you've got cladding on the outside of your property
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as well. So just tap, take care and please just make sure
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you're not going around and ripping things down or doing DIY
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jobs. Heal your home with Jason
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Ratcliffe, the home health expert Lisa from smart
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Estate. Agents is a well renowned and trusted local estate
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agent. Within her field, she gives great advice and support
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to buyers and owners who are selling their property alike, which
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is why I'm travelled up to Exeter to speak with her about her
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expertise and her opinions to give you the best
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advice possible. There's a lot of
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people that are looking to come on the market that may be obviously seeing it
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as quite a scary thought and it's quite a
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big process. So for a very brief,
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simple understanding, how does the sales
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process work from a buyer's perspective? So first things first,
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you should always speak to some sort of financial person before you
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start viewing. The reason for this is a lot of people say, oh, I can
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afford up to 250 or 300, and then actually
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once they find a house, they realise they can borrow 50 grand more and the
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type of house they're looking at completely changes. So checking the financial
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side of things initially probably is step number one. Step
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number two, view loads of houses. Don't feel bad about viewing
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lots of houses. You want to really get a feel for what you want.
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So phone the agents app, tell them you're a first time buyer. If the
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agents are offering you to speak to in house mortgage advisors and things,
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I always say, especially with the independent agents to do it,
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and the reason being is that independent mortgage advisor will
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actually look out for you. And usually you do get first dates on the
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properties, so that's quite a big tip. I would say
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is always have that chat because they always have a list
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that we put you on and anything that we value or anything that comes up,
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we can link you to that property. Fantastic. And if there's, you know, if you've
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got a great cracking property to purchase, obviously there's going to be a lot of
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interest potentially. So I'm assuming if you've got all of those sort
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of your ducks in a row, you're going to be first. Dips of, yeah,
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absolutely. We have people come to properties and they fall in love with it. And
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then I say, so what's your financial situation? They're like, oh, we're going to find
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a mortgage property broker now. And I'm like, oh, I've got ten other people who
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are actually ready to go. So just getting the initial steps
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done so that when you put an offer forward, the agent will always check your
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finances and ask for your mortgage agreement. In principle, you can provide
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that immediately and it just gives you the better chance of getting the house. Obviously,
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it can be extremely overwhelming with the amount of property on the market.
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If you were obviously not au fait with
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going and viewing properties, how would you be able to kind of filter
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down the properties you're looking for in the areas you might be interested in? Yeah,
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so Rightmove is key. So Rightmove is the best website to
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search on. All these little ones like prime location, etc, etc.
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They're not quite up to date. So Rightmove is actually a live
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feed from the agent's own system as a supplier. So
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they are the two key ones to make sure that you're looking on. When you
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are filtering down what you're looking for, always click on the button on the right
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that says newest link listed. Otherwise you're going to see things from a long time
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ago that haven't sold for a while that potentially are on at the wrong price.
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I always say to bracket in a wider region. So instead of, for
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example, next, start typing in specific areas and etcetera,
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just have Exeter as a whole. Because you might think, oh, I really want to
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live in St. Thomas. And actually you find a perfect house in pinhole. So
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don't narrow things down too much. Actually get out and view the whole
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city. And then of course, use the pricing bracket as well, just to
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make sure you get in the right places up. And do you think kind of
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going and doing a bit of drive bys in local environments if you've never been
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there before would be a good thing to do? Yeah, absolutely. It's a bit of
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a waste of your time and it's a bit of a waste of the agent's
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time. If you view a house on a main road, you know, and then
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you say, oh, we didn't want to be on a main road. Well, you know,
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it's quite obvious if you don't have time to do a drive by, all of
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these properties are available on Google Maps, so you can actually have a
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little walk around the area and you might say, oh, that road's too busy, etc,
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etc. But yeah, Google Maps is always a good one if you're, if you're stuck
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for time. Yeah. Fantastic. So all being well, then, if somebody's got
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an offer accepted, what are the first steps once they've had their offer
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accepted? Have your id ready. It doesn't have to be certified
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for an agent. If you just have a copy of your id ready to send
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over and they will also ask you for proof of address. So
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a letter with your address on it, have that ready. And then what
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will happen is usually the agents will give you recommendations for
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solicitors. The reason they do this isn't all because they get a
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kickback of the money. The reason they do it is they work well with that
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person. So it just makes the whole process much quicker. So
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if I know that they're using someone that is close to my office, I can
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pop across here and help with the paperwork and different things. Fantastic.
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And now a listener question for heal your home.
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We've had an email from Colin in Newquay. Thank you so much for tuning in,
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Colin, and what a great, great question. So how can
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he deal with condensation from the shower in his bathroom? Your
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question is really relevant. A lot of people find it difficult
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to get rid of condensation after they have showers,
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and their excuse is I just open a window and that'll get rid of it.
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But at the end of the day, like yourself and your family, you're going
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to get a lot of black spot mold issues, condensation and staining dripping down
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your walls, especially if you've got an en suite going into a bedroom like
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yourself. So thank you for the detail from your email. It's really helpful,
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especially when we're trying to give advice. So, to be honest with you,
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ensuring your extractor fan is an adequate size for your
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room. They're not all one size fits all. There's all different
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types of extractor fans out there, so make sure it is right for the right
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cubic meterage of your shower room and you have an adequate runoff of
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between ten to 20 minutes afterwards. And you keep that door shut
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because that will allow for all of that condensation to be
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escaping from the property prior to it, then entering into your bedroom environment,
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which can then cause a lot of issues such as condensation forming, which is
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a perfect breeding ground for black spot mould. So that's my advice to you. So
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thank you so much Colin for listening.
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Jason's tenant top tip did you know. That as a
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tenant, most of the time, black spot mold can be eradicated or at
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least managed by making sure you have well ventilated home,
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especially if you have a fish tank or you can do a lot of
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cooking and a lot of showering. If you've got a family of four or
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five people in your home, that is an awful lot of condensation. So ventilation
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and adequate extractor fans is absolutely vital.
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Heal your home with Jason Ratcliffe, the home health
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expert thank you so much. For all of our listeners and
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viewers. It really does mean a lot and. Without you guys, there is literally no
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point in doing this show. We really hope that we can be giving
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you usable and actual kind of reliable,
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trustworthy content. And all of the guests that we bring on this show, it's
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great to hear their perspective because there is a lot of people that are out
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there trying to help. So thank you so much and thank you for all of
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our listeners and viewers that come in, put on social media, email
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us and give us questions that we can answer direct on our
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show. If you'd like to go and download the free guide or free
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download, by all means go on to Homehealthexpert dot co dot UK
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and we are there to give you completely free impartial advice
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to hopefully help you and your family achieve a more healthier
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home environment.