Replacing an asbestos roof is two jobs bolted together: a controlled removal and a re-roof. They are usually different trades, they share one set of access equipment, and the gap between them is where money and weather get lost. Sequencing the two properly, under one programme and preferably one contract, is worth more than shaving the price of either.
Strip, then recover
The sheets come off whole, are wrapped and consigned as hazardous waste, and the structure underneath is inspected before anything new goes on. Purlins that have carried a light cement sheet for fifty years may not suit a heavier covering, and that is found at the strip rather than designed in advance unless somebody looks. Agree who inspects the frame and who pays if it needs work.
Repair instead of replacement
A cracked or slipped sheet on an otherwise sound roof can sometimes be repaired or a single sheet replaced. That is a smaller and safer job than a full strip, and it is a legitimate answer where the roof has years left. It is not an answer where the sheets are eroded, delaminating or shedding, because every repair on a failing roof is another disturbance.
Encapsulation
Coating or overroofing an asbestos cement roof leaves the material in place and sealed. It is quicker and cheaper than replacement, it removes the waste bill, and it postpones rather than cancels the removal. Whichever is chosen, record it: the next person to open the roof has to know what is underneath.
Grants and funding
There is no general national grant for removing asbestos from a home. Some local authorities and some agricultural and business schemes have subsidised roof replacement at times, usually tied to energy or to solar installation rather than to the asbestos itself. Check your own council and any sector scheme you are eligible for rather than assuming one exists.
Questions people ask about asbestos roof replacement
Can I put solar panels on an asbestos roof?
Installers generally will not fix into asbestos cement, because drilling and loading it is a disturbance. Roof replacement is often part of a solar quote for exactly that reason.
Is asbestos roofing felt a thing?
Bitumen roofing felts and some bitumen products were made with asbestos fibre, so an old flat roof build up can contain it as well as the sheeting on a pitched one. It is sampled like anything else.
Does the whole roof have to come off at once?
Not necessarily, but phasing means repeated access and repeated disturbance, which usually costs more overall and increases the number of times somebody is on a fragile roof.