A prefabricated concrete or cement sheet shed of the right age is very often asbestos cement, panels and roof alike. It is the smallest asbestos job most people ever face and the one most often done badly, because a shed looks like something a person could simply pull apart on a Saturday. Pulling it apart is exactly what breaks the sheets, and a broken shed is a contaminated garden rather than a cleared one.
Is the shed asbestos
Grey cement panels and corrugated or flat roof sheets on a shed built before 2000 are suspect, and the same goes for the flat sheets used as linings inside timber sheds. Sampling one panel and one roof sheet is a small cost that decides the whole job, including what the waste will be charged as.
How a shed comes down
Bolts and fixings are undone rather than levered, panels are lowered whole, sheets are kept wet where cutting cannot be avoided, and everything is double wrapped and labelled. Because the pieces are large and light, the job is mostly careful handling and waste, which is why the disposal line is often bigger than the labour line.
What it costs
Small asbestos jobs carry a minimum charge because the contractor still has to attend, wrap, consign and transport. Expect the price to be driven by the number of panels, whether the base and any bonded floor covering are included, and how far the collection has to travel. A quote for a shed that does not mention the waste route is not a complete quote.
Doing nothing
An intact asbestos cement shed is not a hazard while it is intact. If it is sound and you can live with it, recording what it is and leaving it alone is a defensible decision. It stops being defensible once panels are cracked, once children play in it, or once anybody starts cutting a window into it.
Questions people ask about asbestos shed
Can I demolish an asbestos shed myself?
This site does not tell anyone how to do asbestos work. The material has to come apart without breaking, be wrapped and labelled correctly, and travel to a permitted site on a consignment note, and a contractor with a waste route does all three as a matter of routine.
Will the council take a shed away?
Some councils collect small quantities of household asbestos by arrangement and many do not. Check yours before you plan the job around it.
Is a shed roof the same as a garage roof?
Materially, usually yes: corrugated asbestos cement. The difference is access and quantity, which is what the price follows.