Asbestos in older Melbourne homes: what a strip-out actually finds

How likely it is, by the age of the house

The national guidance is blunt about it:

• Built or renovated before 1987 — highly likely to contain asbestos materials.
• Renovated between 1987 and 1990 — likely to contain some.
• Built after 1990 — unlikely.

Manufacture of asbestos fibro and similar products wound up in the mid-to-late 1980s, but the complete national ban on manufacture and use did not take effect until 31 December 2003. That gap is why a house built in 1992 can still contain it: existing stock kept being installed after it stopped being made.

The date that matters is not just when the house was built. It is when the bathroom was last done. A 1930s weatherboard with a bathroom redone in 1975 is a 1975 bathroom for this purpose.

Where it turns up in a bathroom or laundry

The common places, in roughly the order we find them:

• Asbestos-cement sheet behind the wall tiles. The most common one by a distance. You cannot see it until the tiles come off.
• Under and around the bath — the sheet forming the bath surround or the panel at the end.
• Wall and ceiling lining in bathrooms, laundries and under eaves, particularly where the room was a later addition.
• Vinyl floor tiles and the backing of sheet vinyl, and sometimes the adhesive underneath, which can be the harder problem of the two.
• Cement pipes and flues in older plumbing runs.

None of this is dangerous while it is intact and undisturbed. Cutting, drilling, sanding or smashing it is what releases fibres — which is precisely what a demolition day does. That is why it has to be identified before the work starts, not during it.

Where it turns up in a kitchen

Kitchens get overlooked because people associate asbestos with wet areas, but a kitchen of the same age is just as likely to have it — and a kitchen strip-out disturbs more of the room.

• Behind the splashback. The equivalent of the bathroom's sheet-behind-tiles, and the most common find in a kitchen.
• Under the vinyl or lino. Both the sheet backing and the adhesive can contain it, and the adhesive is usually the harder of the two to deal with.
• Pantry and cupboard linings, particularly a walk-in pantry built as part of a later addition.
• The lining of a rear addition generally — walls, ceiling and eaves — where the kitchen sits in a section added between the 1950s and the 1980s.
• Behind and beneath an old stove recess, where sheet was often used as a heat shield.

The practical difference from a bathroom is scale. Stripping a kitchen means taking out the splashback, the floor covering and often the linings of a whole rear room, so there is more material in play and the 10 square metre figure is passed sooner than people expect.

What Victorian law actually says

The Victorian government's own position, published on asbestos.vic.gov.au, is the clearest statement of the sensible answer:

“Asbestos removal work is best performed by licensed asbestos removalists, who are appropriately trained to perform the removal work safely.”

Beyond that, the distinctions that matter:

• Friable asbestos — the crumbly kind that can be reduced to powder by hand — always requires a licensed removalist. There is no unlicensed pathway for removing it.
• Non-friable (bonded) asbestos is the sheet material in most houses. Under the Occupational Health and Safety Regulations 2017, which WorkSafe Victoria administers, unlicensed removal is permitted only up to 10 square metres in total and no more than one hour of work in any seven-day period. Those limits are cumulative, and they are workplace rules written for employers and self-employed people — not a DIY allowance handed to homeowners.
• If a homeowner does remove asbestos from their own home, the packaging rules are specific: keep it wet until wrapped, two layers of 0.2 mm polythene, bags no more than half full, sealed with tape and labelled with asbestos warning marks.

It cannot go in a bin or a skip

This is the part that catches people who have already done the work.

Asbestos waste cannot go in a household bin or an ordinary skip. It has to go to a landfill specifically authorised to receive it, and not all landfills are. EPA Victoria publishes the register of authorised sites; capacity and acceptance vary between them. Ring the site before you drive anywhere: an authorised landfill can still decline a load, and many require a booking.

If the packaging is wrong, the site will refuse it, and you are then driving around with it.

How we handle it, and what we don't do

We are not a licensed asbestos removalist and we do not remove it ourselves. What we do is find it before you have committed to anything, and price its licensed removal into the written quote.

At the free site inspection, on any house of the relevant age, we check the likely spots — behind the tiles where we can get a look, the bath surround, the linings, the floor covering. Where it is present or we think it likely, the quote includes a licensed removalist as a line item, with the cost shown rather than buried.

The reason is straightforward. Asbestos discovered on demolition day is the single most common cause of a renovation price changing after the contract is signed. Finding it at the quote stage costs an extra half hour. Finding it on day one costs a variation, a stoppage, and a conversation neither of us wants to have.

If you are not sure what you have, the honest answer is that nobody can tell you from a photograph — identification means a sample tested by a laboratory, and taking that sample is work for someone competent rather than a job for a Saturday. We will tell you what we suspect and why, and if it matters to the price we will say so before you sign anything.

Questions people ask

How do I know if my bathroom or kitchen has asbestos?

You cannot tell by looking, and neither can we. Age is the best first indicator: if the room was built or last renovated before 1987 it is highly likely, and between 1987 and 1990 it is likely. Certainty means taking a sample and having it tested by a laboratory.

Can I remove asbestos myself in Victoria?

The Victorian government's advice is that removal is best done by licensed removalists. Friable asbestos always requires a licensed removalist. For non-friable sheet, the Occupational Health and Safety Regulations 2017 allow unlicensed removal only up to 10 square metres and one hour of work in any seven-day period, and those are workplace rules rather than a homeowner allowance. If you do proceed, the packaging, transport and disposal rules are strict and a landfill will refuse a load that does not meet them.

Can asbestos go in a skip?

No. Not a household bin and not an ordinary skip. It has to go to a landfill authorised to receive asbestos, and not every landfill is. Contact the site before you take it there, because an authorised site can still decline the load or require a booking.

Does asbestos make a renovation much more expensive?

It adds a real, quotable cost rather than a catastrophic one. The expensive version is the one nobody looked for: work stops, a removalist is engaged at short notice, and the price moves after you have signed. We check at the free inspection and put licensed removal in the written price as its own line so you can see what it is.

Where can I check the official rules myself?

Asbestos in Victoria (asbestos.vic.gov.au) covers identification, homeowner removal and packaging. EPA Victoria (epa.vic.gov.au) publishes the register of landfills authorised to accept asbestos waste. WorkSafe Victoria administers the Occupational Health and Safety Regulations 2017, which set the unlicensed removal limits. Please check them rather than taking our word for it.

Is asbestos dangerous if I just leave it alone?

Asbestos-containing material that is intact, sealed, in good condition and undisturbed is generally not considered a risk in itself. Material that is damaged, weathered or deteriorating is a different matter, and so is anything that gets cut, drilled, sanded, broken or demolished. That last one is exactly what a strip-out does, which is why it has to be identified before the work starts.