Warmer, and contaminated

How we work

Why the inventory comes before the quote

There is an unfortunate overlap between the places insulation belongs and the places asbestos was used. Roof sheeting, loft insulation board, pipe lagging, bituminous products around technical spaces: all common before 2001, all sitting exactly where someone now wants to add insulation. Opening those spaces up and working in them disturbs the material, and fibres released into a loft do not stay in the loft.

A contractor pricing an insulation job has no commercial incentive to raise this. It adds a survey, a delay and a cost to the quote, and the competitor who stays quiet looks cheaper and faster. We would rather lose that comparison, because the alternative is making a house warmer and contaminated in the same week, and then arguing about who should have known.

What follows from it is simple and not negotiable. In anything built before 2001, an inventory is obtained before intrusive work. If something suspect appears, work stops that day. Removal within the licensable categories goes to a firm licensed for it, not to us. Separately, owners selling a pre-2001 building in Flanders need an asbestos certificate of their own, which is their obligation rather than ours, and worth dealing with early if a sale is coming.