Sheds, garages and carports in Traralgon

What's usually in there

A garage or shed built before 1990 can be almost entirely asbestos cement apart from the frame and the roller door. The usual pieces:

• Super six sheets on the roof, with moulded ridge capping.
• Flat cement sheet on the walls, outside and sometimes lining the inside too.
• A sheet ceiling, especially where the shed was fitted out as a sleepout or a workshop.
• Vinyl floor tiles or sheet vinyl with a backing that can contain asbestos.
• Lagging on an old hot water pipe, which is friable and a Class A job.

Carports are simpler: often just a roof of cement sheet on posts, sometimes with a flat sheet fascia. A carport roof can come in at 10 square metres or less. A garage almost never does; even a small single garage has more than that in its walls alone.

A carport, a garden shed and a double garage are all the same material to the removalist. What changes is how much there is and how easy it is to get to.

Dating the building helps. Latrobe City's fact sheet says asbestos cement manufacture stopped in 1987, and the national ban came at the end of 2003, so a shed from between those years could be either, and only a sample tells you. A kit shed put up after 2003 shouldn't contain asbestos building products, though anything reused from an older building is another matter. And don't stack old sheets on the nature strip: Latrobe's hard waste collection excludes asbestos.

Do you need a permit to knock it down?

Two separate sets of rules apply, and people mix them up.

The building rules: Victoria's Building Regulations exempt demolishing a freestanding non-masonry outbuilding of 40 square metres or less from needing a building permit, as long as it won't affect public safety and it isn't on the Heritage Register. Latrobe City's report-and-consent step for demolition also leaves out domestic sheds. A brick garage, a big shed, or anything attached to the house is a question for a building surveyor.

The asbestos rules: these apply regardless of permits. Anything over 10 square metres of bonded sheet means five days' WorkSafe notice and an independent clearance certificate at the end. A shed small enough to skip the building permit is still nearly always big enough for both.

Taking a shed apart, in order

• The removalist counts roof and wall area, looks inside for vinyl, ceilings and pipe lagging, and asks whether you want the frame and slab left.
• Ask them what to move out beforehand and what can stay. Contents stored against old sheet may need wiping down.
• The roof comes off first, then the walls. Sheets stay damp, fixings come out by hand, and nothing gets thrown off the top.
• If you're having the frame removed, timber or steel that's been against the sheet is cleaned or wrapped with the waste.
• The slab and the ground around it get picked over. Fifty years of chips tend to collect along the drip line and the door tracks. If the soil itself looks contaminated, ask whoever you engage what they make of it.

Whether the slab stays is your call; say so at the quote. The WorkSafe notice before the job, and the clearance and waste record after it, follow the sequence on the services page.

The tip question

The council's Hyland Highway Landfill takes a homeowner's own small load by appointment, within limits set out on the disposal page. A whole shed rarely fits inside those limits, and the council lists commercial asbestos as not accepted, so when a licensed removalist does the job the waste goes to an EPA-licensed facility and the cost is in their quote. Toongabbie residents on the Wellington side of the shire line should check with Wellington Shire.

Bigger sheds on the acreage blocks

Out at Tyers, Glengarry, Hazelwood North and the Traralgon South hills, the blocks are bigger and so are the sheds. Tyers and Glengarry both took in new residents on small acreages from the 1970s, and a machinery shed or hay shed put up before 1990 can carry super six on the roof and cement sheet on the walls.

The same rules apply, just at a different scale. A shed over 40 square metres of floor area falls outside the building permit exemption, so talk to a building surveyor before it comes down. Access for the removalist's vehicle matters more on a sloping or muddy block, and a bigger shed means more wrapping, more time and more to cart away. Mention the size, the ground and the gate width when you ask for a quote.

Sizing up the sheet on a shed

A shed holds more sheet than its footprint suggests, because the walls count too. A 6 by 6 metre garage with 2.4 metre walls has about 36 square metres of roof and around 58 of wall. Measure both before you compare quotes, and check each quote measured the same thing. Friable extras like pipe lagging need a Class A crew. A shed that's already falling in, a frame you want gone, tight access down the side of the house, and the clearance all add. The published ranges are on the cost guide.

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