Asbestos testing in Traralgon: sampling, pre-purchase checks and clearances

When a test earns its fee

• Before renovating a pre-1990 house. Test the materials the job will disturb, before the builder quotes the demolition.
• Before buying. An APM cottage, a Housing Commission house around Gordon Street or a 1970s brick veneer can be priced very differently once you know what's in the eaves and bathroom.
• Before deciding who does a fence or shed. The result tells you whether it's a Class B job, a Class A job or no asbestos job at all.
• After storm, flood or fire. Broken grey sheet in the yard needs an answer before the clean-up. See storm, flood and fire damage.
• After a tradie has cut or drilled something. You want to know whether the room needs a proper clean.

Homes built after the end-2003 ban, like the Traralgon North estates (The Rise, Silverwood, Franklin North) and Ellavale, shouldn't contain asbestos building products. There, a test is for anything older on the block.

How a sample is taken and tested

The lab identifies the fibres. The risk sits in getting the piece off the wall. Get whoever is quoting the job, or an occupational hygienist, to take it. They wet the spot, remove a small piece by hand rather than with a power tool, seal it in two layers of heavy plastic, label it and send it off.

Things to ask:

• Is the lab accredited for asbestos identification, and by whom?
• How long does the report take, and does a quicker result cost extra?
• How many samples will you take? It should be one per distinct material. Eaves, a laundry wall and a kitchen floor are three samples.
• Does the sampling fee come off the removal price if I go ahead?

If you'd rather the person sampling had no removal job riding on the answer, use an occupational hygienist. They quote on the testing alone.

We don't publish a testing price. Fees vary between labs and change, so ask the lab and the removalist for today's figure.

Buying an older house in Traralgon

The vendor's section 32 statement covers title, mortgages, easements, zoning, rates and whether the land is in a bushfire-prone area. Consumer Affairs Victoria doesn't list building condition in it, so there's no line that says "asbestos: yes or no". You find out yourself.

• Book a building inspection, and ask the inspector whether the report samples anything or only flags materials that look suspect.
• For a pre-1990 house, get the likely materials sampled during the cooling-off or finance period if the timing allows. Check the timing with your conveyancer.
• Get a removal quote on anything positive. A number on paper is more use in a negotiation than a worry.

If you're the one selling, the statement has to be factually accurate and complete, and the general law on misleading conduct still applies. Take your conveyancer's advice rather than a web page's.

Air monitoring and clearance certificates

These are the checks that come after a removal, not before it.

Clearance certificate. Required after friable work, or after more than 10 square metres of bonded sheet. An independent person inspects the area and the surrounds and certifies there's no visible asbestos residue left from the work. Independent means not the removalist doing the job, not the person who commissioned it, and with no conflict of interest. WorkSafe's compliance code gives an occupational hygienist as an example, and the Australian Institute of Occupational Hygienists lists them. At a private home the removalist arranges the certificate. A job of 10 square metres or less of bonded sheet needs none.

Air monitoring. Required for Class A (friable) work done indoors, or outdoors where others could be at risk. It runs before and during the job, and at the end the enclosure has to read below 0.01 fibres per millilitre. It isn't required for bonded Class B work like a fence or eaves.

Keep the clearance certificate with the house papers. It's the record the next buyer, or the next builder, will ask for.

What Traralgon houses usually get tested for

Our reading of the town's history, as a starting list, not a diagnosis. More at Traralgon homes by era.

• Railway cottages, APM and Commission houses (early 1900s to 1950s). Decades of renovations layered on each other. Sample anything grey and flat before it's touched.
• Loy Yang era brick veneer (1970s and 80s). Eaves, wet areas and the back shed.
• Acreage homes around Tyers and Glengarry (from the 1970s) and Hazelwood North. The house, plus sheds and outbuildings. See Tyers and Glengarry.
• Churchill (from 1965). The houses were built in brick, but what's under the eaves and behind the tiles still needs checking. See Churchill.

Once you have a result, send it through the contact page with a few photos, and we register your job and, if you ask us to, tell you when a licensed removalist covers your town; nobody rings you from this site in the meantime.

Register your job