Asbestos roof removal
Corrugated cement sheeting turns up on barns, farm buildings, industrial units and lean-tos just as often as it does on a garage, in bigger runs and at bigger heights. If yours is specifically a domestic garage roof, that page covers the sides and gutters too. This one is for everything else the same material turns up on.
- Over 12 years in asbestos removal
- Qualified & insured
- HSE Compliant
- Most jobs completed within a day
The material we are talking about
Scale and access decide more than the material does
The sheet itself is usually the same wherever it turns up. What actually changes the job is the building underneath it.
- Whether it is a ground-floor lean-to or a two-storey industrial roof, which decides what we stand on to reach it.
- Whether the site is a working farm or an occupied unit, which changes when we can come and how we plan around it.
- How the sheets are fixed, bolted, hooked or screwed, and how old and corroded the fixings are.
- Whether the roof is already cracked or shedding, or sound and intact.
Any building, one material
- Barn and farm building roofs.
- Industrial and commercial unit roofs.
- Lean-tos, workshops and outbuildings of any size.
- Domestic garage roofs specifically, where the dedicated garage page also covers the sides, gutters and what happens with a replacement.
- Sheets already taken down and stacked, which is a collection rather than a removal.
How a roof actually comes off
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01
We look first
A photo tells us the sheet type, the pitch, and roughly the scale, whether that is one lean-to or a full barn roof.
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02
Sheets come off whole
Unbolted and lowered rather than snapped or dropped, the same method regardless of the size of the building.
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03
Bigger roofs mean bigger access
A scaffold tower or similar goes up where a ladder will not do the job safely, planned in before the day itself.
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04
Wrapped and loaded on the ground
Double-wrapped and labelled before anything is carried anywhere, then loaded by hand.
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05
Paperwork follows
The waste goes to a facility licensed to take it, and your consignment note follows by email, whatever the scale of the job.
Fitting around a farm or a working unit
Note
We plan around your site, not the other way round
A farm roof often sits over livestock, machinery and a working yard. An industrial unit often means a business that cannot simply stop trading for the day. Neither is a reason to put the job off.
Tell us what the site actually looks like when you get in touch, and we plan access and timing around it rather than asking you to work around us.
Note
If you manage the building rather than live in it
The person responsible for maintaining non-domestic premises has a legal duty to know what asbestos is in the building and manage it. We do not carry out surveys ourselves, so if you need one, that sits alongside this work rather than instead of it.
Send a photo either way and we will tell you what the removal side of it looks like.
Remove it, seal it, or clad over it
Leave it where it is
Sound cement sheeting that nobody is drilling, cutting or dropping is not an emergency, whatever building it is on. Doing nothing is often the right call.
Seal it instead
A weathered but whole roof can often be sealed rather than removed, which costs less and buys time, particularly useful on a large agricultural or industrial roof where a full removal is a bigger undertaking.
Clad over it
New sheeting can sometimes be fitted straight over sound cement rather than taking the old material off first, which is a real option on a big roof where removal alone would be a substantial job.
Take it off
Worth doing when sheets are cracked or shedding, when the building is being re-roofed properly, or when the roof has to come off before other work can start underneath it.
What people ask us
Is it illegal to remove asbestos roof sheets?
Not automatically. Undamaged asbestos cement, the material most corrugated roof sheets are made of, can normally be taken down carefully without needing a specialist licence. It is a different, higher-risk category of material, sprayed coatings and pipe lagging among them, that the law reserves for a licensed contractor. Source: HSE, asbestos: locations and identifying the correct action, checked 13 Sep 2026.
Can I sell a house with an asbestos roof?
Yes. There is no legal bar on selling a property with asbestos cement roofing, and no duty on a private seller to remove it first. A buyer's surveyor will often flag it, and some buyers use it to negotiate.
Do I need a survey before removing an asbestos roof from a commercial building?
If the building is non-domestic, the person responsible for it has a legal duty to know what asbestos is present, which usually means a survey has already happened or should happen first. We do not carry out surveys ourselves, so that is a separate booking, but tell us where things stand and we will fit around it.
Can a farm roof be removed while livestock are still on site?
Often, yes, with the area cordoned off properly while work is under way. Tell us what is underneath the roof when you get in touch and we will plan the visit around it rather than asking you to move animals for our convenience.
What is the difference between this page and the garage roof page?
Nothing about the material. This page covers corrugated cement roofing on any building, barns, industrial units and lean-tos included. The garage roof page covers the same material specifically on a domestic garage, including the sides and gutters and what happens if you also want a new roof fitted.
Roofs across the south east
We are based in Grays and most of our work is within an hour of it.
Further out than that? Ask anyway.
Tell us what the roof is and where it is
A photo, a postcode and a phone number is enough to get things moving, on a garden lean-to or a full barn roof alike. If you would rather talk it through, call and you will get someone who has done this before.