h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

As stated in yesterdays journal today I will tell the tale of the (ongoing) asbestos issue and how it came about. Its a bit convoluted to say the least so bear with me folks.
It started with a burst water main in the road about 3 /4 weeks back. The local water board repaired said burst then turned the water back on. So far so good. However for some insane reason known only to them they decided to boost the water pressure, so much so that it blew valves and seals throughout the flat complex (that's 24 flats in total). Toilet cisterns and cold water tank ballcocks suddenly failed under the new pressure. Our in-house contract plumbers were dragged in and repairs were undertaken as a matter of urgency as overflow pipes were doing a fair impression of high pressure hoses.
When they came to my flat the plumber took one look at my header tank and its location and said they would need to remove a panel above the Airing cupboard door in order to get access to the tank.
This was when a straightforward plumbing job suddenly became a matter of Health and Safety. The panel in question is asbestos, approx. 3/8" thick but in such poor condition that a layer of asbestos dust was covering the ledge inside the cupboard.The problem had been made worse by the fact that the electrician that replaced the wiring for the heating system had literally used a chisel to gouge a channel thru this panel to run the wires. Now, he either didn't realise or didn't care about the fact that he'd put himself at risk by doing this.
It was immediately sealed and the court manager called in a specialist company to come and deal with the issue. On arrival we, as in the manager and myself, expected this firm to safely remove said panel and dust thus leaving the way clear for the plumber. However that didn't happen. They hoovered the dust up and took a small sample from the panel to have tested.
So panel not removed, plumber told not to remove so no repair. Its gets better. When we eventually find the mains stop tap its installed in the bathroom inside the box section that houses the stack pipe. The box section is, yep, made from the same asbestos panelling that is above the airing cupboard. Where they cut the 6" diameter hole thru the box to gain access to the tap there is yet more exposed asbestos and dust.
The court manager then discovers a report dated some 2 yrs ago where during a routine inspection it was noted that there was a high level of asbestos in the flat ranging from low to high risk and that an 'action plan' was needed to deal with it. It seems the floor tiles on the bathroom floor are an asbestos composite, (whatever that is), the textured ceilings are not the usual Artex/plaster type texture, in fact it looks more like woodchip wallpaper but it appears from samples taken the textured stuff is actually asbestos cement. All painted so therefore sealed but nevertheless, the recommendation was to either remove or plaster over.
The upshot of all this is I currently have no access to the airing cupboard, the bathroom has had a fitted carpet put over the existing floor tiles and we now have to wait on the Enviromental Health people and other "experts" to come up with an action plan to deal with this.
Its as well I'd got spare bedding and towels outside of the airing cupboard as I can't get at the other stuff in there till its declared 'safe'.
I have no idea how this is going to be dealt with, I'm told I can't be in the flat when/if work commences to remove the stuff so bob only knows what happens then.
I did inform the manager that I had a wee bit of concern over the use of 'Experts'. To me, Ex = 'has been', 'spert = a drip under pressure which bearing in mind how all this started seemed appropriate.
A case of watch this space.

Sorry todays journo is a bit long folks, I'll, err, try being a bit more concise/shorter tomorrow.

Have a good day folks. ttfn

I'd leave a but that would probably not be appropriate.

Can you get a rent reduction for not having access to your airing cupboard?

If this were fiction it would be great comedy. As fact it is tragic.

Hope it all works out for you. By the way, are all the other flats in the same position??

No Mags, no rent reduction. My hootoo T-shirt is in that cupboard tho.
Hi Pebble, there are other flats affected but it seems as they become vacant they're having works done to remove the asbestos. Out of the 24 flats there are currently 9 still left to do. All 9 having varying amounts of asbestos issues. In my block there are 3, 2 ground floor and 1 on 1st floor.

Long, but interesting. What a nightmare of a situation! I hope things improve soon.

Deb

[Amy P]

feel your pain, the eleccy companty came to routinely change our meter last week and after much humming and harring decided the original 1930s meter may ,just may, contain 'asbestos byproducts', left in a hurry promising a 'specialist team' would come and take a look. bakelite and paxelin is sooooo scary!

Blimey!