Asbestos/artex help!!

[Pinkflame1]

Hi,

So a month ago we moved into a house built in 1991.

Ceilings are artex so fine as long as not disturbed but in order to upgrade extractor fans and lighting the electrician removed the old extractor fan/shower switch in the bathrooms leaving an exposed hole.

Tonight our painter and decorator would barely come into the bathroom for fear of the exposed asbestos.

A) is this massively risky to us? I hadn't given that small amount a second thought until I saw the panicked look on my decorators face and now I'm terrified as we have a baby in the house.
B) how can it be repaired? It needs filling - is this is a decorator/builder/plasterer job??
C) does it need doing like tomorrow??

We're not currently in a position to have the ceilings replaced or skimmed so we just need to block the exposed sections.

Thanks in advance.

 

[pilsbury]

Someone told me that post 1990 artex was very likely to be asbestos free.

 

[pilsbury]

Just googled it and it says anything pre 2000 may contain it.... Maybe get it tested? For the exposed hole, get a load of pva and slop it all over the edges....

 

[^woody^]

You're more at risk from the mould around the bath.

Paint over the edge or paint PVA as above if you like..

Then get some cotton wool and bubble wrap, and wrap the decorator in it before booting the wuss down the stairs and out the door.

 

[footprints]

Sensible thing is to get it tested, there are DIY kits where you send it off but a lot of cut price companies out there and well wouldn't be suprised if one day we find they are just guessing and ripping customers off.

There was a recent scam to send off DNA and a photo to "find the breed of your dog" independent tests sent samples from one breed and a picture of a completely different dog, guess what, if the dog looked like a certain breed in the photo that's what the DNA result came back as!

Contact a company on this list and maybe get a survey for your own peace of mind and any other tradesmen.
Not cheap but once it's done, it's done and any queries raised when you sell can be dealt with easily.

http://www.arca.org.uk/

As a matter of fact I think Asbestos was phased out from about the late 80's onwards it finally became law in 1999. A house I had that was late 80's came back clear, so chances are you will hopefully get a report giving your house a clean bill of health.

At least you had a tradesman that thought before he started knocking the house about, there are plenty of people that come on here having found out they have asbestos after some cowboy has spread it all around their house.