A nibble on the line

Spotted a property in Calwell, south of Canberra. It is a good sized house with four bedrooms on a relatively small block, but it did have some views of the distant hills. It had an amazingly large kitchen with a huge bench surface and great kitchen storage. S liked the size of the kitchen when spotted on the web. It must have had about six metres of bench space down one side. Though, the rooms seemed on the smallish side. I got the building report. It has villaboard, like the Bonython place we liked a few months ago. We may need to put up with asbestos. Villaboard is asbestos.

I also came across a property at Macgregor that caught my eye. It was advertised for auction and the agent thought it would go for between $330 - $400k. This was an older house and not as well cared for as the previous one, but this is a house with style. It had a very large lounge and four bedrooms on separate wings; three on one wing and the main and ensuite on the other wing. The design left an area between the two wings that might be large enough for a small pool or secluded garden. There was little in the way of views from this house, but definitely a house with a difference. Some of the doors and walls had been knocked about, and the kitchen looked like it needed to be ripped out and started again. But for all that, there was something about the place that clicked. The trouble in favouring unusual properties is that they may be more difficult to sell.

In Melbourne, S came home after an inspection, and found a strange car parked in her spot. It looks like someone was testing the drive. We did this before we bought the place all those years ago. In fact, there was no way I was going to buy the property until I tested the driveway. I actually wondered if the car could make it up, as the grade was so steep. Of course it did, but the driveway gave troubles in winter as on the steeper sections the car would loose traction when it was wet. So, someone else is going through the same thought processes. This is good!

According to our agent, there are two punters nibbling at the bait: a mother and daughter pair, and another interested party operating through an agent-friend. Eventually, our agent phoned to say they were offering $345k. Apparently, he said, we had earlier knocked back an offer that was below $350k, which wasn’t true. The agent-fiend would probably suspect this to be a lie. It’s a game this negotiation. By their previous experience, the mother-daughter won’t buy as they’ve been looking in the area for 5 years. Russell says the others are dream buyers, with the money in the bank. If they raise their offer to $355k well take it. He’s concerned about interest rates restricting the market. Our advertising bill is $5,000, so far.

How do you tell if you have asbestos?

The simple answer to that is that you can’t tell. Well, not easily. You could take a sample of the suspect material and have it analysed. You could try to find the original plans and specifications for the building. There may be notes that indicate what materials were used. This is of course almost wishful thinking.

I gather calculating the material’s density can determine what substance is used in the building. There are probably other tests. However, no house owner is going to let you take samples, and would you want to do this anyway? Drilling or cutting asbestos is the last thing you should do. Have a look at this guy in the picture taking a sample. I’m not prepared to do this, are you? And this guy in the photo is protecting himself. There is no accounting for the dust that goes floating around the room for other people to breathe.

Asbestos sheets, as well as any other structural sheets, will have identification of some kind stamped on the sides. If you can read the label you should be able to determine what you’ve got. Though, the term Villaboard doesn’t really scream danger to anyone. The trouble is that the eaves will probably be painted, obscuring any labelling. You could climb onto the roof, remove a few tiles and look for the label on the unpainted in-roof side of the eaves. Once again, the owner is unlikely to allow this. And if the roof has been constructed from sheet metal your only option might be an in roof inspection, but if you climb into the attic you will find that the roof line intersects with the external walls, allowing only a gap of a few inches clearance. The clearance is essentially the dimensions of the roof trusses; a gap not nearly wide enough to squeeze your head and shoulders through to have a look. The only way of inspecting the eaves would be with some sort of remote video camera, possibly along the lines of what surgeons use in key-hole surgery. The chances of being able to read any labelling would be made difficult due to the build up of dirt and dust that’s in the roof space.

It’s all very depressing.

Asbestos

I had an interesting dialogue going on by email with the agent over the house I’d spotted in Bonython, when I was in Melbourne. There is asbestos in the house, which ruled it out for us. I’d prefer not to have a house built using asbestos if it can be avoided.

Interestingly, whilst its use in the building industry has been discouraged for about the last 15 years, and even though the house was built in 1992, it has asbestos in it. I was surprised to learn that in Australia, asbestos has only been banned for the last few years. A new (or newer) house is to be considered.

Is there asbestos in your house? Yes? No? Are you sure? Have a look at this web site.

This Bonython exercise has been quite an eye opener. In Canberra, building reports are mandatory. A very comprehensive report has to be made available to prospective buyers. This is an excellent service. The report for the Bonython property included a statement from the owner saying with words to the effect that there was no asbestos in the building as far as they were aware. Well, that qualifier leaves the issue wide open. It’s a pointless statement. A waste of paper. If the content of these reports provides limited information the value of the report is diminished. Similar statements regarding asbestos came up in the report at various places, all of which generally noted a supposed absence of asbestos. Then I made an interesting observation in the report.

There were some building plans included in the report. Building plans are generally large sheets of paper. Well, the ones I’ve seen are. Think: architect’s easel. But the copy in the report had been photo reduced to the standard A4 paper size. Consequently, the hand written text was faint and difficult to read. But with a magnifying glass, and a sense of Sherlock Holmes about me, I managed to make out the word: Villaboard.

The eaves were labelled in the plan to have been constructed of Villaboard. Some sort of sheeting used to build villas? I don’t think so. A trade name obviously, but what is it? The web comes into its own, at times. Villaboard is an asbestos product manufactured by James Hardy.

It’s easy to imagine builders having large stocks of asbestos sheeting back in the mid-1980s being hesitant to dump their stocks simply because its use was being discouraged. No one willingly throws away money. And if you can afford to buy bulk to save costs, why wouldn’t you? Builders would be using up their old stock. So, with a ban only taking effect from 2004 onwards there is a chance that any house built earlier than 2004 will contain asbestos. An unpleasant thought. No doubt the closer to 2004 the construction date of your house was, the less likely you are of having asbestos in the house, but it is possible.

And have you been thinking about newer properties; perhaps an apartment? Think again. I was surprised to see a note on the ACT govt web site that “the first compliance date is on 1 September 2008 for multi-storey buildings.” So much for anyone considering moving into a high rise apartment building as a way of escaping asbestos. There is a good chance you’ll still be living with asbestos for years to come. The legislation will affect different types of structures in stages. The legislation will come into effect progressively in the coming years, with community or recreational premises not being obliged to be constructed without asbestos until late in 2010.

I feel quite depressed, now. There's plenty on the web on asbestos. Try this.