Asbestos Clearance in Richmond
Free site visit, fixed written quote and a clean clearance with the certificates to prove the work was done safely. Licensed cover for homes, garages and outbuildings across Richmond, from the Green and Richmond Hill to the riverside, Kew, Petersham and East Sheen.
Riverside, Park and Houses That Span the Centuries
Richmond is one of the most genteel corners of south-west London, and its housing has the age to match. Handsome Georgian terraces line Richmond Green and climb Richmond Hill towards the famous protected view over the Thames, the riverside and the streets behind it carry Victorian and Edwardian brick, and the suburbs reaching out towards Kew, East Sheen and Petersham fill in with Edwardian villas and 1930s semis. Richmond Park and its deer sit above it all, but the everyday fabric of the town is simply a great deal of period property, much of it extended, re-roofed and modernised over the decades.
That long history is exactly why asbestos is such a regular find in Richmond. The material was not banned outright in the UK until 1999, so any home built or altered before 2000, which covers most of the area, can hold it. None of it is a problem while it stays undisturbed. It is weather, age and the disruption of a renovation that turn a quiet cement sheet into a genuine risk.
When asbestos is cut, drilled or broken up, it releases fibres far too fine to see. Breathed in, they cause asbestosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma, often decades after the day of exposure. That long delay is precisely why clearance is a licensed trade rather than a job for a skip and a spare weekend.
What We Find in Richmond Homes
The job we are called to most often in Richmond is a garage or shed roof, a corrugated cement sheet fitted somewhere between the 1950s and the 1980s and weathered ever since. Close behind come textured artex ceilings in the Edwardian villas around East Sheen and Kew, vinyl floor tiles and their black bitumen adhesive surfacing during a kitchen refit, and cement soffits, gutters and downpipes on the interwar semis that fill the outer streets.
None of it can be confirmed by eye. Two ceilings that look identical can return from the laboratory with completely different results, so anything we suspect is sampled and sent to a UKAS-accredited lab before a single tool touches it. Findings usually come back within a few working days, and we will not begin removal until we know exactly what is present.
Clearing and Replacing Asbestos Roofs
When the job is a Richmond garage roof, and most of them are, we take the sheets down whole wherever they remain intact and run them straight to a licensed disposal facility. Keeping each sheet in one piece keeps the fibres contained and the work tidy, and in most cases we manage without a skip, so the drive and the road stay clear. The majority of domestic clearances are finished inside a single day.
With the asbestos gone and the area checked clear, we can fit a replacement to suit the building. The usual choices are galvanised steel box-profile, three-layer torch-on felt, a flat or tiled roof, or asbestos-free fibre cement. Boxing out is an option where you would rather cover and protect a sound surface than replace it.
Higher-risk materials are handled to a stricter standard set in law. We give the HSE the fourteen days of notice that licensed work requires, run the job under full enclosure with air monitoring throughout, and finish with four-stage clearance testing by an independent analyst before the space is signed back into use.
Working in Richmond's Conservation Areas and Listed Streets
Richmond has some of the tightest planning conditions in this part of London, and asbestos work has to respect them. Large parts of the town sit within conservation areas, the Green and Richmond Hill among them, and many of the Georgian and Victorian houses are listed, with the protected view over the Thames adding a further layer of control. Removing the asbestos itself is our job, but on these properties it rarely happens in isolation, so we plan it around the rest of the project from the start.
In practice that means a few things. Scaffold and access are worked out in advance on streets where you cannot simply block the road or swing a tower, and where the council controls parking and skip placement we arrange the permits and suspensions before the day. We protect the original fabric that gives these houses their value, the cornices, panelling and joinery, rather than treating the room as a strip-out. Where the wider refurbishment needs listed building consent or a conservation-area notice, we time the asbestos stage to fit the approvals rather than cut across them.
The safety controls do not relax for a period home. Higher-risk materials still go under full enclosure, with the 14 days of HSE notice the law requires and independent four-stage clearance testing before the space is handed back. The difference on a Richmond job is the care taken getting in, getting set up, and leaving the building exactly as it should look afterwards.
Surveys, Artex and Strip-Outs Across TW9 and TW10
Plenty of Richmond asbestos never reaches a garage roof. If you are about to disturb artex or lift old tiles during a renovation in a pre-2000 home, have it tested first. Where it has to come out, we isolate the room, run commercial-grade air filtration, and test the air afterwards so nothing is left behind for the rest of the house to breathe.
We carry out the two standard surveys as well. A management survey locates and assesses material in a home that is staying lived in, while a refurbishment and demolition survey is the more intrusive inspection the law requires before building work or a knock-through. Both come with a written report you can hand straight to a builder or a buyer.
For larger projects we take on soft strip-outs and full demolition, taking a property back to its structure ahead of a rebuild. Having one contractor handle the survey, the asbestos and the strip keeps the job moving and the responsibility in one place. We hold Spectra licence number 142305706, we have spent more than seven years working across Richmond and the wider TW postcodes, and every job closes with the certificates that prove it was done properly. To arrange a free site visit, call us on 0800 024 6168.
Concrete Asbestos Garage Removal, Cobham
Cobham, Surrey · Garage Removal
View this project"Graham and his staff done a great job of removing my concrete and asbestos garage thank you"
Why Choose Clearaway
HSE Licensed Removal
Higher-risk material handled under full enclosure, with the 14 days of HSE notice the law requires and independent clearance testing.
Planning Aware
Used to conservation areas and listed buildings: scaffold and access planned around the restrictions, original fabric protected.
Fully Licensed
Licensed asbestos removal contractor (Licence No. 142305706). Full public liability insurance on every job.
Our Own Team
We never subcontract. The people who quote your job are the people who do it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Our Removal Process
From first call to final certificate, every job follows the same clear four-step process.
Survey
We inspect the property and confirm the material. Sampling available if required.
Quote
Fixed written price covering removal, disposal and any replacement work.
Removal
Material is removed safely, double-wrapped and taken to a licensed disposal facility.
Certificate
You receive a waste consignment note and disposal certificate confirming legal handling.
Get in Touch
Send a few details about your project and we will come back the same working day with a fixed price. We cover Surrey, London and the South East, including Esher, Cobham, Kingston, Richmond, Epsom, Guildford, Woking and Croydon.