Asbestos Garage Removal in Reigate
Asbestos garage and shed roof removal across Reigate, from the lock-ups behind the Bell Street terraces to the detached garages out at Woodhatch and South Park. Old cement sheets taken down whole, no skip on the drive, most jobs done in a day.
The Garages Behind Reigate's Streets
Drive around Reigate and the garages tell their own story. Behind the period terraces near Bell Street and the High Street sit rows of brick lock-ups, many of them sharing one long roof run between several owners. The Victorian villas climbing towards Reigate Hill and the Wray Park side often have a detached garage that was added decades after the house itself went up. Out at Woodhatch and South Park, and along the roads heading towards Redhill, the postwar semis came with their own brick or concrete-sectional garages as standard. A large share of all of these were roofed in corrugated asbestos cement, the cheap and fireproof sheet of its day.
That is the single thing we are called out to most across the RH2 postcode. A garage or shed roof, put up somewhere between the 1950s and the 1980s, that has had decades of rain rolling off the North Downs landing on it. The sheets go grey, moss takes hold in the grooves, and the material turns brittle around the fixing holes where the bolts have worked loose. Most owners only start thinking about it when the garage begins to leak onto the car, or when they are clearing the space for a conversion, an extension or a full rebuild.
By the time we see it, the roof is usually well past its working life and starting to crack on its own. A roof left to break up slowly is a worse problem than one taken off in a controlled way, because every crack is a small release of fibre into the same drive your family walks across. Catching it before a storm finishes the job for you is always the cleaner route.
Why The Old Sheet Cannot Just Be Smashed Out
Corrugated cement is bonded asbestos, and while it sits whole on the rafters it is low risk. The danger comes the moment someone breaks it. Snap a weathered sheet, drag it across the drive, or put a foot or a hammer through it, and it releases fibres that are far too small to see or smell. Breathe them in and they lodge in the lungs, and the diseases that can follow, including asbestosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma, often take twenty to forty years to show up. That long delay is exactly why a flaking garage roof is never a weekend job for the skip, however tempting it looks when the felt has gone and the rain is getting in.
You also cannot tell what a sheet is made of just by looking at it. Some Reigate garage roofs are genuine asbestos cement, and some are a later asbestos-free fibre cement that looks almost identical from the ground. Guessing is not good enough. If there is any doubt we take a small sample under controlled conditions and send it to a UKAS-accredited laboratory, with the results back inside a few working days. Only then do we know exactly what is up there and how to handle it.
On a straightforward bonded-cement garage roof in sound condition the work is usually non-licensed, which is what keeps it quick and keeps the price sensible. That does not mean it is casual. The sheets still come off whole, the waste is still tracked to a licensed tip, and the drive is still left clean. For the higher-risk licensed materials we serve the HSE the fourteen days of notice the law requires and work under full enclosure, but a typical garage roof rarely needs that.
How A Reigate Garage Strip Actually Runs
A typical single garage in Reigate is roofed with somewhere between eight and twelve corrugated sheets, depending on its length and its pitch. We take them down whole. The bolts and fixings are eased out one by one, each sheet is lifted off in a single piece, and it is double-wrapped in heavy gauge sheeting before it ever leaves the roofline. Keeping every sheet intact is the whole game here, because a sheet that stays in one piece keeps its fibres locked inside the cement. Nothing is dropped, snapped to fit the van, or left for the householder to move.
The wrapped sheets go straight onto the van and on to a licensed disposal site, with the waste consignment note to follow afterwards. Because there is no breaking up on site, there is usually no skip either, so the drive and the road outside stay clear from start to finish. That matters a great deal on the tighter terraced streets near the town centre, where there is often nowhere legal to drop a skip and no room to manoeuvre around one.
A single garage roof is normally cleared in well under a day, with three to five hours being usual for the strip itself once we are set up. A longer shared run of lock-ups behind a terrace, or a wide double garage, takes a little more time but rarely spills over into a second day. We work to the weather where we can, since handling large sheets in a strong wind off the Downs is something we would rather avoid, and we leave the site swept and checked before anything new goes back on.
A New Roof Over The Garage, And The Paperwork
Once the asbestos is off and the area has been checked clear, you have a choice about what goes back on top. Plenty of people in Reigate simply want the garage watertight and usable again, so a galvanised steel box-profile roof is the common pick, and in many cases it can be fitted the same day the old sheets come off. Others prefer three-layer torch-on felt for a flat finish, a flat or tiled roof to sit better against the main house, or asbestos-free fibre cement that keeps the old corrugated look without the hazard that came with it. Where the old material is a wall lining rather than a roof, boxing it out is sometimes an option, although taking it out cleanly tends to be the better answer over the life of the building.
We stay on garages, sheds and their roofs on this page. Larger house roofs, lean-tos and extension roofs, along with cement soffits and gutters, are a separate job with their own method, and the indoor materials like textured artex and old floor tiles are handled differently again. Whatever the building, every garage clearance finishes the same way, with the certificate and the consignment note that prove the asbestos was removed and tipped legally. That paperwork is worth keeping on file, because it is exactly what a buyer or their solicitor will ask about whenever a Reigate home with an old garage changes hands.
We hold Spectra licence number 142305706, we have spent more than seven years working on garages and outbuildings across Surrey, Sussex and south-west London, and every sheet we touch is accounted for from the roof to the tip. To get a garage roof in Reigate booked in, call 0800 024 6168.
Concrete Asbestos Garage Removal, Cobham
Cobham, Surrey · Garage Removal
View this project"Clearaway Asbestos did a brilliant job coming out to survey our old garage roof for asbestos. They were professional and we were impressed with the job they did replacing the garage roof"
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.
Why Choose Clearaway
Specialist Crew
Asbestos work is all we do, every day, across the South East.
Fully Licensed
Licensed asbestos removal contractor (Licence No. 142305706). Full public liability insurance on every job.
Local & Fast
Surrey-based. Most domestic jobs are booked in and finished within a week.
Our Own Team
We never subcontract. The people who quote your job are the people who do it.
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.