Although asbestos Artex ceilings are classified as a low risk material, we always recommend using a suitably qualified asbestos contractor to work on any asbestos material. Check out Selecting an asbestos removal contractor for more information.
If you still feel you want go ahead and drill the holes yourself you will need to follow the below instructions.
Personal Protective Equipment
You will need the following equipment:
- Disposable overalls fitted with a hood
- Boots without laces (laced boots are hard to decontaminate)
- Respiratory protective equipment (RPE). Disposable P3 masks are fine for this.
Procedure
Cover all surfaces, furniture and fittings with polythene sheeting. You might want to consider moving soft furnishings that cannot be wiped clean to a different room to avoid possible asbestos contamination.
To cover items it is best to use 500-gauge polythene sheeting fixed with duct tape to non-asbestos surfaces.
Check the size of hole you need to drill carefully for cable and pipework, make the hole slightly bigger than required.
Drilling the hole
Check the size of the hole you are about to drill is correct. You don’t want to have several attempts to get it right.
Cover the drill entry and, if accessible, exit points with a generous amount of paste or foam (shaving foam works well). This will prevent any spread of dust or asbestos fibre.
Carefully drill through the paste/foam and then clean off with wet wipes or damp rags, ensuring that you also clean up any debris from adjacent surfaces. The rags and paste/foam will contain dust and asbestos fibres so will need to be disposed of as asbestos waste. Seal round the edge of the hole with a suitable sealant such as PVA or paint.
Roll up the polythene sheeting and place in a waste bag.
Take off your overalls, turning them inside out as you go.
Wipe your boots down with wet wipe of damp cloth.
Place the overalls and wet wipes/rags in the waste bag. Take off the disposable RPE and place this in the waste bag.
The waste bag will need to be disposed of as asbestos waste. Do not place asbestos waste in the household refuse.
For more info and advice on asbestos in domestic properties visit our page for Domestic Customers.