I've a standalone garage at the side of my house. It was constructed
in 1965 of concrete slabs on a concrete base and has an asbestos cement
roof and is about 5.5m x 3m. The garage leans slightly (a few degrees
to the vertical away from the house) as a result of ground movement
over the years, which has caused the roof to sag and to leak in heavy
rain. Although the roof sheets themselves aren't damaged, the roof is
basically shot and needs replacement.

Two questions:

1. What relatively low cost options do I have for replacing the
existing roof?
2. If I decided to replace the whole garage (it ain't pretty)
what's the degree of difficulty of demolishing this type of garage
and what options do I have these days for material/construction/price
of a new one? (i.e. similar size and standalone)

Many thanks, Andy

wrote:

I've a standalone garage at the side of my house. It was constructed
in 1965 of concrete slabs on a concrete base and has an asbestos cement
roof and is about 5.5m x 3m. The garage leans slightly (a few degrees
to the vertical away from the house) as a result of ground movement
over the years, which has caused the roof to sag and to leak in heavy
rain. Although the roof sheets themselves aren't damaged, the roof is
basically shot and needs replacement.

Two questions:

1. What relatively low cost options do I have for replacing the
existing roof?

You might want to consider the bitumen type corrugated roof (stocked by
for example B&Q and Wickes). It comes is several colours and is easy to
cut with and oiled hand saw. I used this stuff when I built my garage,
which incidentally replaced an old asbestos cement (AC) on cruddy
concrete slab job.

2. If I decided to replace the whole garage (it ain't pretty)
what's the degree of difficulty of demolishing this type of garage
and what options do I have these days for material/construction/price
of a new one? (i.e. similar size and standalone)

Many thanks, Andy


Assuming that the garage is a white AC construction, your local waste
disposal sight might take it, I got confirmation from my council on this
issue (the local tip wanted to charge me until I mentioned this).

In the end I decided to get a registered asbestos disposal company to
dispose of it as I had no means of getting circa 2 ton of asbestos to
the tip.

The asbestos disposal industry has a bad rep for fly tipping etc, so it
might be worth checking with the local council and/or trading standards
before employing them to see if they have form in this respect. For my
single 5x2.5m garage it cost £500 last year, this I beleive is quite
cheap I also had quotes of 2 or 3 times that IIRC.

The timber frame of my garage was quite rotten and the blokes who took
it apart did so with hammers, wrecking bars and saws (for the timber), I
could have done this myself.

FYI there is a report at http://www.asbestoswatchdog.co.uk/ which finds
that asbestos cement products of this nature are not particulary
hazardous, its might be worth reading for peice of mind before embarking
on such a project.

When I rebuilt my garage I used a concrete slab, timber frame, and
trussed roof with the corrugated bitumen sheet roofing.

I made the frame from 3x2 "scant" stud sections screwed together with
3"/4" screws, trusses joined with the same (and nail plates).

I stood the frame on a single course of medium density concrete blocks
(this is not visible, bricks would be better if visible) and put a damp
strip in between the blocks and stud frames.

The whole thing is clad in 4.5" shiplap. Doors are still temporary
softwood ply!

IIRC the whole lot was "around" 1K inclusive of the asbestos removal.

Main costs of this approach:

Asbestos removal.
Studding timber.
Shiplap cladding.
Corrugated roofing.
Concrete slab.
Sub base if you need it (intend to actually put a vehicle in it - mines
storage really).
Breaker rental.

It took me 8 days work including breaking the concrete, skipping it, and
digging out / leveling, getting the concrete in and building the new
structure.

HTH,

Alex.

In article .com,
" says...
I've a standalone garage at the side of my house. It was constructed
in 1965 of concrete slabs on a concrete base and has an asbestos cement
roof and is about 5.5m x 3m. The garage leans slightly (a few degrees
to the vertical away from the house) as a result of ground movement
over the years, which has caused the roof to sag and to leak in heavy
rain. Although the roof sheets themselves aren't damaged, the roof is
basically shot and needs replacement.

Two questions:

1. What relatively low cost options do I have for replacing the
existing roof?

I'd have thought that replacing the frame and reusing the existing
sheets would be cheapest.