Asbestos Garage and Shed Roofs in Swindon: How to Identify Them, the Rules, and Removal Costs

Swindon grew faster than almost any town in southern England between 1950 and 1975. The population roughly doubled under the Town Development Act as families moved out from London, and estates went up across Walcot, Park North, Penhill, Toothill and Freshbrook at extraordinary speed. Almost every one of those houses got a sectional concrete garage with a corrugated roof, and in that period the standard sheet was asbestos cement. Conservative estimates suggest hundreds of thousands of asbestos cement garage and shed roofs are still in place across the UK, and Swindon has more than its share simply because of when it was built. Most of them are perfectly safe where they stand. The risk starts the day someone decides to take one down with an angle grinder on a Saturday morning. Here is how to identify what you have and what to do about it.

How to Tell If Your Garage Roof Is Asbestos Cement

You cannot tell for certain by eye, and anyone who says they can is guessing. That said, there are strong indicators.

Asbestos cement sheets are grey, matte and slightly rough, with a fibrous texture visible on a broken edge. They are usually corrugated in a shallow profile roughly 75mm deep, in sheets around 1.1 metres wide, fixed with hook bolts through the crown of the corrugation. They go chalky and lichen-covered with age, and after fifty years the surface often looks slightly weathered away.

The date is the strongest clue. Anything installed before 1985 is very likely to contain asbestos. Between 1985 and 1999 it is possible but less common, since blue and brown asbestos were banned in 1985 and white asbestos followed in 1999. After 2000 it will be fibre cement, which looks similar but contains cellulose or synthetic fibres instead.

Modern replacements are easier to spot. Box profile steel has sharp square ribs and a painted finish. Bitumen sheeting is black and flexible. Neither is asbestos.

If you want certainty, a sample test through a UKAS-accredited lab costs around £30 to £60. For a job we are quoting we will usually arrange that, and you can get the ball rolling through the Roof Repairs Swindon website.

Why It Is Fine Where It Is, and Dangerous When Disturbed

Asbestos cement is what the industry calls a bonded product. The fibres, typically white asbestos at around 10 to 15% of the sheet by weight, are locked into a cement matrix. Sitting on a garage in the rain, it releases essentially nothing.

Break it, drill it, cut it with a power tool or drop it off a roof and that changes immediately. Power tools are the worst thing you can do to it, because they turn a bonded product into airborne dust in seconds. The Health and Safety Executive's asbestos guidance is unambiguous on this, and asbestos-related disease still kills around 5,000 people a year in the UK, more than road traffic accidents.

So the honest advice is this. If the roof is intact, not leaking and not in your way, leaving it alone is a legitimate decision. If it is cracked, delaminating, or you are re-roofing anyway, get it removed properly.

What the Law Actually Requires

For a domestic garage roof this is less onerous than people expect, and more onerous than most DIYers realise.

Removing asbestos cement sheeting is classified as non-licensed work under the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012, so a licensed contractor is not legally required for a typical garage. It is still regulated work. That means controlled removal without breaking sheets, no power tools, dampening down, appropriate RPE and disposable coveralls, and correct double-wrapping.

Householders removing asbestos from their own home are not covered by the regulations in the same way as a business, so you can legally do it yourself. Whether you should is a different question, and HSE's asbestos essentials task sheets set out what doing it correctly actually involves.

Disposal is where DIY usually falls down. Asbestos is hazardous waste. It cannot go in a skip, cannot go in a normal builder's van, and needs a hazardous waste consignment note when moved commercially. Swindon Borough Council's household recycling centre accepts small quantities of bonded asbestos from residents, but by prior arrangement and with limits on volume, so check before you turn up with a trailer.

What Removal and Replacement Costs in Swindon in 2026

Working figures for the Swindon area:

• Survey and sample analysis: £150 to £350
• Removal and licensed disposal, single garage roof: £550 to £1,100
• Removal, double or long garage: £900 to £1,800
• Asbestos shed or outbuilding roof, small: £350 to £650
• Replacement box profile steel roof: £900 to £1,900
• Replacement EPDM rubber flat roof on a converted structure: £1,600 to £3,200
• Full concrete sectional garage replacement: £4,500 to £9,000

Access drives the price. Most Swindon estate garages from that era sit in a block at the rear of the plot down a shared access lane, and if the crew cannot get a vehicle within 20 metres of the roof, everything gets carried by hand in sealed wrapping. That adds time.

Doing several at once is much cheaper per unit. Garage blocks on the Park North and Penhill estates are often in shared ownership or held by the same landlord, and coordinating four or five neighbours typically cuts the per-garage cost by a quarter or more, because the setup, waste paperwork and disposal run are shared.

Replacing the roof rather than the whole garage

If the concrete sections are sound, replacing just the roof is far better value. Box profile steel in a coated finish lasts 25 to 40 years, weighs a fraction of asbestos cement, and can be fitted in a day on a standard single garage. Our guide to garage roof replacement in Swindon goes through the material choices in more detail.

Where the concrete panels are cracked, bowed or spalling, replacing the roof alone is money badly spent. Have someone look at the whole structure before deciding.

Swindon's Weather and Why These Roofs Fail

Swindon sits on the edge of the Marlborough Downs and gets around 750 to 800mm of rain a year, which is moderate by national standards. The problem is not volume. It is freeze-thaw.

Asbestos cement is porous. Water soaks into the sheet, freezes, expands and micro-cracks the matrix. Sixty winters of that leaves a sheet that is structurally weak and shedding surface material. Moss and lichen make it worse by holding water against the surface.

That is why the failures cluster on north-facing slopes and under overhanging trees, and why so many Swindon garage roofs that were fine for decades have started letting go in the last ten years. They are all reaching the same age at the same time, because they went up at the same time.

Never walk on one. Asbestos cement sheeting has effectively no residual strength once weathered, and falls through fragile roofs remain one of the most common causes of serious injury in construction. If you need to inspect it, use a ladder and look, or use crawl boards.

Choosing Someone to Do the Work

Ask for the waste carrier registration and the disposal site they use, and ask to see the consignment note afterwards. That paperwork is the proof it went where it should have.

Ask what training the operatives have. Non-licensed asbestos work still requires task-specific training under the regulations, and any competent firm will say so without hesitating.

Ask how they intend to remove the sheets. The right answer involves undoing the hook bolts, lifting sheets whole, and wrapping them on the ground. If anyone mentions cutting sheets to fit them in a van, walk away.

Finally, be sceptical of anyone quoting a garage roof removal at £200. That does not cover the disposal cost alone, which tells you where the sheets are going.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is it safe to leave an asbestos garage roof in place?

Generally yes, if it is intact and undamaged. Bonded asbestos cement releases very few fibres when undisturbed. Inspect it occasionally for cracks, delamination or missing sections, and avoid pressure washing, drilling or walking on it. Deterioration is the trigger for removal, not age on its own.

Can I take my asbestos garage roof to the tip in Swindon?

Swindon Borough Council's household waste site accepts limited quantities of bonded asbestos from residents, but it must be arranged in advance, double-wrapped in heavy-duty polythene and within the volume limits they set. Contact them before loading anything into a vehicle.

How long does asbestos garage roof removal take?

A single garage roof is usually half a day for removal and wrapping, with the replacement roof fitted the same day or the next. A block of four or five garages typically takes two to three days including waste handling.

Does my home insurance cover asbestos removal?

Almost never as a standalone item. Some policies contribute where asbestos removal is unavoidable as part of an insured event such as storm or fire damage, and even then cover is usually capped. Removing it because it has reached the end of its life is a maintenance cost.

Want to learn more about asbestos garage roof removal in Swindon? Click here to contact us.