The short answer
HSE advises you to assume a building contains asbestos if it was built or refurbished before 2000, until a survey shows otherwise. Taking intact asbestos cement sheets away gently and unbroken is non-licensed work. Once sheets are badly broken, or the chosen method will smash them, the job moves up a tier to notifiable non-licensed work. Insulating board is a different material, and most work on it is licensed.
How do you know whether the sheets are asbestos cement?
Appearance will not settle it. Asbestos cement sheeting resembles several modern fibre-cement and composite products, and a weathered, mossy surface hides the details that might help. HSE guidance gives a plain starting point: a building constructed or refurbished before 2000 is presumed to contain asbestos until a test says it does not. The HSE page on whether asbestos is present sets out the duty in full.
On a commercial roof, the usual suspects are large corrugated sheets on a portal-frame shed, sheeting over a loading bay, and the rainwater goods and flue pipes that were often cast from the same material. The reliable answer is a sample taken and analysed by a competent surveyor, with the result written into a report that stays with the building file. Tenants, lenders and contractors will all ask to see it.
Keep the report with your health and safety records and share it with anyone who works on the roof. Whoever looks after a commercial building is expected to know where asbestos is, and a roofing contractor needs that information before a ladder goes up. If a report is out of date, or only covers the inside of the building, ask for the roof to be added.
Non-licensed, notifiable or licensed: where does your roof fall?
HSE describes three tiers of work. The first, non-licensed work, covers taking off cement products like roof sheeting and rainwater goods, so long as they are handled with care and not broken up. HSE states that this includes cement sheets which have weathered but are not otherwise badly damaged.
The second tier, notifiable non-licensed work, applies when sheets are substantially damaged, or when the planned method will break them, and HSE gives the example of dropping a sheeted roof. The employer then has to tell the enforcing authority before work starts, arrange medical examinations for workers and keep health records.
The third tier is licensed work, which takes in most removal of asbestos insulating board. That board has been found in outside soffits, and it is easily mistaken for harmless board. The HSE page on non-licensed work covers the first tier in detail.
What should happen before anyone steps on the roof?
Begin with the survey and a written plan for the roof itself. Old cement sheets turn brittle, and one that looks solid may not carry a person. Our page on fragile roofs and safe access explains crawling boards, edge protection and why nobody walks on the sheets.
The plan should say how the sheets come off intact, where they are stacked and wrapped, how the ground below is cordoned off, and who carries the waste away. Asbestos waste is hazardous waste. It needs the right paperwork and a carrier registered to move it, so ask to see both rather than assuming they exist.
If the building is occupied, tell the people underneath what is planned and when. Staff and neighbouring units deserve a clear date and a clear boundary.
What does removal cost, and what changes the figure?
National price pages give a sense of scale for a domestic job, which is a poor yardstick for a unit with hundreds of square metres of roof. MyBuilder's asbestos removal page, updated on 21 August 2026, gives an average of around £2,000, with a low end of £50 per m². It lists a single garage roof at £350 to £1,295 and a double garage roof at £650 to £1,800.
What moves a commercial price is the area, the working height, the state of the sheets, the way waste is packed and carried, and what goes back on afterwards. A mobile platform, scaffold or edge protection can cost as much as the lifting. When you weigh up prices, check that each states whether VAT is in the total and whether the new covering is part of the same figure.
Disposal deserves a mention when you compare prices. Asbestos waste goes to a site that accepts it, in sealed and labelled wrapping, with a consignment note passing from producer to carrier to tip. A very low price can mean that part has been left out.
Take it off, or cover it over?
On some buildings the sheets stay where they are and a new metal or composite skin goes over the top. That avoids disturbing the cement, but it only suits a roof whose sheets and supports are in sound condition, and it adds load to the structure. Our page on roof overcladding explains the method and its limits.
Removal makes more sense when sheets are cracked, purlins are corroded, or the building is due other work such as new insulation or rooflights. Our survey photographs show sheets, fixings, laps and supports, so you can see the condition yourself. Where something cannot be confirmed by eye, it goes to a surveyor for sampling before any price is settled.
Rooflights, gutters and the bits people forget
Asbestos cement was rarely used for sheets alone. Old rooflights sit in the same corrugations, gutters are sometimes cement too, and flue pipes pass through the roof. Our pages on commercial rooflights and gutter lining show how these elements interact with the sheeting, which is worth reading before anyone settles on the scope of work.
Ask for every cement item on the roof to be listed in the report, including the small ones. A full list stops a plan that deals with the big sheets and leaves a cracked gutter behind. Our owner-facing hub, commercial roofing, leads to further pages for roofs that are also failing, including surveys and corrosion.