Asbestos in a summer cottage: where should you look?

At a summer cottage, asbestos is most likely to be found in asbestos cement boards on roofs, walls and behind the sauna stove, in roofing felt, in the seals of wood stoves, fireplaces and sauna stoves, around flue penetrations, and in vinyl flooring, adhesives and fillers, if the cottage or its outbuildings were built or renovated before 1994. Cottages were often built by their owners and repaired with whatever was available, so there are usually no records of the materials. The only way to be sure is a sample analysed in a laboratory.

This article explains why cottage materials are hard to judge, where to look for asbestos in the different buildings on a cottage plot, what not to do before you have a result, and how to plan your sampling when the cottage is a long drive away.

Why is asbestos at a cottage hard to guess?

In a detached house, the year of construction and the renovation history often give a clue about what the structures may contain. At a cottage that reasoning works less well:

• Many cottages were built by hand and in stages, using materials left over from building sites or demolitions. A board can therefore be older than the cottage.
• A cottage plot often has several small buildings from different decades: the main cabin, sauna, storehouse, shed, outdoor toilet and boathouse.
• Repairs were done one summer at a time and left no drawings or receipts.
• The cottage may have changed hands, and the current owner does not know what earlier owners built.

So at a cottage it is not worth assuming that the boards must be new or that there has never been asbestos on the plot. Test the materials you are about to disturb.

Building by building: where to look for asbestos

Main cabin

• roofing felt, felt shingles or a corrugated board roof
• interior wall and ceiling boards, especially hard grey boards under panelling or wallpaper
• protective boards around the wood stove, fireplace or cooking range, and the door seal ropes
• vinyl flooring and its adhesive, kitchen tiling and fillers

Roofing is covered in more detail on the page asbestos in roofing felt and boards in the article asbestos cement and fibre cement boards.

Lakeside or garden sauna

The protective boards behind and above the stove, the flue and its penetrations, and the tiling in the washroom are the most important things to test in a sauna building. They are covered in more detail in the article asbestos in the sauna.

Storehouse, shed and woodshed

• corrugated or flat board roofs
• wall cladding boards and protective boards on doors
• old boards, pipe offcuts and other building materials left in storage

Outdoor toilet and boathouse

Small outbuildings were often roofed or clad with whatever boards were left over. They are also worth testing before demolition or a roof replacement, even if the building seems unimportant.

Typical cottage projects where asbestos comes up

• Replacing or cleaning the roof: an old board roof is tested before it is washed, brushed, drilled or removed.
• Replacing a wood stove, fireplace or sauna stove: the boards and seals around the old stove are tested before removal. Read more in the article asbestos in fireplaces and stoves.
• Replacing a floor or kitchen: vinyl flooring and its adhesive are tested through every layer.
• Demolishing an old outbuilding: before demolition, find out which parts contain asbestos, so the demolition waste can be sorted correctly.
• Buying a cottage: when buying an old cottage, ask the seller whether the buildings have been checked for asbestos. See also asbestos in property sales.

What not to do at the cottage before you have a result

• Do not burn demolition waste in the sauna stove, a barbecue or a bonfire. Asbestos is non-combustible, so burning does not destroy it: the fibres stay in the ash and can spread into the surroundings.
• Do not bury demolition waste or leave it in the forest or on the shore.
• Do not pressure-wash a board roof or scrub moss off it with a stiff brush.
• Do not saw, drill or cut old boards with an angle grinder.

If the material contains asbestos, the waste is packed tightly and taken to a waste centre that accepts asbestos. On islands and in remote areas, plan the transport in advance with your local waste management company. Instructions are in the article asbestos waste disposal.

Take all your samples in one trip

When the cottage is a long way off, plan the sampling so that you take everything you need in one visit. A good time is at the end of the previous season or well before the renovation, so that the results are ready when the work starts.

Bring disposable gloves, a respirator of at least class FFP3, a spray bottle of water, a knife or chisel, pliers, zip-lock bags, tape, a marker pen and a damp cloth.

1. Walk around the plot and list, for each building, what you plan to demolish, replace or drill.
2. Put on the gloves and respirator and lightly mist the sampling spot with the spray bottle.
3. From a board, snap off a small piece at the edge or corner with pliers; do not saw it. From flooring, adhesive or filler, cut out a piece of about 2–5 centimetres through every layer down to the substrate.
4. Drop the piece into a zip-lock bag, seal it and put it inside a second bag.
5. Mark the bag with the building and the spot, for example "lakeside sauna, board behind stove" or "storehouse, corrugated roof board".
6. Cover the sampling spot with tape and wipe the area with a damp cloth.

You can send the samples from the nearest post office, so there is no need to bring them to the laboratory yourself. See also sending an asbestos sample by post.

What does the result mean?

Onelab analyses the sample with a JEOL SEM-EDS electron microscope in accordance with ISO 22262-1, and the result is sent by email, typically on the day the sample arrives.

• No asbestos detected: no asbestos was detected in the sample, and the removed material is handled as ordinary construction waste according to your local rules. The result applies to the tested material and similar material. Boards in different buildings, or installed at different times, are sampled separately.
• Asbestos detected: removal, cutting and drilling are planned as asbestos work, and the removal is carried out by a company authorised for asbestos removal work. An intact board can stay in place as long as it is not broken or washed.

If the whole cottage or several buildings are being demolished and an on-site asbestos survey is needed, the survey is carried out on site by a qualified surveyor. Onelab is a laboratory, and on-site surveys are handled by our sister brand AsbestiPro.

How much does the analysis of cottage samples cost?

The analysis costs €39.90 + VAT per sample, and the price is the same for 1–100 samples, so you can send samples from every building on the plot in the same order. Orders of more than 100 samples can be priced separately. Postage is not included. You can order the analysis online and send the samples to the laboratory by post.