The short answer
An asbestos-cement industrial roof can stay in place while it is intact and managed, be covered over with a new system, or be removed and replaced. Which route suits you turns on how sound the sheets are, what the steelwork or timber under them can carry, and where the unit is headed over the coming years. Start with a specialist survey, because the material must be identified before anything is touched.
Confirm what you have before you decide anything
Corrugated sheets on a factory or warehouse built before the late twentieth century are often asbestos cement, but looks alone prove nothing. Fibre-cement sheets made without asbestos look much the same from the ground. The only reliable answer comes from a sample taken and tested by a specialist, who can also record where the material is and what condition it is in.
That record matters because it separates the three routes open to you. A roof in sound condition, with sheets that are whole and fixings that hold, may be left alone under a plan for keeping an eye on it. A roof that is ageing but structurally sound may be covered with a new system. A roof that is broken, leaking or due to go may need to come off. Without the survey, nobody can price the work honestly, and a contractor who quotes without one is guessing.
Tell us about any previous asbestos report for the building. If the unit is let, the landlord or managing agent often holds one. We can also look over the roof as part of our free survey visit, with photographs of what we find, so you see the sheets, fixings and lining as they are rather than as a drawing suggests.
Leave it, cover it or take it off
Each route has a place, and each has a cost that does not show up in the first quote.
Leave it and manage it
Intact asbestos cement does not release fibres just by sitting there. Weathering, though, breaks down the surface, and moss growth, cracking at the laps and corroded fixings all point to a roof that is moving toward the end of its useful life. Leaving it is reasonable where the roof stays watertight and stable, but it needs regular checks and a written record, and nobody should walk on it. Asbestos-cement sheets are brittle and a fall through one is a serious hazard, a point we return to in our guide to fragile roof safety.
Cover it with a new roof
Overcladding means fixing a new weathering layer, often an insulated metal sheet system, above the old sheets without taking them down. It keeps the disturbance low and the building in use, and it leaves the old sheeting sealed inside the new build-up. The existing purlins, the horizontal timbers or steel members that carry the sheets, has to bear both layers, and a structural check settles that. Overcladding does not remove the material, so it must be recorded for whoever works on the building next. Our page on the commercial roof overlay covers the wider principle.
Remove and replace
Removal ends the problem at source and gives you a clean roof structure to inspect. It also costs more up front and needs more planning, so the survey has to happen before anything else.
What the HSE says about removal
The Health and Safety Executive sorts the lifting of asbestos-cement roof sheets into the non-licensed category, on condition that each sheet is handled gently and stays in one piece. Should the sheets end up in fragments and put heavy dust into the air, the job moves up a category, notifiable non-licensed work, and the enforcing authority has to be told before it starts. The detail is on the HSE non-licensed work page.
In practice that shapes the method. Sheets are wetted where appropriate, unbolted rather than smashed, lowered whole and wrapped for disposal at a waste site that accepts the material. Dropping sheets from height or breaking them to fit a skip is exactly what the guidance steers away from. Workers need the right training and protective equipment, and the area below is cleared or closed off for the duration.
We describe the work this way because it is the guidance. Ask any contractor who quotes you to explain how the sheets will come off, how they will be packed and where they will go. A contractor who answers clearly has thought it through. One who waves the question away has not.
Cost drivers and typical UK ranges
MyBuilder's asbestos removal guide (2026) reports a typical figure of about £2,000 for removal in general, and about £50 per square metre for general removal work. Both figures are national guide prices and say nothing about what we would charge. A large industrial roof is a very different job from a garage, so treat them as a starting point only.
What moves the figure on a unit roof:
- Area and access. More sheets mean more handling, and a roof that needs scaffold, edge protection or a lift costs more to work on.
- Condition. Brittle, broken or weathered sheets take longer to remove whole and may push the job into the notifiable category.
- Testing and disposal. Sampling, packaging and the waste site charges all sit outside the labour.
- The replacement system. Single-ply, built-up felt or insulated metal each carry a different price, and a new insulation layer adds to it. Our built-up felt roofing page explains one common choice.
We price commercial roofs once we have seen them. After the visit you receive one fixed sum, in writing.
Planning the work around a working building
Industrial units rarely close for a roof. Stock sits underneath, machinery runs and staff come and go, so the method has to protect what is below. Before sheets come off we agree an exclusion zone, check what needs covering or moving, and decide whether the area beneath is to be sealed. Rain during a strip is a risk in its own right, which is why a roof is stripped in sections and made watertight at the end of each working period.
The roof is also an opportunity to put other things right. Valley gutters, rooflights and edge details on an old asbestos-cement roof are often as tired as the sheets. Solar panels are a common question for owners replacing a roof, and a new roof is the time to ask whether it will carry them, as we explain in our answer on solar panels on a commercial roof. Finally, keep the survey and the disposal paperwork in the building file. They protect the next owner, tenant and contractor, and they show you did the job properly.
Tell us the size of the unit, what is inside, and whether you rent or own it, and we will say what the survey should cover. The commercial roofing page lists the rest of our commercial work in and around Bath.
