Sooooo, hubby had a friend who sold insulation and sent him around to give us 'free' insulation. We said, sure why not.

Yesterday about 3 or 5 'middle eastern' guys rock up to install it. None of them could speak English. The guy who dealt with me could bow a lot and point at a piece of paper. At this point I was worried but thought who gives a s***, if they do their job there is no issue.

But of course, there was an issue. One of the guys decided to put his foot through out ceiling. Weeeeeeeeeeee!

I pointed it out to the 'head guy' and his face dropped and he was able to get across that he would finish the job and went back in the ceiling (with much yelling at the guys in the ceiling).

I rang head office. Explained the issue and the communication barrier. I was told someone would come out straight away. Instead I got a phone call from a guy claiming to do supervisor, or area manager or something.
He explained to me the interpreter was on a training course and that is why I was having trouble communicating and he said he would come out straight - or tomorrow.

It's now tomorrow, I just rang him. The story has changed and he is now sending out a guy 'some time today' to what sounds like patch it up.

Now, I hear so go 'yeah well, s*** happens' - but the clincher is!!! It's asbestos!!!!!

f*** you and your free insulation. Now I can see this becoming so much more than it needs to be.

They better just do right and fix it properly. And not just want to do a patch job.

Oh I will be a bogan and go to ACA or TT if they f*** me over!!!!! Don't think I won't!
*sigh*

Maybe you should try Twitter ?

Wait, are you saying someone sold you asbestos as insulation?

No silly, the ceiling they put their foot through is asbestos!

And you're still in your house? what the f***?

when are you moving

bummer. no such thing as a free lunch eh? :P
asbestos is like the anti-christ to the building industry... & really for no good reason. unless you are inhaling huge amounts of asbestos dust the chance of ill-effects are pretty remote. but the industry has it all tied up in red tape n bulls*** :(

And you're still in your house? what the f***?

Asbestos is only an issue if it is broken or decaying.

You have now most likely inhaled asbestos particles which will slowly attack and destroy your lungs; if one of the particles happens to get into your blood it will shoot up to your brain resulting in epic death.

Do you have downlights? If so, what sort are they? Did they put heat hood covers over them?

By law they need to, or else your house could burn down and your insurance will lol at you.

Asbestos is only an issue if it is broken or decaying.

If, for example, someone put a foot through it?

more people in service/construction issues need to bow

would dig that

kat we are so renovation buddies;

we got some insulation done the toher day as well;

our mob was free ($1600 dollars worth) and they were awesome! (and spoke english and gave me a free whirlybird)

if you let me know you were looking for insulation guys i could have hooked you up

these guys even came round and did it for us when we only needed one room done which they had to take the roof off;

her funeral will be held next tuesday! HOORAY!

Uhm, you do know that the government is going around putting free insulation in older established homes yeah?

Had them knock on my door the other day asking if I had it, said yeah I already do thinking they were selling.
Was government man come from government (Invader Zim Ref.), to get older homes to all have insulation apparently.

yeah climate change is fake

WE got insulation done not long ago. Dude came in, a friend let them in. Came home and BAM! it was all done.

Since it was free, screw getting the cheapest options around, we went for the most expensive stuff we could get.

woot!

Spook

Have you got their phone number?

Cheers

Well it's kinda good that you found out you have been living in asbestos so you can get the f*** outta there.

You can just get asbestos removed. It's very expensive, but if you don't do it, selling the house will be a pain in the ass anyways.

Spook

Have you got their phone number?

i will do when i get home tonite:

asbestos

houses in our area have asbestos everywhere;

we've been slowly remvoing as much of it as we can during renos, but yer, its expensive

and its fine if its not broken up, its a great insulator!

thanks mate

Uhm, you do know that the government is going around putting free insulation in older established homes yeah?

Yes, that's why we got it put it (for free).

Well they came and the checked it out and said they will remove and replace the whole panel. Good. I was expecting them to want to patch it.

Blessing in disguise IMO.

asbestos really isn't *that* bad, if you dont disturb it - you wont have any problems
almost all state high schools still have some asbestos buildings in them

Being a skeptic, I just google'd "queensland schools asbestos".

What the experts say about asbestos

1. Queensland Asbestos Related Disease Support Society (Secretary Nick Bos):

"Our Society has been inundated with calls from people who think they are going to die because they have asbestos cement sheets in their homes. The fact of the matter is that the Australian Mesothelioma Register clearly shows that the people at greatest risk are those who have been exposed to huge doses of asbestos fibre.

The vast majority of people being diagnosed with asbestos cancer are the workers who worked in the Australian asbestos mines, manufactured asbestos products, unloaded the shiploads of asbestos that were imported into Australia from Canada and South Africa, worked on construction sites where asbestos was sprayed on the beams, where asbestos cement sheets were cut with power saws and in the power stations where asbestos was used to insulate the boilers and steam pipes etc.

Whilst it is true that a relatively small proportion of susceptible people will get cancer from relatively low level asbestos dust exposure, if one fibre of asbestos gives you cancer we would all have cancer because whether we like it or not if you live in Brisbane or any other Australian city you have inhaled asbestos fibre and have asbestos fibre in your lungs."

I think that is a terrible quote, because it is extremely dismissive and doesn't really tell us what a safe level of asbestos is. It seems as if the last paragraph even aims to make you feel stupid for worrying about it.

So was teq right? Do almost all state high schools still have some asbestos buildings in them?

It is Department of Education and the Arts policy to remove asbestos products as a priority from schools should they deteriorate and represent a possible health threat.

They seem to only remove asbestos should the be disturbed or found deteriorating. However, another way to interpret the above (and more info from the site I've linked below), is that ALL asbestos gets removed eventually, but the more dangerous types are given priority.

However, check out this site for more info about which schools have been checked, and where asbestos has been found: http://education.qld.gov.au/asbestos/management.html

It doesn't look like "almost all state schools" have asbestos, but there are certainly quite a few.

afaik asbestos has it's bad name from the litigation of asbestos miners in northern wa in the 60s. those miners inhaled huge amounts of blue asbestos n most of them died from it. with the white asbestos used in building insulation as long as it's not disturbed, or if it is disturbed you don't huff the dust down... it's unlikely you will suffer ill effects.

Yeah but can't it cause emphysema as well as asbestosis? I know that one of the problems with asbestos is simply the particle size created, dust can do some serious damage to your lungs regardless of the material type.

This free insulation s*** is a joke, it'd be alright if it was for a natural product but I bet most people are going with fibre glass or that treated spray in stuff. They aren't doing the environment any favours with that kind of crap.

when renovating buildings in netherlands there are apparently only a few companies authorised to clear out asbestos and can they charge a lot!

perhaps you could take some pics and zip them
give us a better idea of the incident.

k thx.

Deadly, they put wool in our roof.

nice insulation people who did us a good deal

all seasons insulation
head office 1800 076 210

The pollution in Brisbane is probably worse than a few asbestos fibers. I don't see you all running around crying like a bunch of fagots about the pollution now.

still looking for the thread on OCAU about this..


I want to beleive..

heh
they only stopped making asbestos brake pads for cars in 2004
back in the day i used to change brake pads on the cabs
and blow out all the brake dust with the air compressor
and they were the asbestos pads
whoops
ps if you're looking for inexpensive pads that are as good as the old asbestos pads, hit up QFM for a set, QLD made too! they stop up hard.

so how about that pollution in Brisbane guys

oh billy, http://education.qld.gov.au/asbestos/completed.html

if they've done one or two roofs at each of these schools - wouldn't it stand to reason that theres some left?

thats a tonne of queensland schools

Mr Hardware don't you have MS now? or am i thinking of someone else ...

no, you're thinking of Michael J Fox.

teq - yes. It does seem like there are quite a lot of schools with asbestos still present. However, it's certainly not most or almost all (sorry for being anal).

According to the WH&S guy here at work, asbestos is fine as long as maintained, and you take appropriate precautions when working with it.

Most houses built in the 50s to 70s would contain asbestos.
Be it in lino, the walls, conrete, tiles ... Most people just think it's in the plasterboard but it got used for all sorts of things.

A guy that does work here reckons a wet face mask and put shaving cream (yes cheap foaming shaving cream) around the spot you are drilling/cutting a hole, whenever you do work in a house of the appropriate age.

Mr Hardware don't you have MS now? or am i thinking of someone else ...

No thats hogfather
and Michael J Fox has parkinsons.

Yesterday about 3 or 5 'middle eastern' guys rock up to install it

There's ya problem.

No thats hogfather
and Michael J Fox has parkinsons.

Haha, facepalm.

MS isn't like cancer - lots of people have wacky ideas about where it comes from. Ini some parts of the world (I'm looking at YOU Bible Belt USA) people think that the person must have brought it on themselves because of lifestyle choices or drinking diet coke or something equally stupid.

The truth is that they don't know, and it seems like its been around a long time. There is probably a combination of genetic and unkown (likely viral) environmental factors that trigger the auto-immune response resulting in demyelination.

But they don't even REALLY know that its an auto-immune response, that's just the best guess because of the inflammation. Its kind of freaky injecting yourself every day with chemicals that they openly admit to not understanding the mechanics of to combat a disease they don't understand the workings of.

An MS cure is a while off yet!

last edited by Hogfather at 13:03:50 31/Jul/09