Hi,

I have been offered my 1982 built apartment. Asbestos was removed from the bathroom and toilet 5 years ago and the Kitchen was also renovated which involved removing all the tiles ect.

The current owner and regie seem oblivous to the this so I was wondering if its normal to request a report if you buy a property.

Or should I pay for one myself given there must have been some kind of analysis done 5 years ago. Seems to be around 2K CHF.

Regards

Asbestos kills. Asbestos requires specialist removable treatment and can cost CHF20,000 to 30,000.

That’s why the current owner and janitor are oblivious…

I would pay for one myself for peace of mind.
Asbestos is an expensive thing to remove safely.

PAY, no question

Have a test done. Be sure that the detection device is not placed outdoors during testing. There are characters who will do that.

It's probably because it's so late but I'm confused if you're the seller or the buyer, and what's your issue



Anyway, asbestos inside the apartment?? That really shocked me. I only knew it was used for covering the roof (and other outside structures) and to insulate heating pipes in the sewage canals.


However I've been living (born) in block of flats with asbestos in the balconies. Apparently it's not dangerous if it's kept well protected, i.e. painted, so no particles are freely floating in the air, but yes, it's better to avoid it if you have the choice.

Have a survey for asbestos if you know it's been present before.

To be totally sure remove it but be prepared to pay handsomely, so ensure the purchase price reflects this. That said, if its not distrubed and in good condition it can be left... but think forward to resale, and do you want to end up responsible for it?

Yes yes, asbestos inside the apartment...of course covered/insulated with a layer of plaster, paint etc. Asbestos was forbidden in Switzerland in 1992 if I recall correctly and you can imagine there are many buildings older than that. I think its period of "glory" was in the eighties...then got banned in the nineties in Europe, and soon afterwards its use got banned even for the external insulations - as you mentioned those.
You can ask your real estate agent to obtain some data about the year of constructions and if there were any asbestos "sanitation" done to them, from the local authorities. Sometimes it's all so hidden not even them have this data anymore. (yes..)
I know that because we wanted to buy an apartment/loft where it used to be a factory in the fifties/sixties and they "sanitised" only the garage, at huge costs btw. We have asked for more details about the apt itself and nobody knew anything.
Clearing up asbestos is a health hazard work and done in maximum safety conditions, with special suits etc It costs a lot, as it should.

My thought is if you have/had asbestos in the apartment, what about the rest of the building??? I wonder if at some point you will get a big bill to remove it completely.

Keep in mind that asbestos was allowed in CH up to 1990. Any renovation is releasing it into the air. Just a trip into any large Swiss town will expose one to it.

I was just thinking the same. Imagine you're living next door to such apartment where obviously the air escapes to the hall

AFAIK, Urban asbestos levels in Switzerland are nothing to be worried about . One does not have to get paranoid about it. If there is renovation work going on near you, then there will be monitoring going on. Vehicle emissions seem to be a thing of the past (unlike in the USA).

https://ethz.ch/content/dam/ethz/spe...estos_2018.pdf

Actually it's good to know


Is this a standard in Switzerland to have such report for an older property stating that asbestos was never used or was removed?



Which company can do the inspection and give you the report?

No.

It is generally assumed (and it is generally the case) that any asbestos present is "fixed", that is, it is part of building material (plaster, glues, cements, insulations boards, etc) that do not pose a risk to health unless disturbed.

You typically run into asbestos issues when you want to do significant renovations. Some older materials may contain asbestos in various proportions. Generally drilling a hole through a wall with plaster that contains minute asbestos is not something to worry about, but stripping the tiles off an entire bathroom becomes problematic and tradesmen will ask for tests before doing work if they suspect it an issue.

One could ask for an inspection before buying a property, but what would you test? This would depend largely on what alterations you plan to make and the specifics of the property...

You can ask yourself for any kind of inspections you want before purchasing, but it becomes a question of you paying for it and how many questions the seller is willing to put up with before finding another buyer...

There are many companies specialized in asbestos diagnostics that can be found in the "yellow pages", aka Google.

Speaking from my own experience, we had an asbestos test done (VD), for our house. This costed CHF 1700.

What happened is that a guy came to drill little holes all over the places (tiles) walls, floors, ceilings. The outcome was a house full of little 1cm diameter holes (didn't matter since we teared the whole place apart anyway) and a very nice detailed report of the asbestos situation (bad, in our case).

We took this report to the asbestos company who then charged us handsomely to remove the asbestos. there were two guys working for five days, costing CHF 10,000. 00 (kitchen, 2x bathroom toilet, tiles all over the house). The worksite looked like a biolab for a few days with the workers dressing up in spacesuits and working in airtight compartments with air/water pumps, generators. They seriously had an insane amount of kit with them.

Either, afterwards we were presented with the cleanest worksite ever seen.

Note, that we were allowed to remove some of the asbestos ourselves with the right PPE - ceiling panels which could just be unscrewed.

Thanks for the useful replies.

Anyone know roughly how much it costs per square to get asbestose floor tiles removed? The type with asbestos in the glue.

We have had 2 interior designers who say we probably have it in 30 m squared of tiles in our combined living room/kitchen.

I see one post here quoting 10k chf for a house. The interior designer seemed to think it would cost much more than this but he would sort it out.

Just after a rough idea.

Why not tile over them, much cheaper and locks in the asbestos.

https://www.bobvila.com/articles/asb...talled%20first.

Also before you remove the floor tiles check the Gemeinde allows that.