Due to Queensland's heavy rain and roof leak, tenants of my IP reported the ceiling fell down this morning. Tenants are concerned about asbestos materials causing health safety and may request temporary accommodation. The house was built in the 1980s. If I send an asbestos specialist for the report, they take the sample to the lab and take a few days to return the asbestos report. For me, the ceiling material seems to be a normal Gyprock plaster. It looks like paper sheets. They hang together (see the attached photo). There is no sign of powders. I am wondering if we can look at the photo to quickly identify if it is asbestos.
Has it been reported to the insurer? Looks like water-soaked dusty plasterboard and maybe some insulation. You can see that the plaster part has come away leaving the top layer of paper still sitting over the hole. If it’s paper faced then it’s definitely not cement sheet. Cement sheet is a grayish board - you wouldn’t see powder generally. If it’s plasterboard the core will be whitish plaster. A handyperson or carpenter will be able to identify it’s plasterboard. If it’s cement sheet however, only a test will identify if it’s asbestos-containing or not. People can get confused when the edge of the plasterboard is dirty as it can look like cement sheet then - but plasterboard is usually thicker than the cement sheet used for ceilings (10mm at least).
It's plasterboard without a doubt. The paper facing has ripped as it peeled away from the ceiling joists. It's also dangling by the facing, fibro would snap and fall as the paint won't hold it up.
Agreed But maybe the message is getting lost in translation, maybe the area of concern is the insulation Very hard to tell by the pic what the insulation is Hand off to insurance asap Edit: or is the actual roof sheeting asbestos ?
Thanks for all your replies. I can see paper peel out. No sign of powders. I will explain to the tenants and ask them to stay calm.
For the record (As many many moons ago I worked at Pioneer plasterboard) Ceiling sheets or "span" board had fiberglass mixed into the plaster when being aerated to increase its strength and prevent sagging, these fibers can be visible when the sheet is broken, so maybe this is what they can see (and are assuming the worst).
Plaster for sure. Send someone in to clean it up and seal the open hole with black plastic or similar, that'll keep any potential fibres etc from the roof where they belong until you can get a plasterer in. Let me know if you need a Plasterer too.
