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Asbestos cement flat sheeting – interior

Description

Surface appearance generally like plasterboard.
Sheet jointing may be covered with obtrusive AC cover moulding, wooden battens, or ‘Anaglypta’ paper strips, before painting. Shear point nails used for fixing in place – flat heads may be visible.

Villaboard was a water resistant AC sheeting for interior linings behind material such as wall tiles, behind/on top of cupboards and as a wallboard above decorative lining height within bathrooms. Produced with recessed and square edges. Non-ACM product with same name available today.

Duracast (1930s) had a rough cast appearance.

Flat AC sheeting used ad-hoc for providing vertical heat protection behind stoves and heating appliances, as well as shelving.

See also: Compressed flat asbestos cement sheeting.

Years of production/use

Prior to 1990

Brands/products
  • Fibrolite
  • Fibrock
  • Tasbestos
  • Hardiflex
  • Villaboard
  • Durabestos
  • Asbestolite
  • Wunderflex
  • Versilux – sold only in Qld, WA and northern NSW
  • Flexboard
  • Endurite
  • Duracast
Residential uses
  • Houses and other buildings on site.
Industrial uses
  • Foundries, factories, warehouses, substations, workshops, hospitals, community and government buildings.
  • Communal washrooms and changerooms
Be aware

Consider the age of the building. Unless assessed by a professional, 9mm and 12mm thick panels can be mistaken for plasterboard, particularly if painted or wallpapered.

When cutting, drilling or demolishing:

  • Cut edges may expose fibres.
  • Original AC sheeting may be left in place for additional insulation, with non-ACM panels or tiles attached over the top.
  • May have been intentionally used as an underlining sheet for ceramic tiling.
  • May have been used as an underlay for flooring such as tiles, linoleum or asbestos containing vinyl flooring.

Asbestos cement walls with non-asbestos rendered covering

Description

AC exterior wall panels rendered after construction to alter appearance and/or encapsulate ACM.

May have occurred at time of construction or in later years.

May have been applied by hand (trowel) or a sprayed on texture coating. Some portable accommodation hire companies had their transportable buildings covered with a non-ACM spray coating en masse during the 1970s.

Requires bulk core sampling to test or observance of damage around edging to identify AC sheeting/visible fibrous material underneath. 

This is not a reference to Hardie’s Stucco moulded AC panelling – refer AC siding sheets information page.

James Hardie instructions circa 1920s-30s provided guidance on the application of a ‘roughcast’ coating over newly installed Fibrolite exterior sheeting:

1.       Erect sheets with reverse side exposed.

2.       Cover all joints, both horizontal and/or perpendicular, with a narrow strip of ½ in. mesh wire netting.

3.       Thoroughly saturate the sheets after erection with water.

4.       Paint the exposed surface of the sheets with one good coat of neat cement and water.

5.       After thoroughly mixing the roughcast, composed of two parts of cement, one part of clean sand, and four parts of coke breeze (by measure), apply in the usual way.

Brands/products
  • n/a
Years of production/use

Any time after construction

Residential uses
  • External walls
Industrial uses
  • External walls
  • Transportable offices and accommodation
Be aware

Visual identifiers may require closer examination of edging and other structural ACM (gables/battens, windows, architraves).

Older portable buildings manufactured in late 1960s-1970s with an apparent spray on coating may contain ACM.

Galbestos – asbestos coated steel

Description

Imported product.

Galbestos was a steel core panel coated in asbestos bituminous felt and colour coated. 

Various corrugated panel styles were available.

Mainly used in industrial/commercial applications for roofing, curtain walling and fencing.

Brands/products
  • H.H.Robertson (USA)
  • Galbestos
Years of production/use

1948 – late 1970s

Residential uses

Fencing

Industrial uses

External walls and roofs on factories, warehouses and attached offices. Plant buildings such as power stations.

Be aware

Galbestos ACM coating can be affected by decades of weathering whereby the sealing coat cracks and shrinks, exposing asbestos fibres. Damage can also occur when the steel underneath degrades through rust.

Imitation brick asbestos cement cladding

Description

Asbestos cement sheeting with moulded brick pattern on outside.  Also known as faux bricks.

Produced in varying colours and brick styles. Smooth and textured. Some rough textured bricks will have repeated texture patterns.

The moulded ‘brick’ material may or may not contain asbestos, but was usually attached to AC sheet backing.

May have been used to clad existing AC sheeting for change of façade.  Often by attaching wooden battens over existing and then fake brick sheet nailed to battens.

Refer below for identification hints.

Brands/products

Not yet identified

Years of production/use

Prior to 1990

Residential uses
  • External walls
  • Internal feature walls
Industrial uses
  • External walls
  • Internal feature walls
Be aware

Grout or adhesive may become degraded over time allowing sections to become detached and damage to occur with debris in same location.

Asbestos containing adhesive may have been used for attaching to structure.

Identification hints

Asbestos cement battens / cement strapping / cover strips

Description

Can be a moulded AC product for purpose, or sometimes just a cut piece of AC sheeting.  

Used to cover the join between two cement sheet panels on eaves, walls and ceilings, window and door architraves, as well as for decorative patterns.

Flat or D mould (curved exposed surface)

Interior and exterior application.

Tilux branded laminated skirting and moulded cover strips also marketed circa 1940s in two patterned colours, to match sheeting.

Brands/products
  • Fibrolite
  • Tasbestos
  • Flexboard
  • Fibrock
  • Asbestolite
  • Durabestos
Years of production/use

Prior to 1990

Residential uses

Houses, garages, sheds and external toilets

Industrial uses

Sheds, offices, factories, warehouses, substations, workshops, pubs, government and community buildings.

Be aware

Cut sheeting adapted by builder may have exposed fibres on edges if not sealed.

Weathered or damaged stripping may expose unsealed sheeting , increasing the risk of further damage and asbestos friability.

Asbestos cement spandrel panels

Description

Panelling within window frame, usually framed from floor to near ceiling, or on multi-level buildings to cover external surface of tween flooring structures.

Years of production/use

Prior to 1990

Brands/products
  • Fibrolite
  • Durabestos
  • Colorbord
  • Wunderflex
  • Tasbestos
  • Fibrock

Can be panel cut from any AC moulded sheeting design.

Residential uses

Housing, multi-storey apartments

Industrial uses

Commercial buildings and offices

Be aware

Windowsill mouldings and caulking may also contain asbestos if original fittings.

Flat coloured asbestos cement panels

Description

Coloured AC sheeting smoothed surfaced on both faces, with the colour appearing on one face only. Flat and curved sheets.

Used for curtain walling, spandrel panels and applied as double sheets back to back, such as in external balustrades.

Asbestos Products Ltd produced a coloured AC sheet named Artbestos in the 1930s for interior/exterior use. Colours listed as: Grove green, Sky blue, Stucco brown, Ochre, Shell pink, Cream and Buff.

Colorbord was a James Hardie product from 1960 to the early 1980s. described as a smooth faced compressed AC pre-finished sheet. used for both internal and external applications. The coloured AC sheeting market was dominated by James Hardie. 

The Colorbord range of colours and their market names varied slightly with an extended colour range introduced in 1967. By 1980 the colour range was reduced back to 14 colours. 

Brands/products
  • Colorbord

    • Note: Not Colorboard –  a BurnieBoard wood product

  • Artbestos
Years of production/use

Prior to 1990

Residential uses

Houses and apartment blocks – spandrel panels on balustrades and curtain walls

Industrial uses

Government buildings and schools, office blocks, motels, all industrial building applications – advertised as interesting infill variation for construction of schools, shopping centres as well as interior partitions in offices and factories.

 

Be aware

Some approaches to commercial remediation may have incorporated leaving in situ and covering with non-ACM materials.

Asbestos cement curved sheeting – external

Description

Curved flat sheeting. Advertised by Wunderlich more than Hardie’s. More often in mid-20th Century built residences as a feature of front façade.

Required moulded AC curved battens/cover strips for fixing.

Years of production/use

Mainly 1930s-1940s

Brands/products
  • Durabestos
  • Fibrolite
Residential uses

Houses

Industrial uses

Small commercial offices

Be aware

Painted curved AC sheeting may have appearance of rendered material.

Asbestos cement panels for specific form design

Description

Moulded AC panels to meet specific requirements, such as for architectural building design. Often prefabricated steel frames with moulded panelling attached.  

Following the expansion of moulded sheeting design of the 1960s, the early 1970s saw an increase in mould innovation to suit architectural design. AC was more logistically suited to variable designs due to its lighter weight as well as sometimes being more cost-effective. Hardies appear to have dominated this space.   

Brands/products
  • Hardies
Years of production/use

Prior to 1990

Residential uses

Multi-storey apartments

Industrial uses
  • Commercial offices, high-rise, schools, hospitals & community buildings
Be aware

Painted AC panels may have appearance of prefabricated concrete.

Asbestos cement moulded siding sheets

Description

AC moulded sheets that replicated appearance of battened timber grain or heavy textured cement render. Some Stucco product was pre-coated with primer. The Stucco and Montana products were produced by James Hardie.

Indicators of moulded AC would include repeated identical stucco or woodgrain shape features on surface (Tip: look relative to edge of sheet jointing) – see below.

Marketed for external and interior use – for infill panels, gable ends, fences and screens.

 

Brands/products
  • Stucco
  • Montana
Years of production/use

Prior to 1990

Following the cease of asbestos use in the 1980s, Hardie’s manufactured identical cellulose fibre products under the names Hardipanel II Stucco and Hardiplank II Woodgrain. This may be branded on the underside edging.  If unsure, sampling for testing by a NATA accredited laboratory is the only method of confirming the non-asbestos product. 

Residential uses

Homes

Industrial uses

Examples not identified

Be aware

Used with moulded AC internal angles.

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Phone: 1300 326 148

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