Found asbestos in a Stockport home? Start here

Stockport grew on cotton spinning and hat making. The housing that trade left behind is where most asbestos turns up today. The Victorian terraces in Edgeley, Heaton Norris and Reddish tend to hold the lower risk materials, textured coatings and old floor tiles added during later work. The post war estates at Brinnington, Adswood and Offerton are where the higher risk materials appear, because insulating board and pipe lagging were standard when they were built. What decides whether you legally need a licensed firm is the material itself, not the age of the house.

Every HSE licensed asbestos contractor covering Greater Manchester

There are seven firms holding a licence with a Greater Manchester address. The trade association directory that most people find first only lists the ones that pay for membership, so it comes out shorter. This is the full licensed set, straight from the register.

Every firm on this list holds a standard licence, which is the type that covers removal work.

Two things about the Greater Manchester list worth knowing

• None of them are based in Stockport itself. They work out of Manchester, Salford, Ashton-under-Lyne and Bolton and cover Stockport from there. The address in the table is where the office is, not how far the firm will travel, and any of those towns is a short run into Stockport.
• Seven firms cover the whole of Greater Manchester. That is not many for a county this size, so expect to wait for the better ones, and expect firms from Cheshire and Derbyshire to quote for Stockport work too. A wider field often gets you a keener price.

Getting rid of asbestos in Stockport

Stockport Council does not run its own asbestos disposal. It sends residents to Recycle for Greater Manchester, and it adds one firm rule worth repeating. Anyone you pay to move or tip asbestos must hold an Upper Tier waste carrier’s licence, so ask to see it and keep the receipt they give you.

The local tip that takes it is Bredbury Parkway. It accepts cement bonded asbestos only, double wrapped in heavy duty plastic or sealed inside double bagged rubble sacks. You need proof of address, a council tax or utility bill, and you have to wear the right protection to handle it. It will not take fibrous material, or anything a contractor has already removed. Removed material counts as business waste, so the firm that takes it out disposes of it.

The North West and the mesothelioma figures

Stockport’s mills and heavy engineering used asbestos for lagging, insulation and fire protection, and the men who worked around it are the generation appearing in the figures now. Mesothelioma can take decades to show, so a rate measured today reflects work done in the 1960s and 70s.

The North West records 54.6 asbestos related mesothelioma deaths per million men, close to the Great Britain figure of 55.9. Figures from the HSE’s mesothelioma statistics for Great Britain.

What asbestos removal in Stockport is likely to cost

Stockport sits below the London and South East labour rates, so expect prices under those figures. Where the town adds cost is access. The steep streets around the centre, terraced rows with no rear vehicle access, and the older flats all add time, and time is what you are paying for. For the wider picture, see what asbestos removal costs across the UK, and where the published price guides disagree.

Asbestos removal in Stockport: questions people ask

Will the council remove asbestos from my house?

No. Stockport Council does not remove asbestos for homeowners or run its own disposal. Council and Stockport Homes tenants are different and should report it through their housing team.

Can I take asbestos to the tip in Stockport?

Yes, cement bonded asbestos only, at Bredbury Parkway. It has to be double wrapped or double bagged and sealed, you need proof of address, and fibrous material is not accepted. A contractor’s waste cannot go there.

Do I always need a licensed contractor?

Not for every material. The law treats some lower risk asbestos cement as non-licensed work, while insulating board, pipe lagging and sprayed coatings must go to a firm holding a standard licence. The safe move is to have the material identified by a lab first, so you know which rules apply before anyone touches it. See our guide to what an asbestos survey costs.

How many licensed contractors are near me?

7 hold a current licence with a Greater Manchester address. Firms based in Cheshire and Derbyshire also work across Stockport, so your real choice is wider than the table.

Getting a quote from a Stockport contractor

The firms above quote for this work routinely, and so do firms in the neighbouring counties. To widen the field, see the licensed contractors covering Greater Manchester.

Not in Stockport? See every area we cover.