Found asbestos in a Crawley home? Start here

Crawley is a new town. It was designated in 1947 and most of it was built between 1950 and the early 1970s, one neighbourhood at a time: West Green, Northgate, Three Bridges, Langley Green, Pound Hill, Tilgate, Furnace Green, Southgate, Gossops Green, Ifield and Broadfield. That timing matters more here than almost anywhere else in Sussex, because those are exactly the years when asbestos cement roofing, insulating board, soffits, bath panels and warm air heating cupboards were standard fittings in new council housing. The council’s own asbestos page lists insulating board in warm air unit cupboards, under stairs fireproof boarding, cold water tanks, boiler flues, thermoplastic floor tiles, rainwater guttering, soffit boards and garage roofs as the usual places it is found. If your house is an original new town build and still has its first garage, its first soffits or its first heating cupboard, assume something in it contains asbestos until a survey says otherwise. It is the material that sets the rules, not the year the house went up.

Every HSE licensed asbestos contractor with a West Sussex address

The register holds two firms with a West Sussex address. Directories run by the trade association list members who pay a subscription, which is not the same as every licence holder. 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.

Three things about the Crawley list worth knowing

• Neither firm is in Crawley itself. One is in Horsham, about ten miles west, and the other is in Worthing on the coast. Both are a short run up the A23 or A24. The address in the table is where the office is, not how far the firm will travel.
• Crawley sits on the Surrey border, and Surrey has no licence holders at all. That pushes Surrey work south into West Sussex and north into London, so the firms here are busier than a list this short would suggest. Expect to wait, and expect London firms to quote for Crawley too.
• Council tenants have their own route. Crawley Homes sends tenants a copy of the asbestos survey report when one is done on their home, and runs an asbestos team on 01293 438429. If you rent from the council, ring them before you ring a contractor.

Getting rid of asbestos in Crawley

West Sussex County Council runs the tips, and Crawley’s recycling centre is one of only four in the county that take asbestos. The others are Burgess Hill, Chichester and Worthing. The rules are strict. It has to be cement bonded asbestos, up to 200kg, double wrapped or double bagged in clear 1,000 gauge polythene and sealed with tape. The wrapping has to be see through so staff can confirm what is inside without opening it. Staff will not help you unload it. Cement fibre board is treated as asbestos. Anything else, or anything a contractor has removed, has to go through a licensed waste carrier. The county’s asbestos disposal page has the current rules.

Who checks the work in Crawley

Licensed removal is HSE work wherever it happens, notified fourteen days ahead and open to inspection. For shops, offices and the warehouses and hangars around Gatwick, the enforcing body for the duty to manage asbestos is either the HSE or Crawley Borough Council’s environmental health team, depending on the type of premises. The borough’s own asbestos page is short but clear on one point: asbestos cement can be removed without a licence, while the more dangerous materials should go to a specialist contractor. If you rent privately, the duty sits with your landlord.

The South East and the mesothelioma figures

Crawley’s exposure came from building the town. Thousands of houses, schools and factories went up in twenty years, and the trades that built and then maintained them used asbestos throughout. Gatwick’s expansion in the same years added hangars and terminal buildings built with it. Because mesothelioma takes decades to develop, the current rate is a measure of that building boom.

At 63.7 asbestos related mesothelioma deaths per million men, the South East has one of the highest regional rates in Britain, against a Great Britain figure of 55.9. Figures from the HSE’s mesothelioma statistics for Great Britain.

What asbestos removal in Crawley is likely to cost

Crawley sits in the South East labour band, and its position next to Gatwick and the M23 keeps it close to London prices. The good news is access. New town houses have drives, garages and gardens, so the common Crawley job, an asbestos cement garage roof or a run of soffits, is about as simple as this work gets. Where costs climb is inside the house, because insulating board in a heating cupboard or under the stairs is licensed work, which means fourteen days’ notice to the HSE before the first board comes down. For the wider picture, see what asbestos removal costs across the UK, and where the published price guides disagree.

Asbestos removal in Crawley: questions people ask

Will the council remove asbestos from my house?

No. Neither Crawley Borough Council nor West Sussex County Council removes asbestos for homeowners. The county takes cement bonded asbestos at four recycling centres, including Crawley, which is covered above. Council tenants should contact Crawley Homes.

Can I take asbestos to the tip in Crawley?

Yes, at the Crawley recycling centre, cement bonded only, up to 200kg, double wrapped in clear 1,000 gauge polythene and sealed. Staff will not help you unload. A contractor’s waste cannot go this way.

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?

2 hold a current licence with a West Sussex address, in Horsham and Worthing. Firms based in London and Kent also work across Crawley, so your real choice is wider than the table.

Getting a quote from a Crawley 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 Brighton and East Sussex and London.

Not in Crawley? See every area we cover.