Asbestos Removal in Sunderland

Found asbestos in a Sunderland home? Start here

Sunderland was a shipbuilding and coal town. The housing those industries left behind is where most asbestos shows up today. The terraces in Millfield, Hendon and Roker tend to hold the lower risk materials, textured coatings and old floor tiles added during later work. The post war estates at Pennywell, Town End Farm and Hylton 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 Tyne and Wear

There are eleven firms holding a licence with a Tyne and Wear 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.

9 of the 11 hold a standard licence, and the standard licence is the one that covers removal. One firm here holds a scaffolding licence, not a removal one: MTL Scaffolding Limited in Newcastle Upon Tyne. A scaffolding licence covers putting up and taking down scaffold around asbestos work, not removing anything, so those are not who you ring about a garage roof. One firm here holds a maintenance licence rather than a standard one: SMH Products Limited in South Shields. A maintenance licence is narrower, covering short duration maintenance rather than full removal, so ask directly whether your job falls inside it.

Two things about the Tyne and Wear list worth knowing

• Two of them are based in Sunderland itself. The rest are along the river at Newcastle, Gateshead, South Shields, Jarrow, Hebburn and Washington. That is closer to home than most towns get, because a lot of the region’s asbestos trade grew up around the shipyards.
• Eleven firms cover Tyne and Wear. That is a healthier list than most counties this size, but the better ones still book up, so it is worth asking two or three for a price rather than taking the first.

Getting rid of asbestos in Sunderland

Sunderland’s two household tips, at Pallion and at Campground in Wrekenton, do not take asbestos. The council lists it under the hazardous waste they cannot accept, and its own asbestos page sends you to a licensed removal contractor instead. So there is no council drop off point for it in the city.

That leaves one legal route. A licensed waste carrier, or the removal contractor, takes the material away and gives you the paperwork that proves where it went. Every standard licensed firm in the list above does this as part of the job.

The North East has the highest mesothelioma rate in Britain

The Wearside shipyards were among the busiest in the world, and the ships were packed with asbestos for lagging, insulation and fire protection. The men who worked around it are the generation appearing in the figures now, because mesothelioma can take decades to show. A rate measured today reflects work done in the yards decades ago.

The North East records 72.6 asbestos related mesothelioma deaths per million men, the highest of any region in Great Britain and well above the national figure of 55.9. Figures from the HSE’s mesothelioma statistics for Great Britain.

What asbestos removal in Sunderland is likely to cost

Sunderland sits below the London and South East labour rates, so expect prices under those figures. Where the city adds cost is access. Terraced rows with no rear lane, 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 Sunderland: questions people ask

Will the council remove asbestos from my house?

No. Sunderland City Council does not remove asbestos for homeowners, and its household tips do not take it. Its own advice is to use a licensed removal contractor.

Can I take asbestos to the tip in Sunderland?

No. Neither Pallion nor Campground accepts asbestos, because the council lists it as hazardous waste they cannot take. It has to leave with a licensed carrier or the removal firm.

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?

11 hold a current licence with a Tyne and Wear address, two of them in Sunderland. That is a wider choice than most towns get.

Getting a quote from a Sunderland contractor

The firms above quote for this work routinely. To widen the field, see the licensed contractors covering Newcastle and Tyne and Wear.

Not in Sunderland? See every area we cover.