Asbestos surveys and removal in Hitchin and Letchworth

How do Hitchin and Letchworth differ?

They sit only a few miles apart, but their buildings tell different stories. Hitchin is an old market town with a medieval church, timber-framed and Georgian buildings around its market place and streets, and Victorian terraces spreading out towards the station. Letchworth was founded in 1903 as the world's first garden city, and its first homes were Arts and Crafts cottages designed for the garden city movement. Both towns then grew with large post-war estates.

Can a very old building contain asbestos?

Yes. Asbestos was not part of a medieval or Georgian building when it was built, but it often arrived later. Shops and offices in Hitchin's centre have been refitted many times, and twentieth-century alterations brought in suspended ceilings, boarded partitions, fire protection around stairs and service risers, and boiler rooms with lagged pipes. Before refurbishing an older commercial building, a refurbishment and demolition survey of the area affected will show what is hidden behind earlier work.

What about the garden city and the post-war estates?

Letchworth's early cottages predate the heaviest use of asbestos, but kitchens, bathrooms, heating and garages added later may contain it. The estates built in both towns from the 1950s onwards are more likely to, with textured ceilings, floor tiles, boards near boilers and cement soffits and roofs among the usual finds.

Is consent needed for outside work in Letchworth?

Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation runs a scheme of management that covers much of the town, and it requires consent for many external changes to homes. If removing an asbestos roof or soffits means altering how a house or garage looks from outside, ask the Foundation before work is booked. Both towns also have conservation areas, and North Hertfordshire Council can say whether planning consent is needed.

What about workplaces?

Letchworth was planned with an industrial area from the start, and both towns have estates of factories, workshops and warehouses. Whoever is responsible for maintaining a non-domestic building has a duty to manage asbestos. In a building from before 2000, that usually means a survey, a written record and a plan.

What about villages in SG4?

SG4 reaches into villages and farmland around Hitchin, where barns, stables and sheds often have corrugated cement roofs. Treat them as suspect, and never climb on one. On a working farm, the farm buildings count as a workplace, so the person responsible for maintaining them has a duty to manage any asbestos they contain.

What about waste?

Follow Hertfordshire County Council's guidance on household asbestos before you move anything.