Asbestos surveys and removal in Welwyn Garden City and Welwyn

How old is the housing here?

Welwyn Garden City was founded in 1920 as Ebenezer Howard's second garden city, and its earliest neighbourhoods are known for their brick, neo-Georgian houses set along green verges and cul-de-sacs. In 1948 the town was designated a new town, and a development corporation built large estates across AL7 and AL8 through the 1950s and 1960s. Later private housing has filled in many gaps since.

AL6 covers Welwyn itself, an older village on the Great North Road with a much longer history, along with Digswell and the lanes around them.

Which homes are most likely to contain asbestos?

The new town decades fall squarely in the period of heavy asbestos use. In houses and maisonettes of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, expect a specialist to look at:

• textured ceiling coatings
• boards in airing cupboards, around boilers and in partition walls
• floor tiles and adhesive
• cement soffits, rainwater goods and flue pipes
• garage blocks and outbuilding roofs

The early garden city houses are older, but many have been modernised with new kitchens, heating and extensions, so the later work deserves the same attention.

Is there anything special about altering homes here?

Much of Welwyn Garden City falls within an estate management scheme run by Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council, which controls many external changes, and parts of the town are conservation areas. If removing asbestos means replacing a roof, soffits or other parts of the outside of a house, check with the council whether consent is needed before work begins. A replacement in a similar material and colour may be simpler to agree than a change of style, so ask the specialist or roofer what they propose to use.

What about commercial and industrial buildings?

The garden city was planned with an industrial area beside the railway, and over the years it housed factories, laboratories and warehouses. Several older sites have been redeveloped, while other buildings remain in business use. Owners and tenants responsible for maintaining units, offices or shops have a duty to manage asbestos, and in buildings from before 2000 that usually starts with a management survey.

Who deals with flats and rented homes?

Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council owns a large stock of homes in the town. Council and housing association tenants should report any suspect material to their landlord. Leaseholders in blocks should ask the freeholder or managing agent, who is responsible for asbestos in the shared parts.

What about waste?

Residents should follow Hertfordshire County Council's guidance on household asbestos before moving any material.