Homeowners sometimes have to make the hard decision of recladding their entire home in non-asbestos materials or keeping their asbestos cladding in excellent condition to ensure it remains safe.

However, by going with the latter option, you face the complicated issue of encountering health hazards when installing vents, plumbing, air conditioning, and other home necessities. How are you supposed to ensure safe asbestos drilling? Is it even possible?

Fortunately, you do have options when your budget doesn’t allow for new house cladding. While WorkSafe may not always recommend keeping ACM as the best option, here’s how you can ensure your safety when drilling through asbestos materials in your home.

Understand Your Legal Requirements

The core component of safe asbestos drilling involves ensuring only trained asbestos removalists with the appropriate licencing undertake the drilling task. As most home and business owners are aware, you may only remove non-friable asbestos up to 10m2, and drilling into ACM makes it friable. At this point, it becomes a job for class A licence holders who have the experience and qualifications necessary to keep everyone safe.

Never attempt to drill into asbestos cladding or any other ACM materials unless you hold the appropriate licences. Once you’ve hired someone, they can follow some of the steps below for safe drilling practices.

 

Prepare the Work Area for Asbestos Drilling

When asbestos drilling is about to get underway, ensure the work area is safe for all involved in the drilling process. Restrict how many people can access the site and close all doors that lead into the space. If necessary, use notices and tape to stop people from accessing the area, including any rooms or areas behind the asbestos cladding or board.

 

Keep Asbestos Dust to a Minimum

As soon as asbestos materials are broken up, they become friable. This means small particles can be released into the air, putting those in proximity without appropriate PPE at risk of asbestos-related illnesses in the future, such as mesothelioma and asbestosis.

You can contain drilling debris with a thick paste such as shaving foam or wallpaper paste and use manual drilling equipment rather than power tools. If you must use power tools, use the lowest power setting and invest in dust collection equipment.

Keep dust spread to a minimum with the use of plastic sheets in your work area. You can then dispose of the sheets as asbestos waste.

 

Wear PPE

As we already know from the COVID-19 pandemic, personal protective equipment (PPE) can provide a great deal of protection against airborne particles. It also proves effective in the asbestos removal industry.

However, standard medical masks are not enough. A disposable P2 mask with a valve is the minimum requirement to keep you safe while drilling. Do not reuse the mask and ensure an excellent seal between the mask and your face. Most asbestos removal experts undertake professional face fit testing with qualitative fit tests and quantitative fit tests.  

Disposable overalls that are one size too big for you can also keep you as safe as possible, but you must put the legs over the top of your footwear and dispose of them once the asbestos drilling task is complete.

 

Follow Appropriate Asbestos Drilling Practices

Asbestos drilling is a complex task that requires an expert approach. The asbestos experts you choose may utilise one of the following asbestos drilling methods.

• First Method

Asbestos teams will cover the drill entry and exit points (if the exit point is accessible) with a thick paste before drilling through it with their chosen tool.  

They will then clean off the debris and paste with damp rags and remove all rags and paste before disposing of it as asbestos waste. The final steps involve sealing the drilled edge with a sealant product and inserting a sleeve to protect the edges of the hole.

• Second Method

Some asbestos experts place a plastic enclosure over the drill point and put the drill or cutter through the opening. They may then use a vacuum with a filter to capture fine asbestos particles and attach the hose to a vacuum cleaner.

After drilling the hole, they’ll vacuum the drilled hole and seal its edges with a sealant product before inserting a sleeve to protect the edges.

 

Clean Up After Asbestos Drilling

The job isn’t complete after the hole is drilled and safely sealed. Cleanup is just as crucial as the job itself. Asbestos removalists will clean up as they go to stop waste from building up and wipe down all tools and surfaces to remove leftover asbestos fibres.  

They will not sweep an area nor use domestic vacuum cleaners. Instead, they use special vacuum cleaners with particular filters to capture fine asbestos fibres.

Any cloths or single-use products are disposed of as asbestos waste, which involves double-bagging in approved plastic bags and transporting it to an approved waste facility.