Old or New? Why Fibre Cement Can Be Difficult to Identify
Old or New? Why Fibre Cement Can Be Difficult to Identify
Fibre cement is one of the most common materials encountered during asbestos surveys.
It is also becoming one of the more difficult materials to assess confidently by visual inspection alone.
Older asbestos cement products and modern non-asbestos fibre-cement products can look remarkably similar. Once a building has been altered, reclad, extended or repaired, the age of the building itself may no longer tell us the age of the material we are looking at.
This creates a simple but important question:
Is this older asbestos cement, or is it a modern fibre-cement product?
Sometimes the answer is obvious.
Often, it is not.
The Building Age Is Only the Starting Point
The age of a building is an important part of any asbestos survey.
A building constructed during a period when asbestos-containing materials were widely used immediately raises the possibility that fibre-cement products may contain asbestos.
But buildings do not remain unchanged.
Over the decades, they may be:
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reclad;
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extended;
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partially demolished;
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renovated;
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repaired after storms or fires;
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fitted with replacement soffits or wall sheets;
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altered by multiple owners and contractors.
A building constructed in the 1970s may have fibre cement installed in the 1970s, the 1990s, the 2010s — or all three.
That is where visual identification becomes difficult.
Modern Fibre Cement Can Look Like Asbestos Cement
Many people expect asbestos-containing fibre cement to have an obvious appearance.
In reality, older asbestos cement and newer non-asbestos fibre cement can share many visual characteristics.
Both may be:
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grey cement-based sheets;
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painted or coated;
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used as exterior cladding;
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installed as soffits or eaves;
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used as flat wall linings;
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weathered and dirty;
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cut into similar shapes and profiles.
Once painted and installed on a building, the differences may be even harder to identify.
A modern sheet can look old.
An old asbestos-containing sheet can look surprisingly new.
Modern Products May Have No Visible Identifying Features
One of the biggest difficulties with modern fibre cement is that there may be nothing visible to prove what it is.
Branding, printed manufacturing information or product markings may be located on the back of the sheet.
Once installed, that side may be completely inaccessible.
Paint can cover markings.
Cut sheets may no longer contain the section where a manufacturer’s stamp was originally printed.
Repairs may have been completed using offcuts.
Documentation may no longer exist.
The current owner may have no idea when the work was completed or who carried it out.
This means a surveyor can be standing in front of fibre cement that appears to be modern but has no visible information that reliably confirms its age or composition.
Renovations Can Create a Mixture of Old and New
Another difficulty is assuming that all similar-looking sheets on a building are the same.
They may not be.
One elevation may have been reclad while another remained original.
A damaged asbestos-cement sheet may have been replaced with a modern non-asbestos sheet.
An extension may have been built using new fibre cement beside an older asbestos-clad structure.
New soffit sheets may have been installed beside original materials.
After painting, these different products can look almost identical.
This is why one sample or one assumption cannot always be applied to every similar-looking material across an entire building.
Historical Images Can Be Valuable
Historical photographs and online imagery can sometimes provide useful evidence about how a building has changed.
If an older photograph shows a completely different exterior material, but the building is now clad in fibre cement, that tells us the current cladding was installed later.
That information is valuable.
But it does not necessarily provide the complete answer.
The next questions are:
When was it installed?
Was the entire building reclad at the same time?
Could older materials remain underneath?
Were later repairs carried out using different products?
Historical imagery can help establish a timeline, but it should be considered alongside the physical inspection and other available evidence.
Visual Inspection Has Limits
Experienced asbestos surveyors use a range of clues when assessing fibre-cement products.
These can include:
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the age and history of the building;
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evidence of alterations or additions;
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sheet dimensions and profiles;
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fixing methods;
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visible edges;
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surface texture;
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weathering;
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manufacturer markings;
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differences between elevations or sections of the building;
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historical photographs and records.
These clues can be extremely useful.
But they are still clues.
Where the age and composition of a fibre-cement product cannot be reliably established, visual inspection alone may not provide a definitive answer.
Sometimes Testing Is the Only Reliable Answer
The purpose of asbestos sampling is not simply to confirm materials that already look suspicious.
Sometimes testing is needed because a material could reasonably be either an older asbestos-containing product or a newer non-asbestos alternative.
This is particularly important when the result will influence:
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demolition;
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refurbishment;
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maintenance work;
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drilling or cutting;
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removal costs;
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contractor requirements;
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asbestos management decisions.
A laboratory result can provide the certainty that appearance alone cannot.
A Building Is a Timeline, Not a Single Date
One of the biggest mistakes when assessing asbestos risk is treating a building as though every material was installed on the day the building was constructed.
Buildings evolve.
Materials are replaced.
Extensions are added.
Storm damage is repaired.
Owners renovate.
Contractors patch small areas.
Old and new products end up sitting side by side.
For an asbestos surveyor, the question is not simply:
How old is this building?
It is:
How old is this particular material?
And with fibre cement, that can be a much harder question to answer.
When It Looks Like Fibre Cement, the Investigation Has Only Started
Modern fibre cement has made visual asbestos identification more complicated.
A material may look like asbestos cement and be completely modern.
It may look new and still be an older asbestos-containing product.
It may be one replacement sheet surrounded by original asbestos cement.
Or it may be modern cladding hiding older materials underneath.
That is why a competent asbestos survey involves more than simply looking at a material and deciding what it resembles.
It requires an understanding of building history, alterations, material characteristics, limitations and — when necessary — laboratory testing.
Because when old and new fibre cement can look almost identical, appearance alone does not always provide the answer.