Asbestos The Consequences

Asbestos in E-Houses is hard to prevent by paperwork.

Specifications for E-Houses routinely require that carcinogens like Asbestos are not to be used in the construction of E-Houses. EQHouse has conducted many Asbestos remediations where the material or E-House vendor have certified/promised the materials to be free of Asbestos to later find with testing that Asbestos is present.

Simply requiring/wishing an E-House to be Asbestos free by the specification or relying on a written confirmation from a Vendor is not enough as several of our clients have found out. Some clients have been put on the wrong side of a countries laws having imported (As part of the E-House) a prohibited substance.

Breaking a countries laws is one thing. A bigger issue often comes from the contract between the end customer and the Package Provider. Even if the Asbestos can be contained or sealed end users reasonably don’t want to take on the liability to manage the problem in the future when regulations become even tighter.

The cost of taking an E-House out of service to replace or remediate Asbestos can cost significantly more than the initial supply without even considering the consequential cost of taking a facility offline or out of production.

End users don’t contract the Vendor they contract the Package Provider, there is no easy passing of the buck to the Vendor.  We have even seen vendors go into administration to avoid liabilities in this space.

Knowing what to look for and what to test is a core part of EQHouse QC Processes. Better to intercept early than deal with the cost and legal battles that ensue. Seeing the impact on our client’s reputation and bottom line prevention is clearly a more sound approach.  

EQ-House can assist in inspecting, identifying and remediating Asbestos in E-Houses.