With all the fears about mesothelioma, an incurable asbestos-induced cancer, we had a real scare just before Christmas.
We went to Spain for a week, and when we came back, we found that the carpet in our bedroom was like a wet sponge. Looking up, we saw water marks on the ceiling in our room and also on the landing above. Running to the loft, we quickly spotted the cause of this leak, a stuck ball valve in the main water tank. Although there didn’t seem to be any damage other than the stain on the ceiling, we thought we’d better call the insurance company in case there was any more permanent damage to the ceiling.
Well the response I got from the insurance company was amazing…
They asked me what type of roof and I told them it was ‘Artex’.
Silence…
‘Do you realize there might be asbestos in your roof?’ they told us, even though our house was built in the mid-1970s.
They said they would have to send a specialist to check the roof and the repair cost would be about $200 to fix the roof, or several thousand if they found asbestos present. Regardless of the outcome, they would meet the bill.
Well, the specialist came, with his special mask and breathing apparatus, who checked the ceiling and sure enough, it did contain asbestos!
So we were going to end up having to dismantle all the furniture in our bedroom, and then remove the ceilings in our bedroom and landing, and put in a new one, plus redecorate the bedroom, hallway, stairs, and landing, all for a excess of $200 in insurance.
Speaking of total disruption!
Luckily, we had built a ‘Anejo para grannies’ for my father, who died a few years ago, so we moved in there for two weeks, while the decorators took over.
But, when the day came when the roofs came down, well, Torchwood had nothing in our house. They arrived in a big truck, complete with generators, air conditioning, and all sorts of space-age gadgets. They sealed all the upstairs doors except our bedroom, built a plastic airlock at the bottom of the stairs, and then two of them got out of their truck in what looked like space suits complete with air tanks, disappeared into through the airlock and proceeded to demolish our roofs.
When they left, we stared through our rafters at the roof tiles outside. Wow, it was cold that night.
It really is quite scary, as over the years we had turned our kitchen and dining room into one, ripping out part of the ceiling in the process, drilling holes for TV cables and, of late, Ethernet cables to get through the ceilings. After all, why should we worry about the presence of asbestos? We think they stopped using that, what, in the 1950s?
But that is not all…
While the supervisor was here, he looked at our garage. Did you know that your garage has absolutely lethal asbestos sheets under the eaves…? Okay. Here we go again. ‘Torchwood, we need you again…’
Do it yourself – Be careful – there is no cure for asbestos-induced cancer.