The cellar has old pipe lagging. How should you read that when the airing cupboard was a different question?

What is the fuller explanation?

Cellars stay damp and the pipes in them were often wrapped and then forgotten. The wrap might be a fabric bandage, a plaster-like coat, or a later foam sleeve over something older. A home survey can say the pipes are lagged and that the lagging looks original. It cannot analyse the fibre. HSE’s diagrams of where asbestos can occur include pipework in buildings built or refurbished before 2000, and the action HSE wants is that suspect material is not drilled, sanded, smashed or casually stripped. The Level 3 survey description is a condition report. Sampling is outside it.

Do not soak the lagging, cut it back to fit a shelf, or drop lengths into a rubble bag while you clear the cellar. If the heating is to be renewed, tell the installer which pipes the survey flagged and that they were not sampled. If the report also mentions an airing cupboard, keep that sentence in the bathroom part of your notes so a contractor does not arrive with one method for two materials. Leaving sound, undisturbed lagging in place can be the right advice from someone competent. That advice is not in a glance from the cellar steps, and it is not a reason to sand the surface “to see what it is”.

What should you ask your surveyor?

• Which pipes in the cellar are lagged, and was the lagging damaged?
• Is this the same note as any airing-cupboard lining, or a separate one?
• Please confirm you did not sample and you are not an asbestos inspector.

What are the typical next steps?

1. Do not strip or sand the cellar lagging.
2. Point out the cellar run separately if a heating contractor will open the pipes.
3. Do not assume the airing cupboard and the cellar are one job.

Costs vary with the building and with who you instruct. Where this page does not cite a published figure, ask the surveyor, a relevant specialist, or your solicitor for a written quote. Do not treat a forum average as the price.

Also asked about this

Which pages should you read next?

• Will scraping a corner of a textured coating tell you whether the coating is old?
• A pre-2000 warm-air heating cupboard is lined. What should you ask before anyone drills that lining?
• What should you ask if the gas meter sits in a cupboard the survey could not examine properly?
• Guide: What does asbestos mean in a home survey?
• All UK home survey questions

Sources

• RICS: Description of the RICS Home Survey Level 3 (condition rating definitions)
• Health and Safety Executive: Where asbestos can occur in buildings (diagrams; buildings built or refurbished before 2000)
• Health and Safety Executive: Locations of asbestos and taking the right action