A recent job presented us with a novel situation. On our first appointment at the customer’s address we noticed the soil stack on the outside of the property was made from asbestos. Everyone knows this material can be harmful if disturbed or broken up. However, it is safe enough if left in place and undisturbed; hence its presence at the property was not a major concern at first.
However, as we consulted with our customer and surveyed their site it became apparent that the scale of works involved would be a lot more involved than a standard job, in which we replace a regular bath with a new walk-in bath.
The bathroom would be redesigned, walls knocked down and the location of baths, sinks and WC’s changed to accommodate a new easy to access layout. This also meant changing and re-routing the location of various existing waste pipes and their connection to the soil stack so we could achieve the new design. This left us with the problem of working with asbestos.
Whilst we do not regularly work with asbestos when we fit our new walk-in baths or easy access showers, every once in a while this material crops up. By its nature, asbestos must be worked with safely by a suitable, qualified contractor.
We booked our specialist and turned to the next hurdle with this site. The point where the asbestos contractor would work was located above a car port and impossible to access using conventional ladders. The only option was to use a mobile platform, also known as a cherry picker.
This piece of equipment is a small, manoeuvrable, wheeled base unit mounting an articulated arm with a working platform on the end of it. With this kit on site, our asbestos contractor accessed the soil stack safely and performed the required works. This useful bit of machinery provided a safe working environment for our contractor and the rest of the Absolute Mobility team.
All works were carried out safely and our customer was very pleased with the finished job – a new, easy to access fully fitted bathroom designed with a disabled user’s needs in mind. With this one, we truly did feel like we had gone the extra mile to fit a new accessible bathroom.
If you’re considering upgrading your bathroom and wish to know more about how you can make it safe and easy to use, please feel free to contact our team for assistance or to book a home assessment visit.
8 November,2016
