Asbestos Removal in Southampton

In Southampton, flats and maisonettes are the largest group by some way: 44.6% of the 111,740 domestic properties on the Council Tax list, which is well above the national pattern. In flats and maisonettes the risk is often in the parts nobody owns individually: service risers, ducting, communal cupboards and ceiling voids, where insulating board and lagging were widely used. Inside a flat, textured coatings and floor tiles are the common ones. The next largest group is terraced houses at 22.4%, where party walls and shared roof spaces mean neighbouring work can disturb material next door. One and two bedroom homes make up 53.4% of the stock, so a lot of it is flats and small conversions. Around 83.7% of all property there predates the 1999 ban, and the largest group by age was built between 1900 and 1939. Property from this period was built before asbestos use peaked, so where asbestos is present it usually arrived with later work: post-war repairs, added textured coatings, new outbuilding roofs and heating upgrades. That later work is common enough in housing of this age that it still needs checking before anything is disturbed. By period, 11.7% were built before 1900, 18.4% between 1919 and 1939 and 15.9% since 2000. None of that tells you whether a particular property contains asbestos; only a survey or a laboratory test can.