Asbestos is a silicate mineral — a natural rock that splits into hair-fine fibres. This property made it the most widely used building material of the 20th century and simultaneously the most dangerous. Under an electron microscope, asbestos fibres look like needles. In the lungs, they behave the same way.
During our site inspections, we find asbestos in around 70% of buildings from the 1960s to 1980s — most often in places where nobody expects it.
Where Asbestos Hides in Austrian Buildings
Asbestos was incorporated into over 3,000 products. In the buildings we inspect in Vienna, Lower Austria, and Styria, we most frequently find it in these locations:
- Eternit panels on roofs and facades (10–15% asbestos fibres in cement matrix)
- Vinyl floor coverings from the 1960s–1980s with black asbestos backing as the carrier layer
- Tile adhesives and filler compounds, especially from the 1960s and 70s
- Night storage heaters with asbestos-containing insulation behind the casing
- Pipe insulation in the basement — grey, felt-like wrappings around heating pipes
- Sealing cords in stoves, boilers, and chimney connections
- Asbestos boards in old fuse boxes
The insidious part: you cannot identify asbestos with the naked eye. Asbestos cement looks like ordinary fibre cement. Reliable identification is only possible through laboratory analysis.
Asbestos is not the only pollutant that surfaces during old-building renovations. Under old parquet floors there is often PAH-containing adhesive (→ PAH in Old Buildings), and the fibre insulation in a roof truss may be old MMF requiring its own analysis (→ MMF: When Old Insulation Becomes a Problem).
When Asbestos Is Dangerous — and When It Isn't
The most important news first: as long as asbestos is intact and undisturbed, it is not dangerous. It is only when you drill, grind, tear out, or when the material weathers that fibres are released. And that is precisely why you test before starting.
The risk depends on two factors:
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Binding type: Firmly bound asbestos (e.g. Eternit panels, asbestos cement) contains 10–15% fibres in a hard matrix. As long as the surface is intact, few fibres are released. Loosely bound asbestos (spray asbestos, asbestos boards, cords) contains higher fibre fractions in a loose bond — here even a touch is enough.
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Condition: Intact surface? Low risk. Brittle, weathered, damaged? Action required.
In Austria, the limit value is 5,000 fibres/m³ of indoor air — stricter than in Germany and Switzerland (10,000 each). When we find loosely bound asbestos in poor condition during an inspection, we recommend an indoor air measurement to clarify the actual exposure level.
What Asbestos Does in the Body
Asbestos fibres are so fine that they bypass the natural filters of the airways and penetrate deep into the lungs. The body cannot break them down — they remain. Over years and decades they can scar lung tissue (asbestosis), trigger lung cancer, or cause mesothelioma — an aggressive tumour of the lung lining.
The latency period is the insidious aspect: between exposure and disease there are typically 20–40 years. Those falling ill today were exposed in the 1970s or 80s.
This is why asbestos is not about panic, but about prevention: knowing what is built in before any renovation.
What a Sample Costs and How the Process Works
We come to you, assess the building, and take targeted material samples from suspicious locations — professionally, without unnecessary fibre release. The samples go to an accredited laboratory (ISO/IEC 17025). After 5–7 business days you have a result: asbestos detected or not.
An analysis costs from €69 per sample (mineral matrix e.g. concrete, screed: €149). For a typical old-building check we take 3–5 samples, depending on how many suspicious materials we find.
What to Do with the Results
No asbestos detected? Renovation can begin.
Firmly bound asbestos in good condition? Can often be left in place. We document the location and condition so that you and your construction firm know what is where. If needed: regular checks to see whether the condition changes.
Asbestos must come out? Only through a certified remediation firm. In Austria, the Asbestos Ordinance governs the procedure: containment, negative pressure, protective equipment, clearance measurement afterwards. We accompany renovations on request as an independent expert — with real-time air monitoring, so you know everything stays clean during the work.
Typical remediation costs in Austria: asbestos stove €500–€2,000. Asbestos floors €1,000–€10,000. Asbestos roof from €10,000, depending on area.
When You Should Get in Touch
You want to rip out the old floor tiles? Stop. You are planning a facade renovation on a building from before 1990? Stop. You are buying a house and see Eternit panels on the roof? Stop.
Before you tear anything open: take a sample. That costs a fraction of what an asbestos remediation costs after the fact, if you have released fibres without knowing what was there.
In Austria, the BauV (Construction Workers' Protection Regulation) stipulates that before renovation and demolition work on buildings built before 1993, it must be checked whether asbestos is present. This is not a recommendation — it is a legal requirement.
15-minute initial consultation, free of charge. We will tell you whether and which samples make sense.