The Asbestos Taskforce has turned its attention to the clusters of Fluffy homes side by side in Kambah, the suburb with more asbestos-contaminated homes than any other.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
On Friday, it detailed the demolition of three homes in Hiles Place which have been "shrink wrapped" in plastic by Queensland's Caylamax, one of two companies using the technology for Fluffy demolitions.
The cluster of three side by side in a tidy and well-established cul de sac is among 180 Fluffy "clusters" around Canberra, reflecting the way Mr Fluffy Dirk Jansen worked during the 1970s, offering his cheap, loose-asbestos insulation door to door.
The worst-hit street, Hawker Street in Torrens, has nine Fluffy homes. Twelve streets have six or more.
Kambah alone has about 10 per cent of the city's Fluffy homes, with 102 houses to be demolished.
Caylamax general manager Steve Brady said his company had so far wrapped 11 houses of the 35 the company was demolishing in Kambah.
Once wrapped, work began inside, with furniture and fittings removed, internal walls and ceilings removed, asbestos vacuumed from the wall and ceiling cavities, and the surfaces painted.
Workers on the inside wear disposable suits, gloves and face masks, and double shower to decontaminate on the way out.
The suits are double-bagged with loose asbestos and sealed in drums for disposal in an asbestos area at the Mugga Lane tip.
Mr Brady said encapsulating the building, also using negative air to pull clean air in, stopped the release of fibres, with a smoke hose used to check the heavy plastic was sealed, and air monitoring equipment set up at points outside to check fibres in the air.
It was an "ideal method" for any form of concentrated friable asbestos, he said.
Mr Brady's firm deals with friable asbestos but Mr Fluffy and shrink wrapping is new to his firm. He said he had adapted the technology from its use to encapsulate heavy machinery in mining and defence.
Once the house is cleaned, with bonded asbestos also removed under the shrink wrap, it is demolished as normal. The three in Hiles Crescent, well kept homes, one with an extensive back garden and child's cubby house still standing, are expected to be gone within a fortnight.
All three can be redeveloped with two homes built on each block under the new planning rules for Fluffy blocks. But it will be up to the new owners whether to build a single home or divide the blocks in two, and the taskforce said owners of "some" of the three want the chance to buy their land back
Worksafe senior manager Matt Craig-Barry said shrink wrapping had the advantage of reducing the time spent working on roofs, given it was easier to install than the plastic.
But he said each demolition technique for Fluffy homes was closely monitored and safe, with none releasing fibres into the air.
To date, 976 of the 1022 Fluffy owners have accepted the government's buyback offer.
More than 100 houses have been demolished, with 213 scheduled for demolition this year.
The Asbestos Taskforce is holding a barbecue and community event between 2pm and 4.30pm in the park on Boddington Crescent behind the Kambah IGA on Saturday, so residents can find out more about the demolition program.