How much does it cost to remove an asbestos garage?

Most asbestos garage removals we carry out cost between £1,300 and £2,500 for the building itself. Where your price falls depends on the size of the garage, where you live, how easy it is to get to, and whether it's been lined inside. Taking out the concrete base is priced separately if you need it.

At Nucrete Online Ltd we take down around 100 old garages a year, and most of them contain asbestos. Most were put up in the 1960s, 70s and early 80s, and they're now reaching the end of their life. Here's what goes into the price, what happens on the day, and how to spot a quote that's too good to be true.

• Size. Disposal sites charge for asbestos by weight. A bigger garage means more asbestos, which costs more to dispose of.
• Where you are and how easy it is to get to. Travel time and access both count. A garage at the bottom of a long garden takes longer than one on the drive.
• Whether it's been lined inside. Some older garages have been lined with timber and insulation. They're like Russian dolls, with one garage inside another. That's more material to take away, so if yours is lined, please tell us when you ask for a price.
• Whether it's all asbestos or just the roof. On some garages only the roof sheets contain asbestos. On others it's the whole outer shell.

We can usually price a removal from a photo and a quick chat with you. There's no need for a site visit.

The £1,300 to £2,500 covers the building. Removing the base is priced separately, so you'll know both costs up front.

If you're not sure whether the base needs to come out, you don't have to decide straight away. We'll give you a price for both, then make the decision on the day once the garage is down and we can see the base properly. In our experience about 40% of old bases are good enough to reuse.

Whichever way it goes, we'll show you why:

• If the base needs to come out, we'll show you the reason so you can see it for yourself. We won't just tell you it has to go. That's not the way we work.
• If it's level and solid enough, we'll show you that too, and leave it in. If you're having a new garage, we'll let our factory team know the base is ready, and we'll guarantee a new Nucrete garage can go on it.
• If you're not replacing the garage at all, we can take away the garage and the base, so you can turn that patch back into garden.

When we take an old garage down, there's often old mortar cemented onto the base. We'll break that off, so the base is ready for its new building. You won't have to do it yourself or pay someone else to.

Yes, we can take off just the roof. To be honest with you, though, it doesn't save as much as people expect.

The main saving is the weight of asbestos going to the disposal site. The travel is the same, and it's still a full day's work. Our team also has to take more care so the rest of the building isn't damaged. So it will save you something, but not a huge amount.

We take the old roof off, but we don't fit a new one. That's a job for a builder, joiner or roofer, depending on how you want it finished. (Our guide to garage roof replacement covers that side.)

The best guide is the garage's age. Using asbestos in buildings has been illegal in the UK since 1999, so any garage built before 2000 may contain it (HSE).

Where you'll find it depends on the type of garage:

• Concrete sectional garages: the walls are concrete, so the asbestos is in the roof. Look for grey corrugated roof sheets.
• Older garages that aren't concrete: often the wall panels are asbestos as well as the roof. These are usually flat grey sheets.

After the ban, fibre cement sheets took over, mainly for roofs. They look almost identical to asbestos sheets. Fibre cement sheets are normally stamped or marked to show what they are.

Even if your sheets might be fibre cement, unless it can be proven they're not asbestos, they generally have to be disposed of as asbestos. You can have the material tested. But even when a test comes back clear, many disposal sites still won't accept sheets that look like asbestos unless they're treated as asbestos, and they'll charge for them as asbestos too. There's not a lot you can do about that unless you can prove beyond doubt that they're not asbestos. So we always play it safe and handle them as asbestos.

Generally, not while it's left alone. Garage sheets are asbestos cement, which is much lower risk than the asbestos used in things like pipe lagging. That kind needs a specialist licensed contractor, but it's very rarely found in concrete garages or outbuildings.

The risk comes when the sheets are broken, banged or damaged and fibres get into the air. So:

• don't jet wash it
• don't drill, cut or break the sheets
• don't try to take it down yourself

The main risk is during dismantling. We work to keep the sheets whole, but old sheets are brittle and some will already be cracked. That's why removal needs to be done properly.

Before we arrive, you'll need to:

• empty the garage
• have any electrics safely disconnected
• have any plumbing disconnected at the source

On the day:

• Our team arrives at the time we've agreed with you (allowing for traffic if we're travelling a distance).
• Most jobs take anywhere from a couple of hours to a full day. It very rarely runs into a second day.
• The team wears protective equipment and takes the sheets down with as little breakage as possible, following Health and Safety Executive guidance.
• The sheets are bagged or wrapped following the recommended guidance for asbestos, then taken to a licensed disposal site.
• We'll ask you, and anyone else, to stay outside our working area. It's not only the asbestos: there's timber on the ground with nails in it, and other hazards.

Afterwards, every load is logged on an asbestos consignment note. Once it's signed, you'll get a copy. That's your proof the waste was disposed of legally.

The most common thing we hear when we're pricing a job is "I've had a cheaper quote". It's not usually £100 cheaper but more like half the price. That's nearly always a man with a van who will fly-tip it.

The ones that really worry us are quotes that are less than the actual cost of disposing of the asbestos. At that price it can't be going to the proper site.

This matters to you, because as a householder you have a legal duty to make sure your waste goes to a registered waste carrier. If it's fly-tipped and traced back to you, you can be fined. In England, councils can hand out fines of up to £400 on the spot, and more serious cases end up in court.

We've also seen people:

• take a garage down themselves and put it in their household bins, bit by bit
• smash the sheets into small pieces, hide them in bags and take them to the local tip

Both are illegal and put everyone at risk, including the person doing it.

• Are you a registered waste carrier? Ask for the licence number. You can check it on the government's public register of waste carriers.
• Will I get a copy of the consignment note? If the answer is no, walk away.
• Has your team had asbestos training? Our installation teams have non-licensed asbestos training.
• What exactly is included? Does the price cover any lining inside the garage? Does it cover the base?
• Can I see your paperwork? We're happy to show ours before you book.

Thinking about what goes up in its place? See our concrete garages, garage prices for your postcode and concrete base laying.

The easiest way to get a price is to show us your garage:

• By WhatsApp: we'll text you a link. Tap it, and WhatsApp opens so you can send photos straight to us. A short video is even better.
• By email: take a few photos or a short video on your phone and email them to us. Keep videos short, or they may not send.

Then we'll have a quick chat about size, access and what you want to do with the base, and give you a price.

Sharon Winson is Sales Director at Nucrete Online Ltd. She has worked in the concrete garage industry for 25 years and has run the Nucrete website since 2004. Nucrete Online Ltd supplies around 1,100 buildings a year and takes down around 100 old garages, most of them containing asbestos.

Last updated: October 2026