# Forum Home Renovation Asbestos  Risk of Asbestos in internal walls

## freelancer

Hello,
I've recently moved to an old brick house in Melbourne which i  know to contain asbestos in various places for sure. However I'm not so  sure about the internal walls. the previous tenant have inserted couple  of nails to the walls to use for painting etc. Before they moved out  they took them out leaving some holes in the walls and a little of dust  that felt a bit like sand which i think may have came from the holes  (not 100% sure). The wall itself is made out of common red brick  outside, the internal wall is painted white and in the nail holes I can  see white stuff all the way through with powdery texture maybe like gypsum. When I knocked on it, it sounds a bit hollow and fragile and NOT like knocking on brick or cement.  
I've attached an image of the wall and image that shows what happens to the wall if dented 
so my questions are:
1. does it sounds like asbestos ? is it possible the walls are covered with asbestos below the white paint?
2. what is the risk here, if it really is asbestos, from the nail holes?
3. About the ceiling, can you assume from the image that it guarantee to contain asbestos?  :Cool:  
p.s I was trying to get an answer from previous posts but I wasn't able to get clear answer, so sorry. 
Thank you very much !

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## TermiMonster

If you take the face plate off the power point, you should be able to see for yourself.  My guess would be plaster, except in bathroom/laundry.  
TM

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## Geno62

Is the place solid brick? if so it would have been sand, from the solid plaster. You house would most likely contain some asbestos product, possibly old flues, bathroom and laundry maybe, as long as it is not disturbed you have nothing to worry about. As for the couple of marks a bit of filler sand back to the paint and touch up, you have nothing to worry about as you wont disturb ther sub layer anyway just the patching material

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## freelancer

Hi,
Thanks for the replies ! Yes the house is solid red bricks. I was concerned cause the previous tenant from some reason was creating about a dozen holes in the wall, not sure why... So you reckon the wall is just covered with some non asbestos plaster layer and some paint ? anyways I'll buy some filling stuff to cover those holes just to be safe 
Cheers

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## piscean

once you go through the paint layer on plastered walls youre digging into the plaster which is white and powdery if it falls out. If the internal walls are brick then it's likely they have been plastered. your close up pic is very blurry but it does look like a ding in a plaster wall.

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## freelancer

OK one of the holes has deteriorated even more after I tried to remove the pins from it and left a large hole the size of 4 CM diameter!  :No:  so what I can see now is a very thin white layer of plaster and paint no more than 5mm and beneath that a thick layer of Grey / brown material which has a sandy texture, it also crumbles very easily leaving some dust and stuff that looks like sand. Could this contain any asbestos ? 
I think that this wall needs replastering ...  There is image attached but quality is not great, sorry

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## Steffen595

maybe you just hit the mortar? Or maybe there is some sort of render and then the plaster?

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## johnc

In a word, no. Looks like solid brick, then a weak sand and cement mix, then a thin white plaster, then paint. Nothing to worry about. You have a bog standard solid plastered wall.

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## piscean

If it's white plaster on top then underneath you've found the render layer (which may be grey) or you've hit the mortar between the bricks (which is grey). If it's sandy it's either the render underneath or the mortar between the bricks. All you need to do is patch up the holes and paint over

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## Ken-67

It looks like they have cement rendered the wall. The white is a 'white coat' made from gypsum or lime, usually only about 2 or 3mm thick. This gives a much smoother finish to the walls. Just use a patching plaster to patch the holes. 
The ceiling will be fibrous plasterboard; no asbestos.
If the walls sound 'hollow' in spots, it suggests that the plaster bond has broken from the brickwork. Unless you want a major repair, I would just patch the holes and repaint. If there are no cracks in the plasterwork, it will stay there if you don't start banging around on it.

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