You had the drill in your hand for two seconds before you stopped. Now there’s a fine grey dust on the sill, a hole in the sheet, and a sinking feeling that this might not have been ordinary fibre cement. Drilling into asbestos by accident is one of the most common ways people first find it in an old Geelong, Bellarine or Surf Coast home, and what you do in the next hour matters more than what happens after that.
The short version: stop, don’t sweep it, don’t vacuum it with a household machine, keep everyone else out of the room, and get the sheet tested before you touch it again. The rest of this article goes through why, in the order WorkSafe and Asbestos Victoria set it out, plus what it costs to find out for certain and what happens if the answer is yes.
If you’d rather skip straight to sorting it out, call us on (03) 5550 4817 or send a photo through the contact form and we will put you in touch with a licensed removalist and a NATA-accredited lab for a sample. Testing is the cheapest, calmest first step, and it’s the one that tells you whether anything below even applies to your situation.
Stop right now: the next five minutes after drilling into asbestos
Asbestos Victoria’s own do’s and don’ts guidance for handling suspect asbestos cement sets out the practical steps, and they apply whether the disturbance was planned or an accident with a drill or a saw.
Put the tool down first. Whatever you were doing to the wall, fence, eaves or roof sheet, it can wait.
Then keep the area damp, not dripping. The guidance is to “thoroughly wet down the material” and to keep dust, debris and offcuts damp with water. A light mist from a spray bottle over the hole and the surrounding area helps stop loose fibres becoming airborne. Don’t reach for a high-pressure hose or jet washer, though: Asbestos Victoria specifically warns that high-pressure water “may increase the spread” rather than contain it.
Get people and pets out of the immediate area and shut the door if you can. At this point you’re trying to stop anyone else walking through the dust, not trying to tidy up.
Leave the offcuts and dust exactly where they are, damp and undisturbed, until you know what you’re actually looking at. Asbestos Victoria’s guidance is clear that asbestos cement material should never be left lying around loose or somewhere it can be broken further, but right now that means dampening it and cordoning it off, not moving it by hand.
If you’ve got visible dust on your skin, hair or clothes, the same guidance recommends showering and washing your hair, and cleaning your hands thoroughly, as soon as you reasonably can. That’s a hygiene step, not a diagnosis, and it doesn’t tell you anything about what you’ve actually been exposed to. For any health question beyond that, your GP and the Victorian government’s own asbestos pages are the right place to ask, not a removalist’s website.
Source: Asbestos Victoria, do’s and don’ts for working with asbestos.
What not to do after cutting or drilling into asbestos cement
There’s a short list here, and every item on it is something people reach for out of instinct, which is exactly why it’s worth spelling out.
Don’t vacuum it with the household vacuum cleaner. An ordinary vacuum pushes fine fibres straight through the filter and back into the air. If any vacuuming happens at all, Asbestos Victoria specifies a vacuum cleaner fitted with a Dust Class H HEPA filter, not a domestic model.
Don’t dry-sweep it either. A dry broom has the same problem as a vacuum: it lifts dust instead of containing it.
Don’t go back in with a power tool, an abrasive disc, a wire brush or compressed air to “finish the job” or tidy the edges. All four are explicitly listed as things to avoid on asbestos cement, because they generate exactly the fine dust you’re trying to avoid.
Don’t drill, cut or sand it again just to get a better look. If you’re not certain what it is, treat it as if it’s asbestos until a lab tells you otherwise.
Don’t put the offcuts, the dust or the drill bit in the household bin, a general skip or a council hard-waste pile. Asbestos waste is classified as reportable priority waste in Victoria and can only go to a landfill authorised to receive it. Our guide to disposal across the Barwon region covers where that is and how it has to be packaged.
And don’t assume it’s fine because it “only cracked a bit.” Whether the material is friable or non-friable changes everything about how it should be handled, and you can’t tell that by eye either. Our explainer on friable versus non-friable asbestos sets out the difference.
Is it actually asbestos? Getting it tested before you touch it again
Plenty of sheeting drilled into every week in Geelong homes turns out not to be asbestos at all. Modern fibre cement and other materials get mistaken for it constantly. The only way to know for certain is a lab result, not a look or a knock test.
If the material was installed before 1990, it’s worth treating as likely asbestos until it’s tested. Asbestos cement was standard in Australian residential building from the mid-1940s through to the late 1980s, and the full ban on manufacture, supply, use and import of every form of asbestos only came into force on 31 December 2003.
A competent person takes the sample. That might be you, taking care and keeping the area damp, or a removalist can take it for you. Either way it goes to an approved laboratory: only a laboratory approved by NATA to identify asbestos in samples can do that analysis, and an endorsed report carries the NATA insignia.
On price, per the Victorian rate cards, a single sample costs $88 to $160 to test, and most houses need three to eight samples, because every different material has to be tested separately. A fence, an eaves lining and a bathroom wall sheet are three samples, not one. A full house inspection with sampling runs $395 to $900. Standard lab turnaround is one to five business days, with a 25 to 50 per cent surcharge if you want a result inside 24 to 48 hours. Some labs charge the same flat fee per sample no matter how many you send; others discount from the second sample on, so which lab you use changes the maths depending on how many samples you need.
Prices are indicative and GST treatment varies between providers, so ask each provider whether their quote includes GST.
Our asbestos testing page covers what a test involves, and the full breakdown of how the testing process actually works in Victoria walks through sampling, lab turnaround and what the report tells you, step by step. Call (03) 5550 4817 or use the contact form to book a test before you go anywhere near that hole again.
Three ways this happens around Geelong and the Bellarine
A 1960s fibro fence line along the back boundary in Norlane. A new gate bracket needs a pilot hole, and the drill goes straight into what turns out to be an original fence panel. One hole is a small area, but a fence line like this usually runs metres in each direction, and once confirmed, the sensible move is to have the whole panel and its neighbours assessed rather than patch one hole and hope. Whole-fence removal on the Melbourne-metro benchmarks runs $1,000 to $3,500, though a job this small could just as easily fall under the minimum job charge of $800 to $1,500.
Eaves on a 1970s brick veneer in Belmont, mid kitchen renovation. An electrician needs to run a new cable through the eaves lining and cuts a small access hole before anyone thinks to check the material. This is where the caps stop being a recommendation and become law: the moment a tradesperson is doing the work, they’re at a workplace, and Victoria’s OHS Regulations apply to them directly. Most won’t touch it again until there’s a lab result in hand. A full set of eaves runs $1,500 to $2,500 on the Victorian benchmarks if removal turns out to be the answer.
A Super Six garage roof in Corio that already has a crack, and a homeowner drills into it anyway to fit an aerial bracket. Cracked or weathered sheeting is a different risk picture from sound, painted sheeting, because it’s already more likely to shed fibres. A garage or small roof removal sits at $3,500 to $5,500 on a national cost guide, and general roof removal runs $40 to $120 per square metre. Roof sheets should never be walked on, water-blasted, dry-swept or drilled a second time just to “check”. That’s exactly the disturbance that turns a small problem into a bigger one.
None of these figures are a quote from us. They’re Melbourne-metro benchmarks, because there’s no published Geelong or Barwon-specific pricing anywhere, and every actual job gets priced on site by the removalist you engage.
What happens if the test comes back positive
It depends on how much material is affected and whether it’s friable or non-friable, and it’s worth knowing the rule correctly before you decide anything.
Victoria’s OHS Regulations set an unlicensed limit for non-friable material: no more than 10 square metres removed in total, and no more than one hour of removal work in any seven-day period. Both caps have to hold, and the hour is cumulative, not one hour per session. But those regulations bind employers and self-employed people at workplaces. WorkSafe’s own compliance code says that when a person removes asbestos at their own home, the regulations don’t apply, because a home isn’t a workplace, though WorkSafe still recommends homeowners follow the same code. The moment a tradesperson, a tenant, a rental property, a business premises or a paid helper is involved, those caps stop being a recommendation and become law. Our guide to what a homeowner can and can’t do under Victoria’s 10 square metre rule sets it out in full.
Friable material (anything that crumbles by hand when dry, including badly cracked or fire-damaged sheeting) is never covered by that exemption at any quantity, and it always needs a Class A licensed removalist.
If the material is non-friable, sound and the hole is genuinely small, a licensed removalist can still price a patch or a small repair, though the minimum job charge of $800 to $1,500 usually applies regardless of how few sheets are touched. If it’s more than that (a fence line, a roof, a full set of eaves), the job gets quoted properly, by the removalist directly. We never price or arrange the removal itself; we put you in touch with a licensed removalist, and their WorkSafe Victoria licence number appears on the quote.
What a small asbestos job actually costs
| Step | Melbourne-metro benchmark | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Lab test, per sample | $88 to $160 | One material tested for asbestos content by a NATA-accredited laboratory |
| Full house inspection with sampling | $395 to $900 | 3 to 8 samples for a standard house, more for larger properties |
| Minimum job charge (licensed removal) | $800 to $1,500 | Set-up, wrapping, transport and paperwork for even a very small job |
| Full set of eaves | $1,500 to $2,500 | Removal of an entire eaves line, once confirmed as asbestos |
| Garage or small roof | $3,500 to $5,500 | A full garage or small roof removal, once confirmed |
Prices are indicative and GST treatment varies between providers, so ask each provider whether their quote includes GST. Every figure above is a Victorian, Melbourne-metro benchmark, not a Geelong price and not a quote from this business. Our asbestos removal cost guide breaks these down further by job type.
Frequently Asked Questions
I’ve already drilled into it. Have I definitely been exposed to asbestos?
There’s no way to answer that from a description alone, and we’re not the right people to give medical advice in any case. A calm, practical response is to follow the steps above, get the material tested so you know what you were actually dealing with, and speak to your GP or check the Victorian government’s own asbestos pages if you have health concerns. This site’s job is testing and removal quotes, not a diagnosis.
Can I just wipe up the dust and keep working?
No. Wipe with a dry cloth or run the household vacuum over it and you risk spreading fine fibres rather than containing them. If any cleanup is needed before testing, use wet rags or a wet mop, or a vacuum fitted with a Dust Class H HEPA filter, and keep the area damp in the meantime. Stop work until you have a result.
How long will it take to find out if it’s asbestos?
Standard laboratory turnaround is one to five business days once the sample is submitted, with a 25 to 50 per cent surcharge if you want a result inside 24 to 48 hours. How quickly you can get a sample collected and sent off in the first place depends on who you book.
Does drilling one hole mean I need a full licensed removal job?
Not necessarily. A single small hole in sound, non-friable material may fall inside what a homeowner can manage at their own home under WorkSafe’s guidance, though the caps become law the moment a tradesperson or paid helper is involved. If the material is friable, or the area affected turns out to be larger than it looked, a licensed removalist is the only legal option. Testing first is what tells you which situation you’re actually in.