Do I have to remove asbestos if I find it?

Not always. Asbestos in good condition and left undisturbed often poses little risk. A survey will tell you whether it's safer to remove it or manage it in place. If the material is damaged, crumbling, or in the way of building work, removal is the safer route.

Do I need to move out during the work?

For most non-licensed jobs, no. We seal off the work area and keep the rest of your home or premises usable. We'll tell you upfront if a job needs you to keep clear of a particular space.

What asbestos work do you do, and what do you refer on?

We handle non-licensed asbestos work: cement roofs and cladding, floor tiles, textured coatings like Artex, soffits, gutters, and similar materials. Some higher-risk materials legally require a licensed contractor. We don't carry that work out ourselves, but we'll point you to someone who is licensed.

How much does asbestos removal cost?

It depends on the material, the amount, access, and whether replacement work is needed. The survey and quote are free and carry no call-out charge, so you'll have a clear written price before anything starts.

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Home › Services › Flue pipe removal

Flue pipes · London

Asbestos flue pipe removal

We remove asbestos-cement flue pipes from old gas fires, back boilers, and warm-air heaters in homes across London. The flue comes out intact, section by section, including the part through the roof, and we make the roof good behind it. UKATA-trained, fully insured, free survey.

Removed intact, roof made goodUKAS-Accredited AnalysisFully Insured

Call 24/7: +44 7344 860932

UKATA-trained worker removing asbestos flue pipe from residential rooftop in South East London

UKATA Trained — Top-down removal

Asbestos-cement flue pipes from old gas fires, back boilers, and warm-air heaters should be removed intact, section by section rather than broken up, with the roof made good where the flue passed through. The pipe is brittle, and snapping it inside a chimney breast or at the roofline scatters fibres and fragments. Because almost every flue runs from a gas appliance, the appliance must first be disconnected by a Gas Safe registered engineer, and then we remove the flue.

Asbestos cement was widely used for domestic flue pipes from the 1950s to the 1980s, serving gas fires, back boilers behind the fire, warm-air heating units, and some solid-fuel appliances. They run up through chimney breasts, ceiling voids, and out through the roof, so they are often only found when an old heating system is being taken out. Flue removal is non-licensed work, which means we carry it out in-house.

What this service covers

Asbestos-cement flue pipes from gas fires and back boilers
Flues from warm-air heating units and some solid-fuel appliances
Internal runs through chimney breasts and ceiling voids, and the section through the roof
Making good the roof where the flue penetrated
Double-wrapping and disposal at a licensed site through a registered waste carrier

Asbestos-cement flues are non-licensed work, which we carry out in-house. Any sprayed flue insulation or lagging is a different, higher-risk material needing a licensed contractor — we confirm which you have at the survey.

The process

How we remove a flue

Survey & check

We confirm the flue is asbestos cement, trace its run, and check the appliance has been, or will be, disconnected by a Gas Safe engineer. Written price, no call-out charge.

Access & protect

We set up safe access to the run and the roof, and seal and protect the rooms the flue passes through.

Remove top-down

Working from the roof down, we secure the weight, break each socket joint wet, and lift the flue out a section at a time, wrapping each one as it comes out. Never snapped in the chimney.

Wrap, dispose & make good

The flue is double-wrapped and removed to a licensed disposal site, and we make the roof good where it passed through.

From our work

Why we take a flue down from the top, not the bottom

An asbestos-cement flue is rarely one continuous pipe. It is usually built from metre or metre-and-a-half sections slotted together with socket-and-spigot joints and sealed with fire cement or an asbestos-rope gasket. After forty years of heat the cement is rock hard, and that changes how the whole thing has to come apart. We treat it as a strict top-down job with more than one operative, and we start on the roof, not in the room.

The danger we plan around is the guillotine: separate a joint with the weight still hanging below it and the section drops straight down the chimney breast.

So before any joint is touched, the operative in the loft or at the base of the chimney takes the load, choking nylon webbing strops around the pipe and tying off to a sturdy truss or a scaffold bar across the loft hatch, so the dead weight of the stack is held. The roof penetration comes off first, because you cannot pull a flue down from inside while the collar is still fixed: the cowl and the flat weathering slate are almost always asbestos cement too, so we ease back the surrounding tiles, dampen everything, release the fixings, and lift the cowl and slate away to expose the top joint.

Then the joints, one at a time, from the top down. We never strike the pipe. We soak each joint with water and surfactant to suppress dust and soften the old cement, then gently work a flat chisel against the cement seam to break the seal while a second operative shadow-vacuums it with a Type H unit. Once the seal goes, the section is lifted straight up and out of its socket, never bent or hinged, because hinging snaps the collar. Each section is double-wrapped in 1000-gauge polythene and goose-neck sealed with tape right there on the scaffold or in the loft.

Diamond Asbestos removal team

South-East London

Why homeowners choose Diamond for this

A flue is the part of an old heating system that gets forgotten. It runs out of sight through the chimney and the roof, and the risk is twofold: fibres if it is broken indoors, and a hole in your roof if it is removed without a plan to close it. Doing it properly means taking it out intact and leaving the roof weathertight.

Accredited and insured. UKATA-trained operatives, UKAS-accredited sample analysis, and full public liability cover on every job.
Removed intact, roof made good. We take the flue out in sections without breaking it up, including the roof section, and leave the roof weathertight rather than leaving you with a hole and another trade to find.
Straight about the gas side. We do not disconnect gas appliances — that is for a Gas Safe registered engineer — and we will tell you exactly how the two jobs sequence so nothing is done out of order.

Taking out an old gas fire or back boiler? If there is an asbestos flue behind it, do not let a general builder cut it out. Have the appliance disconnected by a Gas Safe engineer, leave the flue alone, and call us to remove it safely and close the roof.

Cost

What affects the price

We price each flue from a free survey rather than a flat rate. The main factors:

Flue runThe length of the flue and how much of it is enclosed in the chimney or voids.

Roof penetrationWhere the flue exits and how much making good the roof needs afterwards.

Access & heightBungalow versus two or three storeys, and the access needed to reach the roof safely.

Sections & jointsHow many jointed sections make up the run, since each is secured, separated, and wrapped individually.

Not all flue work is non-licensed

Asbestos-cement flue pipes are non-licensed work, which we carry out in-house. Some flues are wrapped or insulated with sprayed coating or lagging, which is a higher-risk material that legally requires a licensed contractor, along with most asbestos insulating board. We confirm which you have at the survey, and if it is licensable work we will point you to a contractor who is licensed for it. The gas appliance itself is always disconnected by a Gas Safe registered engineer. See our note on licensable work →

Common questions

Flue removal, answered

How do I know if my flue is asbestos?

A grey, cement-like flue pipe serving a gas fire, back boiler, or warm-air heater from the 1950s to the 1980s may well be asbestos cement, but you cannot be certain by looking. We confirm it with a sample tested by a UKAS-accredited lab as part of the survey, and we also check whether any insulation around it is a higher-risk material.

Do I need to disconnect the gas fire first?

Yes. The appliance must be disconnected and made safe by a Gas Safe registered engineer before we remove the flue. We do not carry out gas work ourselves, but we will coordinate around it and tell you the right order so the appliance is dealt with first and the flue second.

Do you make good the roof afterwards?

Yes. Removing a flue leaves a hole where it passed through the roof, so we make that good and leave the roof weathertight as part of the job, rather than handing you an open roof and a separate trade to arrange.

Can you remove a flue hidden inside a chimney?

Yes. Many flues run inside chimney breasts or boxed-in voids and are built from jointed sections rather than one pipe. We trace the route at the survey, then work from the roof down, taking the load on the lower sections before any joint is separated so nothing can drop, and lifting the flue out a section at a time.

What happens to the waste?

The flue and any related debris are double-wrapped, labelled, and taken to a licensed disposal site through a registered waste carrier. You receive the consignment paperwork confirming it was disposed of correctly.

Get a free survey for your flue

Tell us the appliance and roughly where the flue runs, and we will arrange a survey and a written quote for removal, disposal, and making the roof good. No call-out charge.

Or call 24/7: +44 7344 860932

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