Storage heater asbestos removal

The asbestos only becomes dangerous when the heater is dismantled, dropped, cut, or the bricks are broken. As soon as the heater is taken off the wall or opened up, the law in the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and most of Europe treats the entire unit as asbestos-containing waste. That means a private individual is not allowed to remove it, transport it, sell it, give it away, or put it in a normal skip. Doing any of those things is a criminal offence under the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 in the UK, with fines that regularly reach £5,000–£20,000 when people are caught.

The only people legally allowed to touch these heaters once removal is required are contractors who hold a full Health and Safety Executive (HSE) asbestos removal licence. You can check whether a company has this licence on the public HSE register online; if they do not appear on the list, walk away. A properly licensed firm will arrive with a van or sealed skip clearly marked with the red-and-black asbestos hazard symbol, and the workers will wear disposable overalls and respirators when they open or carry the heater.

On the day of removal the process is surprisingly quick and low-drama. The electrician or removal technician isolates the power at the consumer unit, lays a plastic sheet on the floor to catch any dust, unscrews the heater from its wall brackets (most are simply held by four screws), and either carries the whole heater out intact or opens the casing on site, removes the asbestos bricks, and double-bags them in heavy-duty red asbestos waste sacks or wraps the entire unit in 1000-gauge polythene clearly labelled “Contains Asbestos – Do Not Inhale Dust”. The whole job for one heater usually takes between fifteen and forty minutes.

In 2025 the typical private cost in the UK for licensed removal and disposal of one storage heater ranges from £220 to £450 including VAT, depending on your region and how easy access is (ground-floor heaters are cheaper than ones at the top of a tenement close). The price includes the licensed waste transfer note you will be given, which is your proof that the asbestos was disposed of legally. Always ask for this certificate; reputable firms hand it over automatically.

Many owners pay nothing at all because they qualify for free removal. If you receive Pension Credit, Universal Credit, the Warm Home Discount, or are part of the ECO4 scheme, the major energy companies (British Gas, E.ON Next, EDF, Scottish Power, Octopus, OVO, etc.) will remove every single storage heater in the property at zero cost when they install modern replacements or a heat pump. Councils in Scotland, Wales, and some English local authorities also run grant schemes that cover asbestos disposal. Always ask any installer “Is the asbestos removal and disposal included free under the government scheme?” before you sign anything.

In summary, if your storage heaters are working and undamaged, leave them exactly where they are; they are safe. When the day comes that you want them gone, never attempt to move or dispose of them yourself, never hire a cowboy who offers to “whip them out for fifty quid cash”, and never put them on Facebook Marketplace. Instead, either book a fully HSE-licensed asbestos removal contractor or, much more cheaply, arrange replacement through an energy-company or council scheme that includes free licensed disposal. The process has been carried out safely tens of thousands of times and is now routine, quick, and either very affordable or completely free for most households.