April to June 2026. Location: Clydesdale Estate, Marsden Park NSW. Client: Gartner Rose. Scope: lead dust removal from ceiling spaces, lead paint removal, asbestos removal, then demolition of old sheds, outbuildings, water tanks, slabs and brick walls around heritage buildings that stay, with a lot of it done by hand.
Clydesdale is an old rural estate with a heritage homestead and a group of brick outbuildings and sheds around it. Some of those buildings were coming down and some were staying. Our job was to get the hazardous materials out first, then take away what was going without damaging what was being kept.
What the job involved
- Non friable asbestos removal, mostly sheet backing boards and small fixed items, bagged, wrapped and taken off site to a licensed facility
- A small amount of friable asbestos confined to old ceiling air diffusers, wrapped and removed under full enclosure
- Lead dust removal from the roof and ceiling cavities, joist bay by joist bay, as part of our ceiling space decontamination work
- Lead paint removal on heritage surfaces, including window sills on the homestead verandahs, inside taped and sheeted work zones
- Air monitoring during the lead work set up by the independent licensed assessor, with clearance from the assessor before any demolition started
- Demolition of a barbecue area, water tanks, slabs and brick walls, with saw cutting before breaking and small excavators working close to the retained buildings, through our demolition service
- Heritage brick walls taken down by hand off mobile scaffold, and the brick stacked for loadout
- Shed roof sheets taken off from the scaffold and elevating work platforms, much of it by hand, and the waste sorted and loaded out through our demolition waste removal service
What made it hard
The buildings that were staying set the rules for the whole job. Every wall, slab edge and roof line we worked on had heritage fabric beside it, above it or tied into it. A machine can take a shed down in an afternoon, but not when the wall next to it has to be there for the next hundred years.
The lead was in the places that are hardest to work in. Dust had settled deep in the ceiling cavities of the old buildings, between joists, around old ducting and under debris, and the paint was on surfaces the client wanted kept. That meant slow work in tight roof spaces and on surfaces that could not be damaged.
How it was run
Hazmat went first. The asbestos came out at the end of April, and in May the lead crews worked through the roof and ceiling cavities inside enclosures and sheeted zones, vacuuming the dust out bay by bay. The independent licensed assessor set up air monitoring for the lead work and cleared the areas before demolition started.
Then the demolition, in a set order. The barbecue area and water tanks came out first. The slabs were saw cut and then broken with small excavators and dumpers, so the break stopped at the cut line. Brick walls beside retained buildings were taken down by hand off mobile scaffold, and the brick was stacked and loaded out.
In June the crew took the shed roof sheeting off from the scaffold and two elevating work platforms, stacked the sheets on the ground and loaded them out, and formed a new opening in a brick wall.
Lessons learned on this job
Every job teaches the crew something. These are the ones from Marsden Park that we carry onto every heritage and hazmat job.
What worked
- Hazmat first, demolition second. Getting the asbestos and lead out and cleared by the independent licensed assessor before any demolition kept the rest of the job clean and simple
- Enclosures and sheeted zones for the lead. Closing off each work area kept the dust where it was being removed and out of the rooms that were already done
- Hand work next to the fabric that stays. A mobile scaffold and hand tools are slower than a machine, but nothing the client wanted kept was lost
- Cut before you break. Saw cutting slabs before the small excavators went in meant the break finished at the line, not at the retained wall
- Small machines for tight spaces. Light excavators and dumpers could work inside and between the buildings without putting load on the old structures
What was difficult
- Heritage surfaces limit the methods. The client did not want a chemical peel away paint remover used on the heritage fabric, so the lead paint method had to change. Agree the lead paint method for heritage surfaces before you price and programme the job
- Ceiling cavities are slow. Old roof spaces are tight, dusty and full of joists, ducting and debris, and the programme needs to allow for that
- Soft ground and elevating work platforms. After rain the ground beside the sheds went soft and one platform had to be swapped for another machine. Check the ground and plan the access before the platforms are delivered
- Keeping sequence on a mixed site. With some buildings staying and others going, the order of work has to be walked and agreed every time the crew moves to a new building
How it went
Between April and June 2026 the hazardous materials were removed and cleared, the sheds, tanks, slabs and brick walls marked for removal came out, and the heritage buildings that stay were left standing with their fabric protected.
If you have something similar
Lead dust, lead paint and asbestos removal followed by careful demolition around buildings that must be kept: that is work Perfect Strip Out and Demolition does for builders across Sydney. See our ceiling space decontamination, demolition and demolition waste removal pages, or get in touch.
Hazmat and demolition around a heritage building?
Perfect Stripout & Demolition acknowledges the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as Traditional Custodians of the country on which we live and work. We pay our respects to the Traditional Custodians and Elders past, present and future, and honour their connection to the land and ongoing contribution to society.