Corrugated grey fibre-cement sheeting is still on a lot of Portuguese roofs, garages, annexes and sheds. Anything put up before the 2005 ban should be treated as containing asbestos until a lab says otherwise. Left alone and in fair condition it isn’t a reason to panic. When it reaches the end of its life, it becomes a job with rules attached and a cost you need to know before you buy.
How to tell it’s at the end of its life
On the roofs we’ve inspected the signs are consistent: the cement surface washed away so the fibres show, cracks running along the corrugations, holes through the sheet, failed sheets swapped for clear fibreglass one at a time, and moss and lichen holding water on the surface. Box gutters behind fibre-cement roofs often fall the wrong way. On one house someone had pumped expanding foam into the gutter to stop it overflowing.
What you can’t do
You can’t walk on it, pressure-wash it, drill it, cut it or patch it. Every one of those releases fibres, and fibre-cement sheets are fragile underfoot. Anyone putting a new sheet in next to an old one, or fixing a satellite dish through it, is breaking the rules and putting themselves at risk.
What removal requires
- A contractor licensed for asbestos work.
- A work plan notified to ACT (the labour authority) in advance. On our jobs we allow 30 days for this.
- Sheets taken off whole and wrapped, not broken up.
- The waste classified as hazardous (LER 17 06 05*), tracked with an e-GAR and taken to a licensed facility.
- Where there’s a roof void below, a filtered clean of the void before other trades go in.
What it costs
On a top-floor flat in Valongo with about 90 m² of roof, the asbestos package alone was €3,500–5,400. That covered licensed removal of about 75 m² at €22–34/m², mobilisation, the controlled work area, the ACT notification and waste paperwork, the landfill fee and the void clean. The full re-roof with a new galvanised sub-frame, an insulated metal panel, gutters and flashings came to roughly €14,700–23,500. On a small roof like that it works out around €165–260/m², because the fixed costs don’t shrink with the roof.
On a detached house in Porto with a fibre-cement annex roof, removal and a non-asbestos replacement were priced at €2,500–4,000, subject to the lab result and the measured area.
One more thing from the Valongo job. Choosing the best covering over the cheapest only added about €3,000 on a job of nearly €20,000. The asbestos removal, the access and the flashings are the same whichever sheet goes back on.
When to do it
Between May and September if you can. The roof is fully open for several days during the strip. Outside that window, budget for a temporary scaffold roof over the work.
Before you buy
We flag fibre-cement on every pre-purchase inspection, say whether it’s a removal item now or a watch item, and put a cost on it. On a shared building the roof is a condominium cost, split by permilagem. Full re-roof prices are in what a new roof costs in Portugal.
Figures are from our own inspection reports in 2025 and 2026, ex IVA, with names and addresses left out. Every house is different, so treat them as a guide to scale, not a quote.
General information. Asbestos removal is regulated work and must be carried out by a licensed contractor.
Thinking of buying — or stuck with a problem?
If you’ve found a property, or you’re fighting damp that keeps coming back, talk to us before you commit to anything. WhatsApp is the fastest way to reach us — we respond the same day, in plain English.
Message us on WhatsApp