Uralita and asbestos removal in the Serranía de Ronda

Which municipalities of the Serranía do we cover?

The Serranía de Ronda is an administrative comarca of 22 municipalities with Ronda as its capital. It lies at the heart of the Serranía de Ronda mountain system, which straddles the provinces of Málaga and Cádiz, and it is a mountain region dotted with white villages. Our service area is the Málaga side: Ronda, Arriate, Montecorto, Benaoján, Montejaque, Jimera de Líbar, Cortes de la Frontera, Gaucín, Algatocín, Benarrabá, Benalauría, Genalguacil, Jubrique, Benadalid, Atajate, Alpandeire, Faraján, Júzcar, Cartajima, Pujerra, Igualeja and Parauta.

The provincial boundary matters for asbestos work: the work plan is approved by the labour authority of the province where the job takes place, so a property just across the line in Cádiz falls under a different authority and outside our area.

Cortijos, farm buildings and village houses: where the fibre-cement is

In this landscape the typical uralita roof is not on the main house but on the buildings around it:

• Livestock sheds, haylofts and stores on cortijos, often with long spans of corrugated sheet on timber or light steel.
• Rear extensions of village houses – a kitchen, a laundry or a store added with a lean-to fibre-cement roof behind a whitewashed façade.
• Flue pipes for wood-burning stoves, which in older houses were sometimes made of fibre-cement.
• Water tanks on roofs or on a stand beside the house, from before mains supply was reliable.

Larger agricultural buildings are covered in more detail on our page about asbestos in warehouses and farm buildings. Smaller lean-to roofs follow the process described under uralita roof removal.

Ronda's historic centre and the white villages

The extension of Ronda's Conjunto Histórico was declared a Bien de Interés Cultural by Decree 199/2001. In a protected historic ensemble a demolition needs a licence and, where applicable, authorisation from the heritage authority – confirm it with the ayuntamiento before planning any work that goes beyond simply lifting an asbestos sheet. Removing the fibre-cement may be only one part of a renovation, and the rest of the project then follows that regime.

In the white villages the constraint is physical rather than legal: streets too narrow and steep for a lorry, steps instead of pavements, and neighbours wall to wall. Sheets are lowered whole, wrapped on the spot and carried to a vehicle parked at the edge of the village. If a container or scaffold has to stand in the street, an authorisation to occupy the public road is needed first.

How we organise a job in the mountains

Distance is the main planning factor in the Serranía, so we try to resolve as much as possible before the first visit. Photos of the roof from several angles, a photo of the underside, the approximate size, and a description of the road to the property let us judge whether the job is simple or needs special access.

From there the sequence is the same as anywhere in the province: the RERA-registered subcontractor prepares its work plan for approval by the labour authority, carries out the asbestos phase, and the waste – LER code 17 06 05*, construction materials containing asbestos – is kept apart and delivered to an authorised manager. We take care of the rest of the demolition, the rubble and leaving the building ready for its new roof. If you need a general demolition in the area, our sister site covers the Serranía de Ronda; for the asbestos side, see uralita removal and asbestos removal.

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