Fibro

For the medical condition, see Fibromyalgia.

A pre-WW2 house in Darwin. The roof is sheeted with corrugated fibro sheets and the walls with flat fibro sheeting, with fibro cover battens over the joints.

Fibro, the shortened form of "Fibrous Cement" - or "Fibrous Asbestos Cement", FAC, is a building material made of compressed fibres cemented into rigid sheets.

While "Fibro" has been used in a number of countries, it is in Australia where its use was the most widespread. Manufactured and sold by James Hardie until the mid 1980s "Fibro" in all its forms was a very popular building material. The fibres involved were almost always Asbestos based. The use of "Fibro" has since been banned in several countries, including Australia itself, due to its high asbestos content. Asbestos is directly related to a number of deadly disease including, asbestosis, pleural mesothelioma (lung) and peritoneal mesothelioma (abdomen).

Products used in the building industry

Roof sheeting, known as Hardies "super six."

• Flat sheets for house walls and ceilings were usually 6 mm and 4.5 mm thick, in 900 and 1200 widths and from 1800 to 3000 long.
• Battens 50 mm wide x 8 mm thick. Used to cover the joints in the sheets.
• Super Six corrugated roof sheeting and fencing.
• Internal wet area sheeting, "Tilux"
• Pipes of various sizes for water and drainage.
• Moulded products from plant pots to cable pits.

See also

• Fiber cement siding replaced the asbestos sheeting in the 1980s.
• Eternit

External links

• http://www.nsw.gov.au/fibro/
• Advice if you have FAC in your home