Asbestos Surveys

Since May 2004 people responsible for non-domestic premises, built prior to 2000, have needed to know about Asbestos Containing Materials (ACM's) on their premises, its location, condition and how to manage it. This requires each building to have an asbestos register and management plan available on site. 

Additionally, if you are working on domestic or non-domestic premises built before 2000, you have a duty of care to ensure that any potential asbestos containing materials (ACM's) are not disturbed during your work and a refurbishment asbestos survey must be carried out  to comply with regulation 4 and assist in planning the work.

The Surveyors Guide Front CoverOur surveyors have extensive experience, having initially started within the industry as asbestos operatives, before progressing through the company. This gives an excellent level of competence due to extensive on site experience and insight into where potential ACM's can be found. All are fully qualified to current industry standards (BOHS P402) and have experience of surveying anything from a small residential flat through to large offices and industrial sites that are in constant use.  We offer all types of survey as detailed below and also the periodic inspections that are required every 6-12 months to manage the register. All samples are tested at an independent UKAS Accredited Laboratory.

 

Management Survey (presumptive)

These are visual inspections only and it must be presumed that any suspect material contains asbestos, unless there is strong evidence to conclude that it is highly unlikely to contain asbestos.   The potential ACM location is photographed and a data record is filled in with regards to material type, extent and condition. This data is then transferred to the main survey document.  Without laboratory analysis there are still questions unanswered and the duty holder could bear additional cost of managing some non asbestos containing materials.

Management Survey (sampling)

This is the most preferred type of survey carried out as it provides a laboratory confirmed result. The procedure and cost of the survey is usually the same as a presumptive survey but has the additional cost of the samples and the benefit of their results.  The process is the same as in the presumptive survey but a small sample of the potential ACM is taken to be tested at a UKAS Accredited Laboratory.  This ensures that only confirmed ACM's are managed and if no asbestos is found, no management plan is required.

Refurbishment and Demolition Survey

The surveyor follows the same process as for a Managing Survey but investigation is fully intrusive.  If it is suspected that there may be asbestos under the floor, in the walls or between layers of the ceiling, an endoscope is used or the structure must be opened up to reveal potentially hidden asbestos. This may cause damage to the fabric of the building but is obviously required if the building is to be demolished or if the interior design of the building is going to be changed.  Our full HSE licence ensures that we are able to build air tight enclosures under negative pressure to ensure we are able to intrusively investigate any voids within the work area.

Management Plan

This is a live document that must be created to show how you are managing identified asbestos.  This also aids planning any remediation work that may be required ensuring that it is as cost effective as possible.  Our management team will create a simple to use management plan that confirms your priorities and advise on how to maintain your management plan.   For products that return a low risk assessment score, we can provide training to enable the ongoing management to be carried out in house.  Alternatively we can carry out a cradle to grave service which would include the required periodic inspections, ongoing risk and priorities assessment, remediation planning and subsequent updating of your management plan.

Additional information about this regulation is available by clicking on the HSE web link to the right or there is an HSE Step by Step Guide which gives 12 steps to managing asbestos to aid creation of your own survey and management plan, which can be found here.