Almost every asbestos survey is one of two types, and the choice comes down to one question: is anything about to be opened up, removed or knocked down? If not, you need to know what’s there and its condition. If so, you need to know everything that’s inside the parts being worked on.
Management survey: for a building in normal use
A management survey finds, as far as reasonably practicable, any material that could contain asbestos and could be damaged during normal use, routine maintenance or installing new equipment. Each item is given a condition score, and the report is laid out to become your asbestos register.
- Every room, plus ceiling voids, lofts, risers and ducts
- Minor intrusion only, with small samples taken and sealed
- The building stays in use while the survey is done
It’s the survey that dutyholders need: owners and occupiers of workplaces, and landlords responsible for the shared parts of blocks of flats.
Refurbishment and demolition survey: before the work starts
Before refurbishment or demolition, the aim is to find every asbestos material in the area being worked on, or in the whole building if it’s coming down, so it can be removed safely before work begins. That means lifting floors, opening walls and ceilings, and looking inside boxing.
- Fully intrusive, and destructive where it needs to be
- The area must be empty while it’s surveyed
- It’s checked as fit to use again before anyone goes back in
Because the employer doing the work has to find out whether asbestos is present, or assume it is, most builders will ask for this survey on any building put up before 2000.
When a single sample is enough
If there’s just one material you’re unsure about, such as a textured ceiling, an old floor tile or a panel behind a boiler, a sample analysed by a laboratory can settle it. A sample answers one question, though. Before larger work, a refurbishment survey is still the right choice.
A quick way to decide
- Workplace or the shared parts of a block, nothing changing: management survey
- Kitchen, rewire, loft conversion or extension on the way: refurbishment survey of the rooms involved
- The building is coming down: demolition survey of the whole building
- One material worrying you, no work planned: sampling
- Built in 2000 or later: usually no survey, unless part of it is older
Not sure which applies to your building? Call 020 3386 1854 and we’ll tell you which survey fits, with the price agreed in writing before anyone visits.
