Asbestos Survey
The simplest and safest way to identify asbestos containing materials (ACMs) within your property is to arrange for an asbestos survey (sometimes referred to as an asbestos inspection) to be carried out.
What happens during an asbesto survey?
Firstly, the surveyor wil carry out a walkthrough of your premises. At this stage they will be looking for areas of the building that are likely to contain asbestos, services routes, pipe runs, ceiling voids and building a picture in their mind of how they will conduct the survey. This is also a good time for them to ask questions about age, known asbestos and access restrictions.
Next, the surveyor will walk from room to room looking for asbestos containing materials. They will need to open up risers, lift ceiling tiles, carpets, etc to access as many areas as possible. All parts of the building should be accessed including the loft, basement rooms and the outside. At this stage the surveyor will take photos of suspect materials and sketch the room with indications of the where suspect materials were found. Where possible and safe to do so, the surveyor will take a sample of suspect materials for later analysis.
Once the survey is complete the surveyor will send samples off for analysis and when the results are returned a report will be issued indicating where asbestos was found, which types and a material risk assessent.
How do I find a company to perform my survey?
There are a number of organisations that perform asbestos inspections and its often difficult to find a good one. At the very minimum you should look for an organisation that works to MDHS100 (which is the UK asbestos surveying guidelines).
Perhaps the safest way is to find an ISO 17020 accredited asbestos surveying organisation. ISO 17020 is the International Standard for Inspection bodies. The UK accreditation organisation for inspection bodies is called UKAS.
UKAS, or to use its full name, the United Kingdom Accreditation Service, is an organisation that audits asbestos survey companies against the ISO 17020 standard to ensure that surveys are being carried out in accordance with the preffered international methodologies. Once UKAS are stafisfied that a company is working to these standards it will allow them to display its badge on their documentation.
UKAS provide a list of accredited inspection bodies here
Another alternative is to approach an organisation such as ATAC who are the major asbestos surveying assocation in the UK and their website provides a search facility so that you can find members that operate in your area.
If you want to get a number of quotes from professional organisations then we provide a quick and easy 'quote comparison' service at the top right of this page.
Do I have to use a UKAS-Accredited survey organisation?
No. The UKAS accreditation is an indication of a professional body that uses structured and recommended methodologies to carry out an asbestos survey. There is no obligation to use one.
There are plenty of professional inspection bodies with many years of experience which don't carry the UKAS badge.
Asbestos survey types
Asbestos surveys in the UK can be classified into two types; management surveys and refurbishment or demolition surveys.
These two survey types are based on your role and objectives. If you are managing a property and want to protect the occupants from long-term exposure to ACM then you will need to identify potentially dangerous materials by means of a management survey. If, on-the-other-hand, you are looking to refurbish or demolish a property you will first need to perform a refurbishment/demolition survey to identify any ACM which could potentially be damaged during the works.
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