Commercial and domestic asbestos removal...

Introduction to Asbestos Surveys...

The first step in dealing with asbestos in any way is to identify its location, type, extent and condition. In order to do this some type of asbestos survey / surveying will be required. Midlands Asbestos Solutions, offer a full range of asbestos surveys / surveying techniques and survey types, which include all premises, buildings and locations and covers all survey eventualities and requirements.

Why should you have an asbestos survey?

Asbestos is now banned from use, but it was widely used in a range of products and can still be present in any building built or refurbished before the year 2000.

The Health and Safety Executive is committed to ensuring the risk of exposure to asbestos is reduced, laws and regulations have been passed now making employers responsible for ensuring employees and sub contractors are at the lowest risk possible.  Landlords also have a responsibility for ensuring that their tenants are safe from the potential risks of asbestos.

Midlands Asbestos Solutions surveys can help you with your duty to comply with the asbestos management laws. As of January 2010 the Asbestos surveying guidance has changed. HSG264 Asbestos: The Survey Guide, will replace the previous asbestos survey guidance document 'MDHS100'.Surveys will no longer be referred to, as Type 1,Type 2 & Type 3.  Asbestos survey types are now described as;

1. an Asbestos Management Survey or;
2. an Asbestos Refurbishment / Demolition Survey, which are:

1) As Asbestos Management Survey: (Similar to the previous Type 2 Asbestos Survey)

A management survey is the standard survey. Its purpose is to locate, as far as reasonably practicable, the presence and extent of any suspect ACMs (Asbestos Containing Materials) in the building which could be damaged or disturbed during normal occupancy, including foreseeable maintenance and to assess their condition.

Management surveys should cover routine and simple maintenance work. However it has to be recognised where ‘more extensive’ maintenance or repair work is involved, there may not be sufficient information in the management survey and a localised refurbishment survey will be required for all work which disturbs the fabric of the building in areas where the management survey has not been intrusive.

2) An Asbestos Refurbishment / Demolition Survey: (Similar to the previous Type 3 Asbestos Survey)

A refurbishment / demolition survey is needed before any refurbishment or demolition work is carried out. This type of survey is used to locate and describe, as far as reasonably practicable, all ACMs (Asbestos Containing Materials) in the area where the refurbishment or demolition work will take place. The survey will be fully intrusive and involve destructive inspection as necessary, to gain access to all areas, including those that may be difficult to reach. A refurbishment / demolition survey may also be required in other circumstances, e.g. when more intrusive maintenance and repair work will be carried out or for plant removal or dismantling.

In this type of survey, where the asbestos is identified so that it can be removed (rather than to ‘manage’ it), the survey does not normally assess the condition of the asbestos, other than to indicate areas of damage or where additional asbestos debris may be present. However as the asbestos removal may not take place for some time, the ACMs condition is usually assessed so that materials can be managed.

All surveys, analysis of results and reporting are carried out to the highest standards and are in full accordance with HSG264 Asbestos: The Survey Guide and HSG248 Asbestos: The analysts' guide for sampling, analysis and clearance procedures.