Bye Bye Asbestos
Asbestos management survey
For a building in normal use: find where asbestos is, test it, record its condition and plan how to manage it.
What a management survey is
A management survey is the standard survey for a building in normal occupation. Its purpose, as HSE’s guide HSG264 explains, is to locate asbestos-containing materials that could be damaged or disturbed during normal use, including foreseeable maintenance, and to assess their condition. It involves minor intrusion, such as lifting ceiling tiles or opening service cupboards, and small samples are taken for analysis.
Who needs one
If you’re responsible for maintaining or repairing non-domestic premises, or the common parts of domestic buildings such as the halls and stairs of a block of flats, you have a duty to manage asbestos under regulation 4 of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012. A management survey is usually the starting point. Homeowners and landlords use them too, to know what’s in a property before routine work.
What you get
- A register of suspect materials, where they are and whether they were sampled
- Laboratory results for the samples taken
- An assessment of each material’s condition
- Photographs and plans or descriptions of locations
- Recommendations: leave and monitor, repair, or remove
What it doesn’t cover
A management survey isn’t enough before refurbishment or demolition, because it doesn’t look behind walls, under floors or into the fabric of the building. For that you need a refurbishment and demolition survey of the areas affected.
Asbestos management survey: ask for a quote
- Survey or test first when it isn’t clear what a material is
- Work planned to the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 and HSE guidance
- Written paperwork: reports, results and waste consignment notes
- Asbestos waste double-bagged or wrapped and taken to a permitted site