Do I need an asbestos survey before building work?

Asbestos is not a problem while it is intact and undisturbed. Refurbishment is precisely the activity that disturbs it, which is why a survey belongs at the start of a project rather than in the middle. The commonest domestic exposures are entirely predictable: textured ceiling coatings, garage and shed roofs, soffits, floor tiles and their bitumen adhesive, insulating board around fires and airing cupboards, and old boiler flues.

Safety

Step by step

1. Check the age of the building and the materials.Asbestos was used in UK construction until 1999. Anything built or refurbished before 2000 may contain it, and mid-century to 1980s buildings are the highest risk for the domestic materials that get disturbed.
2. Understand the two survey types.A management survey identifies asbestos in a building in normal occupation, without significant intrusion. A refurbishment and demolition survey is intrusive and is designed to find everything in the area to be worked on. Refurbishment needs the second.
3. Scope the survey to the work.You do not usually need the whole house surveyed. Scope it to the rooms, ceilings, floors and structures being disturbed, plus anything the route to them passes through.
4. Get it done before the programme is fixed.Finding asbestos mid-strip-out stops the job, empties the site and adds cost at the worst possible moment. Finding it during the survey is a line in the budget.
5. Understand who carries the duty.A homeowner in their own home is not a duty holder in the way a landlord or business is. But contractors have duties to their own workers, and a competent contractor will ask for the survey — one who does not ask is telling you something.
6. Never disturb suspected material yourself.No drilling, sanding, cutting, scraping or breaking. Textured ceiling coating in particular must never be sanded, and a domestic vacuum spreads fibres rather than collecting them.
7. Use a licensed contractor where required.Some asbestos work legally requires a licensed contractor. Even where it does not, disposal is regulated and it is not a DIY job. Never put asbestos waste in a skip or in household waste.
8. Keep the survey report.It records what was found, what was not, and what was left in place. It is useful to the next contractor, to a future buyer, and to you if the layout changes again.

Tips

• Undisturbed asbestos in sound condition is usually best managed by leaving it, recording it and not touching it. Removal creates the exposure that leaving it does not.
• If you are buying a property and planning a refurbishment, budget for the survey at the start. It is a small figure against the cost of finding out during the strip-out.
• Ask the surveyor to mark up drawings and photographs of what was found. A written list that nobody can locate on site is much less useful than a marked plan.

Common mistakes

• Sanding textured ceiling coating — Coatings applied before the mid-1980s frequently contain asbestos and sanding releases the maximum quantity of fibres. It is one of the most common domestic exposures there is.
• Assuming the builder will deal with it — A contractor who finds it mid-job will stop work, which is correct and which costs you time and money. Surveying first turns a stoppage into a plan.

Questions people ask