Planning & documents
What is an asbestos survey?
An asbestos survey identifies asbestos-containing materials in a building. A refurbishment and demolition survey is intrusive and is required before work that will disturb the fabric.
The distinction between survey types is the one that causes harm. A management survey identifies what is visible and accessible; it is not a basis for breaking into a structure.
It is client information under CDM, which means it belongs in the pre-construction information and has to reach the people planning the work rather than sitting in a property file.
Where a survey has not been done and the building is of an age that suggests asbestos, work should not start. Discovering it by disturbing it is the outcome the survey exists to prevent.
What goes wrong in practice
- A management survey relied on for refurbishment or demolition work.
- Survey held by the client and never issued with the pre-construction information.
- Work starting on an older building with no survey at all.