Asbestos Survey & Inspection

The simplest and safest way to identify asbestos containing materials (ACMs) within your property is to pay for an asbestos survey (sometimes referred to as an asbestos inspection) to be carried out. There are a number of organisations that perform asbestos inspections and its often difficult to find a good one. Perhaps the simplest way is to find an ISO 17020 accredited asbestos surveying organisation. ISO 17020 is the International Standard for Inspection bodies and can will often be referred to as UKAS accredited. At the very minimum you should look for an organisation that works to MDHS100 which is the UK asbestos surveying guidelines.

Need to identify asbestos in your home or workplace? Why not get an asbestos survey quote using our quick and easy form on the right.

What is UKAS?

UKAS, or to use its full name, the United Kingdom Accreditation Service, is an organisation that audits asbestos survey companies against a standard (in this case ISO 17020) to ensure that surveys ae 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. Further audits wil be carried out at regular intervals to ensure that the surveyors continue to meet the required standards.

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.

Survey types

Asbestos surveys are often classified into types to indicate the level of instrusion that will take place where type 1 is the least intrusive and type 3 is the most.

Table 1. Asbestos survey types