The necessity of an asbestos survey

Most old buildings have a great deal of asbestos in them and chances of your exposure to them can be quite high. Considering the dangers that are now associated with exposure to asbestos, it is mandatory for every organization owner to conduct a survey on their property to identify potential sites on the property where asbestos is present and then provide measures to deal with it. Of course if you do not have this survey conducted you leave yourself open to legal repercussions. People exposed can end up suffering from a range of illnesses and one of them is mesothelioma which can be fatal. You can be sued for negligence.

An asbestos survey is generally conducted by experts in the field. You can ask for recommendations from similar businesses around you. You have to know that there are two kinds of asbestos survey. One is called the management survey and the other a refurbishment or demolition survey. If you are looking to have your property inspected and all the asbestos and asbestos containing materials (ACM) to be identified, then the management survey is what you opt for. Once you know where the asbestos is, the surveyors will give you details on how it can be dealt with. On the other hand if you are the owner of a property and you would like to demolish it, then the refurbishment survey is what should be conducted before you actually demolish it. This will give you an idea of how to deal with it.

In the survey, the expert will walk over every inch of your property. They will go over every space looking for asbestos. As experts they will know where to look for it, in common as well as not so common places. This will look through all your service routes as well as pipe runs and ceiling voids. Once they find the asbestos they will look into how old it is, its current state, if it is deteriorating and at what rate.

The surveyor will also look around for ACMs which means they will look under tiles, open up your risers and lift your carpets. This gives them as much access to the premise as possible. There is chance that some of the asbestos they find will be difficult to pull out completely. In such cases you will have to keep a look at the ACM and measure its rate of deterioration.

Once your survey is complete, it can hold good for a year. Following this you will have to repeat the process to determine the condition of any asbestos that has remained behind.