Asbestos Surveys Explained: Management vs Refurbishment and Demolition

Pro Site Docs · Guide

Every year contractors disturb asbestos on refurbishment jobs because the client handed over a survey and nobody checked what kind it was. HSE's guidance HSG264 describes two types, and only one of them is meant for work that breaks the fabric of the building.

The duty behind the survey

Regulation 4 of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 puts a duty on whoever controls non-domestic premises to find out whether asbestos is present, record where it is and what condition it is in, assess the risk, and manage it. That is the duty to manage, and the asbestos register and management plan are its paperwork. CDM 2015 then requires the client to give that information to designers and contractors as pre-construction information. Any building built or refurbished before 2000 is assumed to contain asbestos until shown otherwise.

Management survey

The standard survey for a building in normal use. It locates, as far as reasonably practicable, asbestos-containing materials that could be damaged or disturbed during normal occupation and routine maintenance, and assesses their condition. It is usually non-intrusive or only lightly intrusive. It tells you what is on the surface and in accessible places. It does not tell you what is behind the plasterboard, above the ceiling or under the floor.

Refurbishment and demolition survey

Required before any refurbishment or demolition work, HSG264 is explicit. It is fully intrusive: the surveyor gets into voids, breaks into ducts and lifts floors in the area to be worked on, and the survey is scoped to that area. It is destructive by design, so the area normally has to be vacated. The output is a report that says what is there in the places your people will actually be cutting, drilling and stripping.

If the job is a partial refurbishment, the R&D survey can be limited to the parts affected - but the boundaries have to be drawn on a plan and understood by everyone on the job.

What to ask for before you start

• The type of survey and its date - a management survey from 2014 is not a licence to strip a ceiling in 2026
• The scope - which rooms, floors and voids were actually inspected, and which were 'presumed' or 'not accessed'
• The register and the management plan, and whether anything has been removed or damaged since
• Whether the surveyor was UKAS-accredited or otherwise competent - HSE expects accreditation or equivalent evidence
• What the client has done about any 'presumed' items - because 'presumed' means treat it as asbestos until sampled

Awareness, non-licensed and licensed work

Finding asbestos on the survey does not mean your team can deal with it. Regulation 10 requires asbestos awareness training for anyone who could disturb it - that is most trades. Some lower-risk work can be done as non-licensed or notifiable non-licensed work with the right training, equipment and records. Anything higher-risk - sprayed coatings, insulation, most insulating board - is licensed work and needs an HSE-licensed contractor. The survey tells you which category you are in; the RAMS then has to reflect it.

The record you need on file

The survey report, the register extract for your work area, the asbestos awareness certificates for everyone on the job, and the emergency procedure for an unexpected find: stop, stay out, tell the site manager, do not sweep it up. That last one is a toolbox talk, and it is the one that saves someone from a mistake twenty years later.

Get the documents ready-made

Our Demolition & Asbestos Pack includes asbestos RAMS, an unexpected-find procedure, register and toolbox talk templates, or take asbestos RAMS on their own.

General guidance only. This article explains how the rules generally work in UK construction. It is not advice for your specific site, task or project, and it is not legal advice. Your own risk assessment, method statement and arrangements must be prepared and checked by a competent person for the actual work being done.