Asbestos Management Services

Asbestos was a commonly used material in commercial settings, especially as it was widely renowned for its insulation properties and resistance to fire. ACM’s can be detected in a variety of areas within non-domestic premises, such as:

• Insulation: Walls, mattresses, soundproofing, pipes, and boiler lagging.
• Sprayed coatings: Underside roofs, steel and concrete beams, and underside flooring.
• Textiles: Ropes, yarns, cloths used for gloves and aprons, gaskets, and strings to seal hot water radiators.
• Cement: Profiled sheets, partition boards, fully compressed sheets used for tiles and slates.
• Flooring: Thermoplastic floor tiles, staircases, industrial flooring.
• PVC: Panels and cladding, reinforced plastic for cisterns, window seals and benchtops.
• Friction products: Conveyor belts, drive belts, machinery, and lifts.

The importation of amphibole asbestos, known as Amosite (brown) and Crocidolite (blue) asbestos, was made illegal in the UK during 1985. Chrysotile (white) asbestos was still imported and used, until it was also outlawed in 1999.

The use of asbestos in construction and production lines was made illegal due to the severe negative impact it has on health, safety, and the environment. It’s a legal obligation for non-domestic buildings and infrastructure to have a compliant asbestos plan in place, if planned remedial or demolition work is planned, and asbestos is present.

Contact us today for asbestos planning and management.

HSG 264 are legal guidelines which legally outline how asbestos should be managed in non-domestic, commercial or industrial premises, under the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012. This is provided by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), who are the regulator for workplace health and safety in Britain.

Asbestos surveying is crucial for testing potentially contaminated areas before it is disturbed by any occupants, remedial work, and planned demolitions. Within a commercial or non-domestic environment, this is even more important as there are more people at risk and likely to be a greater amount of ACM’s present.

If asbestos is disturbed, it can release fibres, which is when it poses a greater risk. ACM’s can contaminate the surrounding environment, such as soil and water. It can also become airborne and be inhaled, causing adverse health effects which can be permanent.

A refurbishment and demolition survey is sometimes referred to as an ‘r and d survey’.

An R&D survey is typically used to find ACM’s in area’s that may be hidden within a structure or difficult to access. It’s important to find and locate ACM’s in these areas, as any disturbance caused by maintenance, refurbishment or demolitions can cause asbestos fibres to be released into the air and have subsequent harmful effects to people and the surrounding environment.

At BES Group, we’re specialists in accessing remote areas during R&D asbestos surveys.

Contact us for asbestos surveying, planning and maintenance today.

A large proportion of UK highway infrastructure is over 20 years old, which means that the likelihood of ACM’s present is very high. Asbestos exposure is one of the biggest risk factors for highways personnel involved in highway maintenance or repairs, therefore an appropriate asbestos survey should be carried out before work is taken place.

Asbestos surveys for highways can cover:

• Buildings
• Depots
• Tunnels
• Compounds
• Bridges
• Lamp columns
• Communication cabinets
• Pavement drainage pipes
• Ducts
• Chambers
• Made ground

For highway infrastructure, Highways England details legal compliance for Asbestos Management in trunk road assets with GG 105 guidelines.