Planning an Extension or Renovation? Get an Asbestos Survey First

Most people think about asbestos as something sitting quietly in an old building. The real danger comes when building work starts. Knocking through a wall, stripping a ceiling, lifting a floor or drilling for new wiring can break up materials that were harmless the day before.

If your property was built or refurbished before 2000, the best time to find out what is in it is before anyone picks up a hammer.

Why building work is the risky moment

When asbestos-containing materials are cut, broken or sanded, fibres are released as fine dust. That dust travels. It settles on furniture, gets into carpets and curtains and can be drawn through heating and ventilation systems into rooms nowhere near the work. Cleaning up afterwards is slow, specialist and expensive, and it is far harder when a family is living in the house.

Builders, electricians, plumbers and joiners are at risk too, often without knowing it. Asbestos-related disease is still a leading cause of work-related death in the UK.

The right survey is a refurbishment and demolition survey

A management survey is designed for a building that is being lived in or used normally. It checks the materials most likely to be disturbed day to day, but it does not open up the structure.

Before building work, HSENI guidance points to a refurbishment and demolition survey for the parts of the building that will be affected. This type is more intrusive. The surveyor may lift floorboards, open up ceilings and look behind panelling, boxing and fixtures, because the aim is to find all of the asbestos in the area before the work disturbs it. That is why the rooms involved should be empty and ready for access when the surveyor arrives. You can read HSENI’s own summary in Asbestos surveys: what you need to know.

Who is responsible?

Under the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2016, a domestic client’s responsibilities generally pass to the contractor. Even so, a builder can only manage the risk if they know where it is, so the information has to come from somewhere. If the property is a business premises, the client must provide relevant pre-construction information to those doing the work, and asbestos is a key part of it.

In practice that means the sensible order of events is survey first, price and plan second.

What happens if asbestos turns up

Finding asbestos does not automatically mean the project is off. It means the plan needs to account for it. Depending on where the material is and what condition it is in, the options are usually to:

• Redesign or reroute the work so the material is left undisturbed
• Seal or encapsulate it where that is suitable
• Have it removed before the main work starts

Some materials, such as insulating board, pipe lagging and sprayed coatings, can only be removed by a contractor licensed by HSENI. Other work, such as removing asbestos cement sheets, may not need a licence but still needs trained people, suitable controls and sometimes notification to the enforcing authority. All asbestos waste has to be handled as hazardous waste and taken to an authorised facility. Dealing with any of this is far cheaper and quicker when it is planned than when it is discovered halfway through the job.

A sensible order of events

1. Decide what you want to change and which rooms or areas will be affected.
2. Book a refurbishment and demolition survey for those areas, ideally before contract prices are fixed.
3. Give the report to your designer, builder and the trades involved.
4. Plan and complete any removal that is needed.
5. Start the main work once the areas are cleared.

Tips for homeowners

• Tell the surveyor exactly what is being changed, whether that is a knock-through, a new boiler or a loft conversion
• Clear the rooms and make sure the surveyor can reach the loft, under-floor spaces and any locked areas
• Do not start your own strip-out or demolition before the survey is done
• Keep the report safe. Contractors will ask for it, and a future buyer’s solicitor might too

Frequently asked questions

Do small jobs need a survey as well? If the job disturbs the fabric of a building from before 2000, the materials involved should be checked first. Even drilling for downlights through a textured ceiling can release fibres, so a survey of the affected area is worth having.

Can my builder just test as they go? No. Testing once work has started means the damage may already be done. The point of the survey is to know before anything is disturbed.

How long will it delay my project? That depends on the size of the job and how soon you book. Tell us your intended start date and we will work back from it.

Talk to us

Asbestos Solutions NI carries out refurbishment and demolition surveys for extensions, renovations and conversions across Northern Ireland, with every sample analysed by a UKAS-accredited laboratory. If you have a project coming up, call us on 07702 332 333 and we will advise on the right survey for the work you have planned.