Posted By Chris L
You do not need to re-survey simply based on the fact that your surveys pre-date MDHS100.

In accordance with CAWR2002 & now CAR2006 you should have been regulary re-inspecting your asbestos materials and updating their risk-assessments as required, and unless you have found glaring omissions in your survey reports there is no need to do them again.

If you haven't been carrying out your reassessments, then your fastest route to compliance with CAR2006 may be to get your property stock re-surveyed, although of course this depends upon the size of your estate, and your own knowledge and time availability - you may be able to do it yourself.

No clear-cut answer, as every estate is different.

Posted By Chris121
do not pay for re-sampling again! The previous type 2 report should have identified asbestos containing materials on the premises and certificates of analysis from a UKAS accreditied lab should be contained within the reports for verification preferably.

I presume the consultants are recommending a re-survey as prior to MDHS100 there was no need to undertake material and priory assessments of ACM's and therfore the recording format of the surveys might not comply with the current standards.

Posted By PhilP
Thanks for the replies.

We do have a management plan and monitoring, this is carried out by the same consultants who are telling us we require to carry out the new surveys.

Phil

Posted By Doug Kelly
Unless there is a basis to lack confidence in your original survey data, I don't see why anyone should insist you must re-survey your properties. If you have a management plan, and have undertaken re-inspection and review, it isn't clear how a re-survey would provide further useful information.

It might be prudent to check that the surveys weren't 'qualified', for example some surveyors would exclude bitumen-based products, floor tiles, textured coatings etc. on the basis that they were low risk. It was also common for extensive 'caveats' to be inserted into reports to cover all sorts of items. This could include things like fire doors, gaskets and so on, where sampling could damage the effectiveness of the product.

Overall, having satisfied yourself that your existing data was (and remains) valid, you could put your views to HSE/EHO and ask for guidance.

Posted By Robert K Lewis
PhilP

Are you saying that these people are running your management plan or just do the monitoring for yourselves?

If the former you need to take back control. If the latter they should then follow your instructions. Are they trying to say that they have reason to believe there is additional asbestos?

Bob

Posted By Chris L
In that case you need to ask why this has suddenly cropped up after they have been managing the asbestos ok up until now.

They need to justify why you should go down this route - they may have a valid reason, but it would be interesting to know what it is.

Posted By NickW
In fairness to the company in question, an asbestos survey carried out 'back in the day' was very different to what you would expect now.

For example when our firm surveyed for asbestos in the mid 1990's we werent picking up lower hazard items such as sinkpads and toilet cisterns. Also we, and our reputable competitors now have UKAS accreditation to ISO 10720 (as recommended but not legally required) in HSG 227. I would wager that an audit of a site would quite quickly prove that the surveys are not compliant with this standard if they were conducted 10 years or so ago. Another important practical consideration is that asbestos surveyors now should be making detailed descriptions of each room, noting construction of all elements. This gives rise to a big thick document which most clients ignore initially as they just flick to the summary to find 'what have I got? where is it? do I need to do anything about it?' which is understandable. However you would be suprised to find how useful this seemingly pointless information is for the future use and intepretation of the document. For example if our surveyor notes that the walls in room A are plasterboard, the floors are quarried slate etc this would be common sense to many people but not to all and given that the regs reqire the presumption of asbestos in the absense of strong evidence otherwise, an atual commment in the report saves the client and the asbestos consultant a lot of hassle, time and phonecalls.

Also have you got marked up building plans? we rarely did these all those years ago but now its standard service. They are very useful for the layperson to understand.