Before a demolition team removes a wall, someone needs to know what is inside it. The same applies when an electrician drills a cable route or a refurbishment contractor lifts flooring. Asbestos can remain in buildings constructed or refurbished before 2000, including places whose visible finishes have since changed.
For construction teams in Great Britain, preparation means obtaining suitable information before disturbing the building. Workers need to understand the limits of their training and the response expected when the material in front of them differs from the project information.
Establish what the work will disturb
Describe the proposed work in enough detail to identify the areas affected. Removing partitions, replacing services and installing new fittings can involve different parts of the building. A broad instruction to refurbish an office gives a surveyor less useful information than drawings showing the proposed openings and service routes.
Ask the client for existing asbestos information, including the asbestos register, which records known or presumed asbestos-containing materials and their locations. Check whether the information covers the work area and whether access restrictions left parts unexamined. Employers should establish that they have enough information for the task before work starts.
Resolve missing information during planning. Tender programmes should allow time for further investigation and, where required, asbestos work before other trades begin.
Commission the right survey
A management survey supports the management of asbestos during normal occupation and use. Refurbishment and demolition may require a more intrusive survey covering materials hidden within the building fabric. A competent surveyor should establish the appropriate scope against the proposed work.
Refurbishment and demolition surveys can involve destructive inspection and potential disturbance of asbestos. The area must be vacated during the survey and confirmed fit for reoccupation afterwards. Plan access and isolation accordingly, especially where neighbouring parts of the building remain occupied.
Read the report’s limitations as carefully as its findings. An inaccessible riser, meaning a vertical enclosure for services, may sit directly beside a proposed cable route. The project team needs to resolve that restriction before authorising work there.
Understand what awareness training provides
Asbestos awareness helps people recognise circumstances in which asbestos could be encountered and avoid disturbing it. Construction workers, demolition workers, electricians and supervisors are among those who may need this knowledge. Awareness training does not prepare someone to undertake work on asbestos-containing materials.
Human Focus’s UKATA Approved Asbestos Awareness Training covers likely asbestos locations, health risks and responses to accidental disturbance. It can support the awareness element of an employer’s training arrangements.
Check understanding against the job. Can workers find the survey information? Do they know who to contact if the planned route changes? Could they explain why an unfamiliar board should be left undisturbed pending advice? Use the answers to identify where further instruction is needed before work begins.
Regulation 10 of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 requires employers to provide adequate information, instruction and training for employees liable to exposure and those supervising them. The training must suit the actual risks and be updated as work or methods change. Refresher learning does not automatically mean repeating a full awareness course on a fixed annual cycle; employers should assess what is needed.
Separate asbestos work from general refurbishment
Planned work that disturbs asbestos needs a suitable assessment, work methods and task-specific information, instruction and training. Some work requires an HSE-licensed contractor. Other work may be non-licensed, meaning a licence is not required, but still subject to controls; certain non-licensed work also has notification and other additional requirements.
An awareness certificate should therefore never be treated as permission to remove a suspect panel or drill through a known asbestos-containing material. Obtain competent advice about the work category and appropriate arrangements.
Allow the asbestos work to influence the programme. Discuss access, separation from occupied areas and the evidence needed before subsequent trades return. Include the relevant completion or clearance information in the project records rather than relying on a verbal assurance that the area is ready.
Carry the information into site instructions
Survey findings need to reach the people doing the work. Asbestos information should be made available to anyone who might disturb the materials, including external contractors and maintenance workers. Information should be understandable and available when work is planned and carried out.
Translate the findings into instructions for each work area. Explain which surfaces can be disturbed under the agreed plan, which remain restricted and how changes are authorised. Use plans or marked photographs where they help people identify the correct location.
For example, a revised cable route may take an installer beyond the area covered by the original investigation. Require a review before the new route is used. Subcontractors arriving midway through the job need the current information and briefing, including changes agreed since the initial site induction.
Agree the response to an unexpected discovery
Workers should stop the affected work if they discover or accidentally disturb suspected asbestos and follow the site’s emergency arrangements. They should not attempt an improvised clean-up or collect their own samples unless specifically trained and authorised for that work.
Explain who receives the report and who arranges competent assessment. Keep others away from the affected area through the agreed arrangements, and prevent disturbed material being carried into other spaces.
A supervisor needs clear authority to maintain the restriction while the situation is assessed. Record what happened and review the work plan before restarting. The response may also reveal a missing survey area or a communication problem that needs correcting elsewhere on the project.
Keep the wider work programme in view
Asbestos precautions sit alongside the other risks created by refurbishment and demolition. Review the training needed for the actual activities, including work at height or manual handling. Relevant health and safety awareness courses can support that broader preparation, with site instructions and supervision addressing the specific job.
Before releasing each new work area, ask the supervisor and contractor to confirm the scope together. The survey reference, agreed method and restrictions should describe the same task. Where they do not, resolve the difference before tools are brought into use.
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