Asbestos Surveys Prevent Harm to Workers Demolishing Properties

The demolition industry is one of the most dangerous in the world, with workers exposed to a multitude of hazardous materials and environments. Health and safety is very important in the sector to ensure hazards are reduced and people working on or around sites are protected. Before demolishing a building, a range of surveys need to be completed to make sure the work can take place. These include risk assessments, asbestos surveys and an environmental survey. We specialise in asbestos demolition surveys in Northern Ireland and can provide all the help you need to carry out demolition work safely and thoroughly.

There has been a lot of attention on demolition companies recently, with a number of firms being fined for failing to deal with asbestos safely. The vast majority of properties built before the end of 1999 will contain asbestos in one form or another. It was one of the most popular building materials of the 20th century because of the fact that it was fireproof, cheap and could be used for many different things. Unfortunately now it needs to be removed carefully when refurbishing or demolishing a property.

Handling asbestos takes care to ensure contamination isn’t inhaled and spread. To do this effectively you need to have the property surveyed to determine the location and volume of contaminated material. This knowledge will help you to plan the removal and means you can limit the spread of contamination solely to areas containing the asbestos. Unfortunately the survey can’t determine the condition of materials but you should always treat them with the utmost care.

By having asbestos surveys conducted you can ensure workers are protected and contact the right contractors to do the work. Presenting the contractor with an accurate survey that shows exactly where materials are located helps them to do their job quickly and safely. There will be limitations to the surveys because some parts of the structure will simply not be accessible. In these cases you should treat unexplored parts of the property as containing asbestos and proceed with caution.

If you’re planning to demolish part of or a whole property in NI it is important that you have it surveyed first. Asbestos surveys should be done as early as possible so the demolition can take place soon after. We would be happy to arrange one of our asbestos demolition surveys in NI for you and see it completed quickly, so you can start working on removing asbestos and completing the demolition.