Refurbishment & Demolition Survey
A refurbishment and demolition survey is needed before any refurbishment or demolition work is carried out. This type of survey is used to locate and describe, as far as reasonably practicable, all ACMs in the area where the refurbishment work will take place or in the whole building if demolition is planned. The survey will be fully intrusive and involve destructive inspection, as necessary, to gain access to all areas, including those that may be difficult to reach. A refurbishment and demolition survey may also be required in other circumstances, e.g. when more intrusive maintenance and repair work will be carried out or for plant removal or dismantling.
There is a specific requirement in CAR 2006 (regulation 7) for all ACMs to be removed as far as reasonably practicable before major refurbishment or final demolition. Removing ACMs is also appropriate in other smaller refurbishment situations which involve structural or layout changes to buildings (e.g. removal of partitions, walls, units etc). Under CDM, the survey information should be used to help in the tendering process for removal of ACMs from the building before work starts. In this type of survey, where the asbestos is identified so that it can be removed (rather than to ‘manage’ it), the survey does not normally assess the condition of the asbestos, other than to indicate areas of damage or where additional asbestos debris may be present. However, where the asbestos removal may not take place for some time, the ACMs’ condition will need to be assessed
and the materials managed.
In the domestic sector, local authorities and housing associations have responsibility for very large numbers of properties which need a range of maintenance and repair work as well as general improvement and upgrading or occasionally demolition. Works can include electrical rewiring, structural repairs and alterations, replacement windows, central heating, insulation, renewal of bathroom and kitchen fittings or complete renovations. The work may be necessary on individual or small numbers of premises (e.g. emergency work due to fire/water/ storm damage) or on large numbers where there are major improvement or upgrading schemes (e.g. the ‘Decent Homes Improvement’ programme).
