A refurbishment and demolition survey is the intrusive one. It exists because the work that follows will break into the fabric of the building, and nobody can plan that safely from a survey that was only allowed to lift a ceiling tile. It is often written R&D, and it is scoped to the area the work will touch rather than to the whole building, which is the single most useful thing to get right in the quote.
Why the intrusive survey exists
Refurbishment and demolition reach places normal occupation never does: inside a stud wall, under a screed, above a suspended ceiling, inside a riser. Asbestos in those places is harmless while nobody touches it and dangerous the moment a drill goes through it. The survey opens those places first, deliberately and under control, so the work does not open them by accident.
Scope is the whole negotiation
The report is only as good as the area it was allowed into. Agree in writing which rooms, floors, voids and structures are in scope, what happens to anything that cannot be accessed on the day, and who makes good the openings. A no-access area is not a clear area, and a competent report says so in those words rather than leaving a blank on a plan.
What the report should contain
A plan showing each item found and where it is, what it was identified as, the analysis certificates behind that identification, the condition and risk assessment, and an explicit statement of anywhere the surveyor could not reach. The demolition or refurbishment contractor reads that document before pricing, so a vague one costs money twice.
Timing it against the programme
The survey has to be done, analysed and reported before work starts, and any licensable removal it triggers has to be notified in advance on top of that. Buildings get surveyed late and then everybody waits, which is avoidable: book the survey when the design is fixed rather than when the scaffold arrives.
Questions people ask about asbestos refurbishment survey
What is an R and D asbestos survey?
The same thing under its trade abbreviation: R&D stands for refurbishment and demolition, and it is the intrusive survey done before work rather than the management survey done during occupation.
Does a demolition survey cover the whole site?
It covers what its scope named. For a full demolition that is normally everything; for a strip-out of one floor it is that floor, and the rest of the building keeps whatever management survey it had.
Who is responsible for having it done?
The person having the work done has to ensure asbestos is identified before it starts. In practice the client commissions the survey and the contractor prices from it, and a contractor asked to start without one is being asked to work blind.