A commercial asbestos survey is the same instrument as a domestic one pointed at a bigger and more divided building. What changes is scale and access: plant rooms, risers, suspended ceilings, tenanted floors and out of hours working all cost time, and time is what a survey is priced in. What also changes is who reads the report afterwards, because in a commercial building it is usually a managing agent, a contractor and a tenant rather than one owner.
Scoping a whole building
Survey time scales with the number of discrete spaces somebody has to enter, record and photograph. A large open warehouse can survey faster than a small building chopped into twenty offices, so a price quoted from floor area alone has not asked the question that sets its own cost. Count rooms, floors, plant rooms, risers, roof spaces and outbuildings before comparing quotes.
Access, tenants and out of hours
Occupied commercial buildings are the hard case. Tenanted areas need notice, some rooms are only free at night, and a surveyor who cannot get in records the area as not accessed. Agreeing an access plan before the visit is what stops a survey coming back half finished with a second visit charged on top.
What the report is used for, from the register to asbestos management plans
An asbestos report for commercial property is read three ways: by the duty holder to build the register and the management plan, by every contractor before they work in the building, and by a buyer or a lender during a transaction. It should therefore be a document that can be handed over whole, with the plans, the certificates and the assessments in it rather than in somebody's inbox.
Keeping it alive
A commercial building changes. Tenants fit out, contractors drill, ceilings come down. The register has to be updated as that happens and re-inspected on the interval the survey recommended, or the document that discharges the duty quietly stops describing the building it was written about.
Questions people ask about commercial asbestos survey
Who commissions the survey in a leased building?
Whoever the lease makes responsible for maintenance and repair, which is often the landlord for the structure and common parts and the tenant for the demise. Where the lease is silent the duty follows whoever is in control of the premises.
Does a commercial survey cost more per square metre?
Usually less per square metre and more in total, because the price follows the number of spaces rather than the area. A subdivided building is the expensive shape.
Can one report cover several buildings on a site?
Yes, and it usually should, so long as each building is separately identified with its own plans and its own register entries. A single document covering a site is easier to keep current than five that drift apart.
What are the asbestos survey requirements for a commercial building?
The duty to manage asbestos requires the duty holder to find out whether asbestos is or is likely to be present, in what condition and where, and to keep that information in a record that is kept up to date. In practice that means a management survey of the whole premises, a register and a plan, and a reinspection at a frequency the risk assessment sets, usually annually. The second requirement bites separately and catches people out: before any refurbishment or demolition that could disturb materials, a refurbishment and demolition survey of the area affected, because a management survey deliberately does not look behind anything.