As a part of my Health & Safety audits I will always ask my clients if they have any asbestos in their workplace.
Some clients are aware of any asbestos and they sometimes have the asbestos report on hand to show me. This is just perfect.
I then ask to see a copy of the plan and check that any areas that contain asbestos are clearly marked.
The reason for having these areas marked is to prevent any trades drilling into these areas and disturbing the asbestos.
Asbestos is totally safe if left alone – but when contractors fit electrics or drill into the areas we then have problems.
I would always suggest getting a competent asbestos contractor to carry out an audit to locate any areas that may contain asbestos. As mentioned above these areas need to be marked usually with a sticker and there should also be a map indicating all the areas that contain asbestos.
Should you have any maintenance work carried out you can then show the contractors the areas to avoid. If the areas are disturbed in any way then you will need to arrange for a licenced contractor to come and remove it.
I would also recommend that staff attend some asbestos training.
There are a few different types of asbestos and usually associated with tiles, walls, cladding and roofing trades.
It is important that tradesmen are skilled and trained to recognise potential asbestos materials and that they are familiar with the processes to follow so that the material is handled correctly by the appropriately trained operatives to minimise exposure to the tradesman, to the policyholder and the fixtures and fittings within the property.
