Case Studies

Case Study 1 – Eastbourne (East Sussex)

Asbestos insulating board cladding in an office kitchen in Eastborne, East Sussex.

There was even asbestos dust on the work surface where the red bowl had rubbed against it!

Asbestos insulating board cladding in an office kitchen

A close up of the board

Shortly after the survey, all of this asbestos, was removed by HSE licensed asbestos removers.

Case Study 2 – Yorkshire

This old mill in Yorkshire had a boiler room with pipe lagging in a very poor condition.  Various parts of this were sampled and all were found to have no asbestos detected ~ and so saving the owners considerable sums.

The boiler room and its’ pipework

Case Study 3 – Horsham (West Sussex)

One of our larger Refurbishment / Demolition level surveys.  The site, in Horsham, West Sussex, included a 12,000 volt switch room with a 3 metre high ceiling.  Removing a plasterboard inspection cover, revealed that the main ceiling was ¼ inch sheet steel.  Between the steel sheets was a 3mm wide gap.  We sampled and tested the white layer beyond and it proved to be asbestos insulating board.

Often, important asbestos issues are not easy to find.

Case Study 4 – Surrey

A dis-used boiler room in the basement of a luxury apartment block in Surrey

This was found to have a largely broken asbestos cement ceiling and 30 metres of badly damaged asbestos pipe insulation.  There was also damaged asbestos lagging coating two boilers and a calorifier.

Case Study 5 – North London

In the basement of an apartment block in North London.  The sloping pipe was insulated with brown and blue asbestos ~ damaged because of the bicycles leaned up against it.

Case Study 6 – West Sussex

A ‘chocolate box’ farmhouse on the outside, but the stone roof had been laid on asbestos matting.

Through lack of maintenance over decades, parts of the ceiling of the building in West Sussex had rotted away and the matting had become exposed in the bedrooms

Case Study 7 – Hertfordshire

Two old water tanks abandoned in a loft in Hertfordshire immediately over a bedroom

Lab analysis showed the pink cladding to be brown asbestos lagging (dyed pink).  The missing bits of the insulation were lying in a pile on the lath and plaster bedroom ceiling.

The tanks and the debris were removed by an HSE licensed asbestos removers, and the whole loft had to be environmentally cleaned.

Case Study 8 – Twickenham

Asbestos insulating board fire break above a false ceiling in first floor offices

At offices due to be refurbished, a Management Level survey (done by other surveyors), never looked above the false ceiling and so they missed a badly damaged asbestos insulating board fire-break.

Read more about the Twickenham survey