Management survey vs refurbishment/demolition survey: which do I need?

Management survey

A management survey is the standard survey for a building in normal day-to-day use. Its job is to locate asbestos-containing materials that could be disturbed during ordinary occupation and routine maintenance, assess their condition, and support ongoing management under the duty to manage. (Under HSG264 — which replaced the old MDHS100 guidance — the "management survey" broadly takes the place of the former Type 1 and Type 2 surveys; you may still hear those older terms used informally.)

It is largely non-intrusive: the surveyor inspects accessible areas and takes a limited number of samples from suspect materials. It will not normally break open walls or lift fixed floors.

• Use for: normal occupation, routine maintenance, letting or buying a property to manage in place.
• Output: an asbestos register, condition assessment and material/priority risk ratings to feed your management plan.

Refurbishment & demolition survey

A refurbishment & demolition survey (which replaced the old Type 3 survey) is required before any work that will disturb the fabric of the building — refurbishment, alteration, structural repair, strip-out or demolition. It is fully intrusive within the work area and is designed to find all ACMs before the work starts, including hidden materials in voids and cavities.

Because it is destructive, the surveyed area should normally be unoccupied. The survey must cover the specific scope of the intended works.

• Use for: before refurbishment, renovation, intrusive maintenance or demolition.
• Output: identification of all ACMs in the work area so they can be removed or managed before work begins.

The most common — and most expensive — mistake

Commissioning a management survey when a refurbishment/demolition survey is needed is the single most common error. A management survey does not look inside the building fabric, so it can miss materials that intrusive work would disturb. Discovering asbestos mid-project means stopping work, an emergency survey and often a licensed removal slot — all at a premium.

Survey programming should start well before the planned site start (commonly four to six weeks for a sizeable project) so there is time to act on the findings, including the 14-day notification period to the relevant enforcing authority (usually HSE) if licensed removal is required.