Before the surveyor arrives
Once you've booked a qualified asbestos surveyor, you'll typically receive a short briefing on what to prepare. This usually means providing access to all areas of the building, including plant rooms, ceiling voids, and any locked or restricted spaces. The surveyor may also ask for existing building plans or previous survey reports if you have them.
If the building is occupied, you may need to coordinate with tenants or schedule the survey outside business hours. Surveyors don't need the building to be empty, but they do need unrestricted access to the areas being assessed.
Two types of survey
There are two main types of asbestos survey, and which one you need depends on your situation.
A management survey is the standard survey for buildings in normal use. The surveyor inspects accessible areas to locate asbestos-containing materials (ACMs) that could be disturbed during routine maintenance or day-to-day activities. It's the survey you need to keep your asbestos register up to date.
A refurbishment and demolition survey is more intrusive. It's required before any renovation, refurbishment, or demolition work begins. The surveyor will access areas behind walls, above ceilings, beneath floors, and inside ducting. It covers everything the planned works might disturb, so the surveyor needs to know the scope of your project beforehand.
The on-site inspection
On the day, the surveyor will walk through the building systematically. They'll visually inspect materials, note their location and condition, and take physical samples of anything that might contain asbestos. Sampling involves cutting or scraping a small piece of material, usually about the size of a 20-cent coin. Each sample is sealed in a labelled bag and logged against its location.
The number of samples depends on the size of the building and the variety of materials present. A small commercial fit-out might require 10 to 15 samples. A large commercial building could need 50 or more.
For a management survey on a standard commercial premises, the on-site inspection typically takes half a day to a full day. Refurbishment and demolition surveys take longer because the surveyor is physically opening up building elements to inspect concealed materials.
What happens at the lab
Samples are sent to a NATA-accredited laboratory (in Australia) or an IANZ-accredited lab (in New Zealand) for analysis. The lab uses polarised light microscopy (PLM) to identify whether asbestos fibres are present and, if so, which type: chrysotile (white), amosite (brown), or crocidolite (blue). Lab turnaround is usually three to five business days, though urgent analysis is available at extra cost.
The survey report
Once lab results are back, the surveyor compiles the report. A typical asbestos survey report includes an executive summary, a register of all materials sampled, the lab results for each sample, a condition assessment, a risk rating for each identified ACM, and recommendations for management or removal.
Risk ratings consider both the condition of the material and the likelihood of it being disturbed. A material in poor condition in a high-traffic area will rate higher than the same material in good condition inside a sealed ceiling void.
From booking to receiving the final report, expect the process to take one to two weeks for a management survey. Refurbishment surveys may take slightly longer depending on the building's complexity and the scope of planned works.
What you need to do with the report
The survey report forms the basis of your asbestos register, which you're legally required to maintain and make available to anyone who might work on the building. If the report identifies high-risk materials, you'll need to act on the recommendations, whether that means removal, encapsulation, or simply labelling and monitoring.
Keep the report somewhere accessible. Contractors, maintenance teams, and building managers all need to be able to consult it before carrying out any work that might disturb building materials.