Please fill out a short survey and help the HSE

The HSE have been running a campaign about asbestos safety targeted at tradespeople and have asked for your feedback. We would be grateful if you could spare no more than 15 minutes to complete a simple on-line survey.

Your feedback will help HSE understand how effective the campaign has been and how they might make changes to their communications in the future. To complete the survey, just click on the link:

http://survey.euro.confirmit.com/wix/p1840409069.aspx?horgan=4

Your feedback will be completely anonymous. Please also forward to other tradespeople, who may have seen the campaign materials, to complete the survey. Responses are requested by 21st May. Thank you.

EDA Survey about Gypsum

The EDA are requesting participation in a survery regarding the use of gypsum products. We've reproduced the details and a link to the survey below:

The GTOG project aims to put in place an integrated approach to manage gypsum construction and demolition waste, starting from the dismantling of a building via the recycling of the gypsum waste and its re-incorporation in the manufacturing process.

Gypsum is indefinitely recyclable because the chemical composition of the raw material in plasterboards and blocks always remains the same.

At the end of the building life, gypsum products can be dismantled, recycled and reincorporated in the manufacturing process.

However, close loop recycling for gypsum products will only happen if:

1. Selective demolition methods are applied systematically for all demolition and renovation projects;
2. Sorting of waste is done at source – thereby avoiding mixed waste;
3. Processing is carried out according to clear standards;
4. Incorporation in the production process is carried out with innovative processes

EDA cooperates with the project as the final results will affect directly the industry and every demolition jobsite.

For this reason, we ask our members and the industry in general to participate on a global survey about the gypsum on the demolition industry.

To participate, just download the document (available in three languages) and share your experiences:

Survey about gypsum for demolition contractors (English)
Survey about gypsum for demolition contractors (French)
Survey about gypsum for demolition contractors (Spanish)

Peak Bat Season is nearly over, book your surveys now

Back in May we showed you just how many bats can live under roof tiles. Now it's time to remind you about bat surveys, and in particular the peak season for bats and how it affects such surveys.

If you need to carry out a bat survey on a property then they can be done at any time of year during the day by a specialist surveying company. However, if a further activity survey is required it can only be carried out during peak season. That season ends on August 31.

So, if you know, or suspect such an additional survey will be required, you need to book it this week in order to have a chance of getting it carried out. The alternative? Potentially months of delay until the peak season begins again.

Source: Middlemarch Environmental

How many bats can live under roof tiles? Lots!

Anyone reading this ever had to have a bat removed from their roof? Even if you did, I bet there was only one. But if you're unlucky a colony of bats may have decided your roof is a perfect nesting ground, with the result potentially being the removal of all your roof tiles.

The video above is pretty unbelievable purely for the number of bats that keep appearing as each roof tile is lifted. Apparently a survey was done on the building, but no bats were discovered. So it came as a complete surprise to find hundreds of them.

Source: Forth Demolition

Asbestos survey company fails to spot asbestos

When any kind of renovation or demolition work is being planned it is imperative an asbestos survey is carried out. If it isn't, chances are the presence of asbestos will put workers at risk and see prosecutions handed out by the HSE. But there's another problem we have to contend with: surveys being carried out that fail to identify asbestos.

PHH Environmental (UK) Ltd. has been prosecuted after an asbestos survey it carried out on the Old Castle Cinema in Merthyr Tydfil found no asbestos. Soon after, demolition of the cinema began and workers disturbed asbestos.

Such an oversight has put the health of those workers at risk, and PHH has pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. The company now has to pay a fine of £5,000 and costs of £3,000. Although that's little compensation for anyone working on the site who was exposed to the material.

Source: The Construction Index