Asbestos Survey Requirements
All commercial buildings regardless of construction date, and residential buildings constructed before Jan. 1, 2004, must have an asbestos survey conducted by an accredited inspector prior to any demolition or renovation activities.
A copy of the asbestos survey report must be on-site during all renovation or demolition activities and must be provided to DEQ upon request.
Owner-occupants of a single-unit private residence performing a renovation inside their home are exempt from the asbestos survey rule. However, DEQ recommends owner-occupants have an asbestos survey performed or take samples of suspect materials and send the samples to a lab for analysis prior to renovation projects. Owner-occupants are required to follow all asbestos packaging, labeling, and disposal requirements, and lab analysis is the only way to identify if asbestos is present in materials. The owner-occupant exemption does not apply if the residence is going to be demolished.
Demolition and renovation
Demolition is defined as wrecking or removing a load-supporting structural feature of a facility together with related handling operations or the intentional burning of a facility. Renovation is defined as altering one or more facility components that do not involve removing load-supporting structural features. The renovation includes the replacement, stripping, or repairing of facility components, such as mechanical ventilation systems, pipes, ceilings, walls, flooring, and insulating materials.
Who can perform the survey and generate the asbestos survey report?
Only an accredited asbestos inspector may perform the asbestos survey and generate an asbestos survey report.
What does the survey involve?
DEQ requires at least one bulk sample of each homogeneous material suspected to contain asbestos to be collected and analyzed at a laboratory before any demolition or renovation activity. For sprayed or troweled-on surfacing materials, at least three random bulk samples for each homogeneous area must be collected. Starting Jan. 1, 2021, each asbestos bulk sample must be analyzed by a laboratory that participates in a nationally recognized accreditation or testing program. At that time, DEQ will maintain a public list of accepted laboratories on its website. When complete demolition or extensive renovation is planned, an asbestos survey of the entire facility is required. When a partial renovation is planned, such as a kitchen remodel, a survey is required for that area of the structure only. Alternatively, the material can be presumed to contain asbestos, in which case it must be treated, removed, handled, managed, transported, and disposed of as asbestos-containing material.
Asbestos survey reports
Asbestos survey reports must now meet standard requirements. All these requirements should be in your AHERA Asbestos Survey report template. This requirement ensures all asbestos surveys evaluate and report consistent information.
- An asbestos survey report must include all of the following:
- Dates the asbestos survey was performed
- A copy of the accredited inspector(s) certificate and phone number(s)
- The project site address and location where the survey was performed
- The facility owner or operator’s name and phone
- Description of the facility and area surveyed, including past and current use, area square footage, approximate construction date, and number of floors
- The purpose of the asbestos survey
- Description of any limitation of the asbestos survey
- A table listing all of the materials sampled and identified as asbestos-containing or presumed asbestos-containing including the percent asbestos and type of asbestos, description of the material color, texture, and pattern, the location of the material, description of the material condition as in good condition or in poor condition, identification of the material as friable or nonfriable and the approximate quantity of the material;
- A recommended response action
- A complete copy of the laboratory report including the laboratory name, address and phone number, unique sample analysis identification number, bulk sample analysis results, name of the analyst and the completed chain of custody for the samples.
Contact us for an Oregon DEQ-approved Asbestos reporting template!
The DEQ definition of Renovation means altering one or more facility components. Renovation includes replacing, stripping, or repairing facility components, such as mechanical ventilation systems, pipes, ceiling, walls, flooring, and insulating materials. That means an asbestos survey and report performed by an accredited inspector are required even when a single material will be replaced such as flooring in commercial offices. The alternative is to assume all materials impacted during the project will be removed as friable asbestos-containing materials and abated by a DEQ-licensed asbestos abatement contractor.
The DEQ definition of Demolition means wrecking or removing a load-supporting member of a facility together with related handling operations or the intentional burning of a facility. Training fire performed by local fire departments requires an asbestos survey and report, including any abatement of asbestos-containing materials, prior to the training fire.
A copy of the asbestos survey report must be on-site during all renovation or demolition activities and must be provided to DEQ upon request.
While the asbestos inspector is responsible for the completion of the asbestos survey and survey report, it is ultimately the responsibility of the contractor, building owner, or operator to confirm the asbestos survey and survey report comply with DEQ requirements. ispecX software makes meeting these requirements Easy with the ispecX AHERA Asbestos Reporting Template!
