Testing & Mitigating Multiple Properties for a Local Authority

About The Property

Our client was a County Council in the South East of England, with responsibility for a wide range of buildings including schools, libraries, council offices, fire stations and waste centres. As each of these buildings was a workplace, the Council had an obligation under the Management of Health & Safety At Work Regulations 1999 to assess all health risks posed to staff, including radon.

PropertECO were asked to carry out a rolling radon testing programme, prioritising the premises in the highest risk areas. Our client asked us to carry out the full testing process, including placing the detectors and collecting them after three months’ exposure. In total, 214 premises were tested, including 84 schools.

Our clients came to us as they were looking for an ‘end-to-end’ solution for ensuring radon compliance. We were pleased to be able to offer them an efficient service for testing, surveying and subsequent mitigation works.

Charles Edwards

Managing Director, PropertECO

Results and Mitigation

Once the detectors had been analysed in the laboratory, we were able to issue our client with risk assessments for each property alongside a table of results.

The testing had disclosed 10 properties where radon concentrations exceeded the workplace ‘action level’ of 300 Bq/m³ and we were asked to carry out mitigation design surveys.

Our surveyor was able to provide a design and quotation for a suitable mitigation scheme at each property. The mitigation systems included retrofit radon sumps and high-capacity positive pressure (PIV) systems.

As the properties ranged from schools to libraries and fire stations to a museum, the scheduling of the mitigation works was vital to ensure the day-to-day operations of each property were not affected by the installation of the mitigation systems.

Further Works

We provided our client with a full schedule for retesting based upon the radon concentrations detected and guidance from HSE. Our client also passed our details on to several schools that were formerly under their remit but had converted to Academies, and we were able to assist them with their testing and compliance works.

Do you believe you are in radon affected area?  If you want to speak to one of our specialists then either call us on 0800 046 6193.