Industrial & Specialty Cleaning near you

Regulation 7 of the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 requires an employer to ensure that the exposure of employees to substances hazardous to health is either prevented or, where that is not reasonably practicable, adequately controlled. Prevention comes first and it has a specific meaning: so far as is reasonably practicable, avoiding the use of a hazardous substance at the workplace by replacing it with a substance or a process that eliminates or reduces the risk.

Where exposure has to be controlled rather than prevented, regulation 7 sets an order of measures. Appropriate work processes, systems and engineering controls, and the provision of suitable work equipment and materials come first; then control of exposure at source, including ventilation and appropriate organisational measures; and only then personal protective equipment, which regulation 7 confines to where adequate control cannot be achieved by other means. The regulation also covers safe handling, storage and transport, the maintenance of controls, and minimising the number of people exposed, the level and duration of exposure and the quantity of substance used. For carcinogens, mutagens and biological agents it adds further steps such as enclosure, warning signs and decontamination procedures.

The reason this matters to a client rather than only to a contractor is that it is visible in a quotation. A method that proposes a milder chemistry with better ventilation and a longer dwell time is following the hierarchy; a method that proposes the most aggressive product available and heavy PPE is starting at the bottom of it. Ask to see the COSHH assessments for the products being used, and check that what is on site matches them.

The Confined Spaces Regulations 1997 define a confined space as any place, including any chamber, tank, vat, silo, pit, trench, pipe, sewer, flue, well or other similar space in which, by virtue of its enclosed nature, there arises a reasonably foreseeable specified risk. The specified risks are listed: serious injury from fire or explosion; loss of consciousness arising from an increase in body temperature; loss of consciousness or asphyxiation arising from gas, fume, vapour or the lack of oxygen; drowning from an increase in the level of a liquid; and asphyxiation arising from a free-flowing solid or the inability to reach a breathable atmosphere because of entrapment by a free-flowing solid.

Regulation 4 then sets the rule that governs the work. No person at work shall enter a confined space to carry out work for any purpose unless it is not reasonably practicable to achieve that purpose without such entry — and where entry is necessary, so far as is reasonably practicable, no person shall enter or work in a confined space except in accordance with a system of work which renders that work safe and without risks to health in relation to the specified risks.

The operational reading is that the first question about a tank clean is whether anyone has to go in at all. Remote cleaning heads, lances and vacuum systems that work from outside are not a compromise; they are what the regulation asks for first. Where entry genuinely is necessary, it comes with atmospheric testing, a permit system, communications, a person stationed outside, and rescue arrangements that are in place before entry rather than improvised afterwards. A contractor who cannot describe the rescue arrangement should not be entering anything.

Regulation 4 of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 places a duty to manage asbestos on the person who has an obligation, under a contract or tenancy, for the maintenance or repair of non-domestic premises or any means of access to them — or, where there is no such contract or tenancy, on the person in control of the premises. The dutyholder must carry out a suitable and sufficient assessment of whether asbestos is present, review it, record the conclusions, prepare a written management plan where asbestos is or is presumed to be present, put it into effect and monitor it, and provide information on the location and condition of the material to anyone liable to disturb it. The regulation also requires everyone else to cooperate with the dutyholder so far as is necessary.

HSE explains the scope in plain terms: the duty covers all non-domestic premises, such as factories or shops, and the common parts of multi-occupancy domestic premises such as purpose-built flats — not the inside of individual flats. It says materials should be presumed to contain asbestos unless there is strong evidence that they do not, that a record or register of the location and condition of asbestos-containing materials must be kept up to date, and that the management plan should be reviewed every 12 months or sooner if necessary. HSE's working assumption for buildings is straightforward: if the premises were built or refurbished before 2000, assume asbestos is present.

For cleaning that matters more than people expect, because cleaning disturbs surfaces. Insulating board ceilings, sprayed coatings, lagging, textured decorative finishes, asbestos cement roof sheets and floor tiles all appear in pre-2000 buildings, and a pressure lance, an abrasive pad or a scraper applied to one of them turns a managed material into airborne fibre. The right sequence is to ask the dutyholder for the asbestos register before any method is fixed, and for the contractor to refuse to proceed on an unknown pre-2000 surface until that information exists.

Very little of an industrial cleaning price is the cleaning. It is the access and isolation arrangements, whether the work is inside a confined space and therefore needs a permit, a standby person and rescue provision, the hours the site will release — nights, weekends and shutdown windows cost more — the specification of the equipment, whether specialist waste streams are involved and how they are disposed of, and how much documentation the client requires. Work at height, hot work and anything disturbing a pre-2000 surface each add their own layer. A quotation that separates mobilisation, method, waste and documentation is the one you can actually compare.

LokalMatch does the introduction and leaves the rest to you. Describe the site and the job once, with your postcode, and contractors who take on this kind of work in your area make contact themselves with their own approach and their own figures. It costs the client nothing to use; the contractors pay for the enquiries that reach them. LokalMatch does not perform any cleaning, has no involvement in pricing, and does not vet, rank or recommend the firms that respond — for work of this kind, ask to see the method statement, the COSHH assessments and the insurance before anything is agreed.