How ASM’s National Presence and F&I Group Benefit Your Project
A local asbestos survey can be the first step in a much larger project. A school may need work completed during a holiday period. A property owner may be coordinating several buildings. A roof replacement may also involve scaffolding, asbestos removal and a future solar installation. The value of the right asbestos partner becomes clearer when those activities need to fit together.
Asbestos Surveying and Monitoring Ltd combines its Sunderland headquarters and laboratory with regional offices, service hubs and project teams supporting England, Scotland and Wales. As part of F&I Group, ASM also has access to complementary construction expertise and shared business support. For customers, that creates a practical route from an initial asbestos question to a properly planned property or project instruction.
The customer benefit: regional attendance, consistent asbestos information and earlier coordination with the people responsible for access, removal and follow-on building work. The services and support needed are agreed for your project, whether it concerns one property or a national estate.
National reach with a regional starting point
For a customer with one building, the priority is usually straightforward: arrange the right inspection, understand the findings and decide what happens next. For a customer with several locations, the challenge also includes keeping the instructions and records consistent across the estate.
ASM’s regional presence connects those needs. A premises manager can raise a local access issue while the wider programme is considered through an agreed national instruction. The approach is especially useful when buildings have different occupiers, opening hours, maintenance teams or planned works.
Sunderland is ASM’s headquarters and bulk-analysis laboratory location. Regional offices and service hubs support local enquiries and site work; they should not be assumed to be separate laboratories or public sample drop-off locations. Attendance, access requirements and reporting dates are confirmed against the individual instruction.
| Region | Relevant ASM service pages |
|---|---|
| North East | Sunderland and Wearside · Newcastle and Tyneside |
| North West | Manchester and Greater Manchester |
| Yorkshire and the Humber | Leeds and West Yorkshire · Hull and East Yorkshire |
| Midlands | Birmingham and the West Midlands · Coventry and Warwickshire |
| London and the South East | London asbestos services |
| East of England | Norwich and Norfolk |
| Scotland | Edinburgh and the Lothians · Glasgow and West Scotland |
| Wales | Cardiff and South Wales · Swansea and South West Wales |
| South West | Bristol and surrounding areas |
These are selected service routes, not a limit on the places ASM can support. For other locations or a programme covering several regions, send the postcodes through our national enquiry and regional contact page.
Why consistent asbestos information matters across locations
Consider a property manager arranging work at an office in Leeds, a retail unit in Manchester and a building in Glasgow. Even when the intended work is similar, the records may use different room names, survey types and assumptions. A central summary is only useful if each local team can trace an entry back to the correct material and location.
An agreed programme can establish common building references, survey briefs, report recipients and action-tracking arrangements. It should also preserve the differences that matter: an occupied office, a vacant shop and a proposed demolition site cannot automatically share the same inspection scope.
ASM’s property portfolio asbestos management provides the route for coordinating several assets. For ongoing maintenance and contractor information, our facilities management asbestos support focuses on the day-to-day needs of an occupied estate.
The practical gain is a clearer connection between national oversight and local decisions: which locations are ready for work, which need further investigation and who is responsible for the next action.
What do F&I Group shared services mean for ASM customers?
A project depends on more than the people attending site. Estimating, commercial administration, health and safety, logistics, customer liaison and financial administration all help turn an instruction into organised delivery.
F&I Group’s published management and support structure includes estimating, contracts management, SHEQ, transport, warehouse, finance, customer-care and administration roles. This wider support sits alongside the specialist expertise of the individual businesses.
For an ASM customer, shared support is most useful when it helps settle practical questions early:
- Scope and commercial clarity: what is included, which assumptions affect the quotation and how additional work will be authorised.
- Programme coordination: who needs access, which activities depend on earlier findings and when another specialist can start.
- Site preparation and logistics: how attendance, equipment, access and occupier arrangements fit the agreed work.
- Communication: who receives progress updates, urgent findings and decisions requiring client approval.
- Completion: which reports, works records and handover information each appointed business must provide.
The support arrangement is matched to the commissioned services. A small survey does not need the same management structure as a phased refurbishment, and each specialist retains responsibility for its own technical work.
Connecting asbestos expertise with the next stage of the project
ASM’s role begins with understanding the asbestos question. Through appropriately scoped asbestos surveys and bulk sample analysis at the Sunderland laboratory, the next decision can be based on evidence about the relevant materials and locations.
Where the project then needs other trades, the wider Group offers complementary capability. Ingleford Scaffolding provides access expertise; John Flowers and John Flowers Flat Roofing cover roofing work; Flowing Construction Services contributes construction and refurbishment capability; Zenith Safety Systems supports working-at-height protection; and Flowing Energy Solutions covers renewable-energy and energy-efficiency work.
The useful conversation is about the connections between those packages. Will the survey need access before the main scaffold is erected? Could a roof detail affect later solar installation? Which areas must be released before a construction team enters? Considering those questions together can help identify gaps before they disrupt the programme.
Explore the full ASM and F&I Group service connections for the individual capabilities and specialist business routes.
Three situations where the combined approach can help
1. A school estate with a fixed holiday work window
A trust planning ceiling, heating or electrical work across several schools needs to know which reports support each project and where intrusive investigation remains outstanding. Site contacts, safeguarding arrangements and available work areas must be agreed before the holiday period begins.
Regional attendance can be organised around an estate programme, while any necessary access, removal or construction packages are considered against the same milestones. Ongoing asbestos management arrangements still need to reflect what remains in each building after the works.
Our guide to common asbestos management plan audit failures in schools explains why current records and clear responsibilities matter between projects as well as during them.
2. Roof renewal with an energy upgrade in mind
A property owner may initially ask about a suspect roof material but also be considering roof replacement, insulation and solar PV. The asbestos investigation, access design, roofing specification and energy proposal need to be considered in a workable order.
Group coordination gives the client a route to those different specialists early enough to discuss the interfaces. It can help the teams assess whether access arrangements can serve more than one package and which decisions need to be settled before installation. Savings or programme reductions depend on the actual design and scope.
Read asbestos, roofing and retrofit: getting the work in the right order. For energy infrastructure or wider developments, ASM also provides a dedicated route for renewable-energy asbestos project support.
3. A commercial building moving from occupation to redevelopment
A building that has been managed during normal occupation can need a different level of asbestos investigation when partitions, services or structural elements will be removed. Early coordination should connect the proposed work boundary with the survey, removal, access and construction instructions.
ASM’s major-project and installation support can help define the asbestos input. The subsequent route may involve soft strip-out services or demolition services, depending on the works. If the site also contains suspect made ground or demolition fill, asbestos-in-soils assessment and support is a separate consideration.
Our guide to asbestos surveys before soft strip explains the information principal contractors should establish before intrusive work.
Connected delivery with clear technical responsibilities
Coordinating businesses within one Group does not remove the need for clear appointments, suitable competence and independent technical judgement. The client should know which organisation is contracted for each activity and what that organisation is responsible for delivering.
- Inspection and testing: ASM’s UKAS accreditation number 32982 applies to defined inspection and testing activities within its current schedules. It does not make construction, roofing or asbestos removal UKAS accredited.
- Removal: ASM undertakes applicable non-licensed and notifiable non-licensed work. Licensable work is delivered through Flowing Construction Services within F&I Group. The asbestos removal service page explains the delivery routes.
- Analytical work: the purpose, scope and impartiality of the analytical appointment must remain clear. HSE strongly recommends that the building owner or client independently sources and employs the analyst for site-clearance certification.
See HSE’s guidance on putting an asbestos management plan into action and ASM’s air monitoring and four-stage clearance services. Any potential conflict associated with related businesses must be considered when the analytical appointment is agreed.
Finding asbestos also does not automatically mean removal is the right answer. Decisions should follow the condition, risk and intended work. Our guide to what happens after asbestos is found in a survey explains the main next steps.
Start with the project brief, even if you are unsure which service you need
You do not need to decide every specialist package before contacting ASM. A useful first enquiry tells us what you need to achieve and gives the teams enough information to identify the next decision.
- Location and scale: provide the postcode or property schedule, building use and approximate size.
- Existing information: include complete asbestos reports, registers, relevant plans and records of previous work.
- Proposed activity: explain whether the building will remain occupied, undergo maintenance, be refurbished or be demolished.
- Access and programme: identify occupier restrictions, working windows, required dates and any access equipment already planned.
- Wider requirements: flag potential scaffolding, roofing, construction, safety-system or energy work so the relevant interfaces can be discussed.
- Decision-makers: identify who can approve the scope, provide access and authorise variations.
For several buildings or a continuing programme, our corporate asbestos services page explains account scoping, reporting and procurement arrangements. A single-property enquiry can begin with the same national contact team and be directed to the appropriate service.
National ASM services and F&I Group: common questions
Can ASM help with one property as well as a national estate?
Yes. Enquiries can concern one suspect material, a domestic or commercial survey, or a programme across several locations. The scope is matched to the property and decision required; access to wider Group capability does not mean every project needs several trades.
Do all ASM regional hubs have a laboratory?
No. ASM’s bulk-analysis laboratory is at its Sunderland headquarters. Regional offices and service hubs support local enquiries and project delivery. Confirm any sample submission arrangements with the laboratory before sending or bringing material.
Can a project include asbestos, scaffolding, roofing and energy work?
Where those services are relevant, the requirement can be discussed through ASM and the wider F&I Group. The appointed businesses, scopes, access arrangements, technical responsibilities and commercial terms need to be agreed for the actual project.
Will using several Group services always make the work cheaper?
No fixed saving should be assumed. Earlier coordination may identify opportunities around access, sequencing and repeated attendance, but the result depends on the project. Compare clearly defined scopes, exclusions and responsibilities when assessing quotations.
Can regional work follow one national reporting approach?
A common reporting brief can be agreed for an estate programme, including property references, recipients and action tracking. Each report must still accurately reflect its own survey scope, findings and restrictions. Bespoke data outputs should be agreed before a programme starts.
Discuss your local property or national programme with ASM
Send the location, available asbestos information and what you want to achieve. ASM can help define the asbestos instruction and identify where F&I Group’s wider expertise could support the next stage.
Discuss your project with ASM Call 0330 433 9680
Email info@asbestosSM.co.uk.
