What a warehouse survey looks at
The single biggest item in most older warehouses is the roof. Corrugated asbestos cement sheets were a standard roofing material for decades, and they are often combined with rooflights, gutters and flashings that also need checking. Wall cladding, lining boards, loading dock canopies and the soffits of office pods are other common places for asbestos cement and insulating board.
Inside, the surveyor will look at plant rooms, boiler houses, pipework and any older heating, cold stores, fire-stopping, electrical switchgear and the floor finishes in offices and canteens. Extensions and mezzanines are surveyed on their own merits, because they are often built from different materials at different dates.
Dockside sheds in Bootle and Seaforth and units on Knowsley Industrial Park are typical of the large-span buildings that need a roof access plan and a phased survey.
Working around live operations
Warehouses cannot normally stop. A sensible survey programme works around goods-in and picking, with zones agreed in advance, restricted areas avoided or handled at quiet times, and access arranged for roofs and racking. Where racking, stock or vehicles block an area, the report will list it as not accessed rather than guessing, and the register can be updated once it is reachable.
For roofs, safe access is planned before the visit: from below by platform where possible, and with edge protection and crawling boards if a fragile roof must be walked. Fragile roofs have caused serious falls, and a surveyor will not walk one without proper controls.
Typical triggers for a warehouse survey
A survey is usually needed when a lease is taken or assigned, when a building is sold, when the landlord or tenant plans re-roofing, solar panel installation, new racking fixings, mezzanine works or plant replacement, or when a lender or insurer asks for the register. Solar installations are a common modern trigger, because panel fixings go through roofing that may contain asbestos cement.
For routine management, a management survey and a register under the duty to manage is the baseline, with a re-inspection each year or so. For planned work, a refurbishment and demolition survey of the affected roof or area is needed first.
Get a survey scoped
Tell us the postcode, approximate floor area, the age of the building if known, and what is planned. Photographs of the roof and plant rooms are useful. The surveyor will discuss access, timing and scope with you before a visit is booked.
