For a residential dwelling or commercial property, we come to site and carry out a visual/tactile inspection of the premises collecting samples as necessary throughout each area on a room by room basis and including the interior, exterior, ceiling cavity and subfloor. We aim to detail the construction of the entire structure and including any smaller structures on the site, so that you will have some reference to any given surface and its asbestos content. Each room/area will receive its own entry in the report detailing its construction and where asbestos items are suspected or identified, and these items will receive their own entry in the report with the extent in square metres noted and a 14-point risk assessment of the materials carried out. Our results are detailed in a table (called an asbestos register) with in-line photos and colour coding clearly distinguishing asbestos items from non-asbestos entries. Any samples collected will be collected in accordance with our Safe Operating Procedure and transported to a NATA accredited laboratory for analysis under chain of custody. Our reports (including our residential reports) are fully compliant with the OHS Act 2004 for workplaces, the associated Work Safe Regulations 2017, and the Work Safe Code of practice: how to manage asbestos in the workplace. Your report will be provided within 1-2 days of our investigation.

For residential dwellings, an asbestos inspection typically takes about 2 hours. For commercial properties, the inspection can take anywhere from 3 hours to several days depending on the size of the site and number of buildings to investigate

We charge one blanket price for all residential homes at 770.00 including GST. The fee includes all samples necessary (no limit) analysed in a NATA accredited laboratory, investigated by a tertiary qualified consultant with a minimum of 5 years industry experience. There are no additional fees or charges. Other companies may charge a fee for the inspection and then a per sample cost which can quickly exceed our capped price format, or they have hidden charges – if you are really after the best price, make sure there are no hidden fees. Also you should consider paying a little extra to have this done properly, missed asbestos items and poor reports that are hard to interpret can be costly in their own way. Remember our main points – we have no limit on samples, there are no additional fees, and you will get an easy to read report in just 24-hours.

People often mischaracterise the nature of asbestos risk – while some precautions should be taken (and this mostly to protect the investigator), breaking off a small piece of asbestos for testing purposes is not dangerous. What is dangerous, and must be avoided at all costs, are activities that mechanically disturb the asbestos materials – such as drilling, grinding, sanding or water blasting. These activities create an immediate risk to anyone in the vicinity. Of course you can only avoid these activities if you know where the asbestos materials are -  So how risky is testing for asbestos materials? No measurable risk and much, much less risk than not testing. As a precaution, we ask that people are not in the room while we collect samples or maintain a minimum distance of 5 or more metres wherever practicable during testing activities (this is required only at the moment of sampling). Our investigators wear a P2 mask to protect themselves from possible exposure during sampling activities.

We aim to turnaround all asbestos reports in just 3-business days. Note that sometimes, due to demand, we may fall a little short of this, however at the outside you will have your report within 4-business days with our promise to try for a 3-business day turnaround wherever possible.

The owner of the property is in most cases responsible for supplying an asbestos register to the tenant of the property. It is a tenant's responsibility to request that the owner supply an asbestos register and to familiarise themselves with it. The register must be supplied to any contractors working on the site. Many commercial property owners, and surprisingly many commercial property agents, are unaware of this legal requirement. If an agent or owner refuses to supply an asbestos register, your fallback is to complain to Work Safe about the issue. Work Safe may visit the site and put an improvement notice on the property which will require the owner/agent to comply or face fines. Both owners and commercial property agents can be fined up to $30,000.00 for not complying with the requirement to obtain, maintain and supply to tenants an asbestos register for the property.

To avoid conflict of interest (and because it is really not our thing), Greenlight does not perform asbestos removal. We are strictly an investigative occupational hygiene company and are not positioned to in any way profit from the advice that we give. Some people unknowingly source their asbestos inspection reports from asbestos removal companies who have a conflict of interest and occasionally questionable advice. These reports are also typically not compliant with the requirements of Work Safe, i.e. the OHS Act 2004 for workplaces, the associated Work Safe Regulations 2017, and the Work Safe Code of practice: how to manage asbestos in the workplace.

You will need to give us a call on 03 9048 4411 to get a definitive answer on this, however we can usually move things around a little to accommodate urgent requests – typical lead time is anywhere between 1 day and 1 week depending on our workload.