Aldershot · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Aldershot workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Aldershot
Aldershot is a Hampshire town in Rushmoor, around 40,000, the Home of the British Army since 1854 and home to a large Nepali and Gurkha community that has earned it the name Little Kathmandu.
The signature trade is defence and engineering - the military and vehicle engineering of the Aldershot Garrison, the logistics, and the advanced manufacturing - across the Blackwater Way and Lysons Avenue estates, with the bodyshops between them.
Every Aldershot process that gives off fume, dust, mist or vapour falls under COSHH, which requires the contamination held at source by local exhaust ventilation and that LEV thoroughly examined and tested at least every fourteen months. We test right across the site, from the Blackwater Way plant to the single-bench Aldershot units, logging capture and face-velocity figures and returning a clear pass-or-remedial outcome with each hood identified and labelled.
By sector
If a process captures fume, dust, mist or vapour at source, that capture system is LEV - and across Aldershot and the wider Hampshire it is your evidence under COSHH.
Weld-fume, exhaust-fume and paint extraction across the military vehicle-maintenance and engineering workshops of the garrison, where metal fume and vehicle exhaust need capture at source.
Battery-charging, weld-fume and paint extraction across the distribution parks, where the maintenance and fabrication bays need capture proven.
Machining, grinding and fume extraction across the advanced-manufacturing and engineering units, where metal dust and mist need capture at source.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Blackwater Way and Lysons Avenue units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Aldershot bodyshops. Two-pack paints release isocyanates - the leading cause of occupational asthma - so booth airflow is examined to its design figure.
Fume-cupboard face-velocity testing for the local college and the Aldershot Centre for Health, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Aldershot
We are out under Aldershot's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A military vehicle workshop in Aldershot had a weld-fume and exhaust extraction system on a maintenance bay pulling weak because a flexible tailpipe hose had split. We measured the capture at the bench and checked the exhaust extraction for the running engines. It failed on the split hose and the lost capture, and we specified the replacement. The bay ran heavy military vehicles, so exhaust-fume monitoring backed up the weld-fume airflow test.
The test
An HSG258 statutory LEV test goes well beyond a walk-round look. On an Aldershot system it has to establish three things - that the plant and ductwork are sound, that the hoods still capture, and that the capture still meets the figure the system was designed around.
Ductwork, hoods, filters, fans and dampers checked for damage, blockage and leakage across the Blackwater Way units - the faults that quietly kill capture.
Face and capture velocities, static pressures and airflows measured at each hood with calibrated instruments - numbers, not opinion.
Readings compared to the system's commissioning figures, so drift from as-designed is caught before it becomes a failure on an Aldershot line.
Where exposure is in question - a military and vehicle engineering process, say - sampling confirms whether control is actually protecting the people at the process.
The duty
Under Regulation 9 of COSHH the obligation sits squarely with the employer - any LEV that controls a hazardous substance needs a thorough examination and test at least every fourteen months, and the records held for five years.
Across most Aldershot sites - the Blackwater Way plant and the smaller units alike - it is the fourteen-month interval that trips people up, because a lapsed test leaves the system non-compliant from that date whatever its real condition. We run the examination, mark every hood with its result and next-due date, and produce the report your insurer or an HSE inspector will look for, and any failed point comes back with its reading, its cause and the fix rather than a bare red tag.
How it runs
Full visual and structural check of every hood, duct run, filter and fan across the Aldershot site.
Calibrated velocity, pressure and airflow readings at each extraction point.
A COSHH-compliant report: results against benchmark, clear pass or fail, and plain-English actions for the Aldershot duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Lysons Avenue floor.
Questions
Under COSHH Regulation 9, most local exhaust ventilation needs a thorough examination and test at least every 14 months, with higher-risk processes more often. A military and vehicle engineering bay, a logistics and distribution bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at an Aldershot workshop needs a commissioning test to prove it performs to its design figures before it goes into service - we measure it and document the baseline the 14-month clock then runs from.
No. LEV testing is a statutory examination of fume and dust control to COSHH and HSG258, with capture and face-velocity readings; TR19 is kitchen grease and fire risk. We do both across Aldershot, but a Blackwater Way fabrication shop and a Wellington Centre canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Blackwater Way and Lysons Avenue, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Hampshire.
Military and vehicle engineering, logistics and distribution, advanced manufacturing, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the college and health centre - the trades clustered around Blackwater Way and Lysons Avenue and across the wider Hampshire.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Blackwater Way units, term-time access at the Aldershot university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
We record it as remedial and set out what is needed - airflow, ductwork, filtration or capture at the hood. You do the work and we re-test, and on a Blackwater Way production line we can usually fit the re-test around your shifts. We will not pass a system that does not control exposure.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
Stay compliant with COSHH and HSG258. No-obligation quote, UK-wide.