Esher · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Esher workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Esher
Esher is one of the wealthiest commuter towns in Surrey, a green corner of Elmbridge sixteen miles from London that the world knows for Sandown Park Racecourse and the eighteenth-century Claremont Landscape Garden. Its heritage runs deeper still, from Cardinal Wolsey's Tower at Esher Place to the Mesolithic settlers who camped by More Lane long before the racecourse was dreamed of.
Behind the High Street's brasseries and boutiques sits a quieter working economy of machine shops, motor trades and fabrication units, much of it grouped in the estates tucked behind Sandown Park at River Mole Business Park and Sandown Industrial Estate.
Every one of those Esher processes puts fume, dust, mist or vapour into the air, and COSHH requires it controlled at source - which means local exhaust ventilation, thoroughly examined and tested at least every fourteen months. We test the LEV across all of it - from the River Mole Business Park units to the smaller Esher workshops - with capture and face-velocity readings, a clear pass or remedial outcome and system labelling.
By sector
Where fume, dust, mist or vapour is pulled away at the point it is made, that is LEV - and for employers in Esher and across Surrey it stands as their COSHH evidence.
Oil-mist and coolant-mist extraction on milling and turning centres in the light-engineering units behind Sandown Park, where metal-cutting throws off a fine mist no operator should breathe shift after shift.
Steam canopies and flour-dust control in the bakeries and catering kitchens that supply Esher and the wider Elmbridge food trade, where damp heat and airborne flour both need capturing at source.
Fine-dust extraction and downdraught tables at the cabinet shops and joinery works serving Esher and Cobham's constant refurbishment trade, capturing hardwood and MDF dust at the tool before it reaches the lungs.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Sandown Industrial Estate and River Mole units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at the bodyshops and MOT garages that keep a car-heavy commuter belt on the road. 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 science laboratories at Claremont Fan Court School and the town's other independent schools, to the containment their teaching demands.
On the ground in Esher
We are out under Esher's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A privately owned MOT garage in Esher had the exhaust bay extraction under-pulling, down to a worn fan impeller. I ran velocity and smoke tests across the weld-fume arms, then sorted an unsealed joint before re-checking each point. A blocked filter was the last piece, and once it was cleared every point passed on re-test. I wrote it up in a compliance report for the HSE file, and flagged a worn part to the supervisor for their maintenance records.
The test
Under HSG258 a statutory LEV test is no visual once-over. For an Esher system it has to answer three things - whether the system is sound, whether it still draws at the hood, and whether that draw holds to what it was designed to deliver.
Ductwork, hoods, filters, fans and dampers checked for damage, blockage and leakage across the River Mole Business Park 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 Esher line.
Where exposure is in question - a precision engineering and manufacturing process, say - sampling confirms whether control is actually protecting the people at the process.
The duty
COSHH Regulation 9 puts a hard duty on the employer: any LEV controlling a hazardous substance must have a thorough examination and test at least every fourteen months, with records kept for five years.
For most Esher sites - from the River Mole Business Park units to the smaller workshops - the fourteen-month clock is the one that bites: miss it and the system is non-compliant the day it lapses, whatever its condition. We examine, label each hood with its status and next-due date, and issue the report an HSE inspector or your insurer will ask to see. If something fails, you get the reading, the cause and the fix - not just a red sticker.
How it runs
Full visual and structural check of every hood, duct run, filter and fan across the Esher 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 Esher duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Sandown Industrial Estate 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 precision engineering and manufacturing bay, a food and drink production bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
precision engineering and manufacturing, food and drink production, woodworking and joinery, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and laboratory fume cupboards - the trades clustered around River Mole Business Park and Sandown Industrial Estate and across the wider Surrey.
A dated report to the HSG258 method, the readings taken, a pass or remedial outcome for each hood, and system labelling - the evidence a duty-holder at River Mole Business Park or a smaller Esher workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the River Mole Business Park units, term-time access at the Esher 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 River Mole Business Park production line we can usually fit the re-test around your shifts. We will not pass a system that does not control exposure.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at an Esher 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.
Yes. Each hood is labelled with its status and next-due date, and you get the HSG258 report and system schematic for your COSHH file - the record an HSE inspector visiting a River Mole Business Park unit will ask to see.
Local knowledge
The working side of Esher hides behind Sandown Park, in the units of River Mole Business Park and Sandown Industrial Estate, where machine shops, MOT bays and light-engineering firms serve one of Surrey's wealthiest commuter belts. Milling, grinding and metal-cutting throw off oil mist, coolant mist and fine dust that no operator should be breathing shift after shift. Every one of those trades carries a duty to control what its work puts into the air. We test and certify local exhaust ventilation against its design figures, so the extraction reads true and the paperwork stands up.
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