Reigate · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Reigate workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Reigate
Reigate is an affluent Surrey town of around 22,000 people, set at the foot of the North Downs where the chalk gives way to the greensand ridge. Its skyline is dominated by the mound of Reigate Castle, and beneath it run the Barons' Cave and the old sand mines that local legend ties to the barons who forced Magna Carta on King John.
Its working economy is a prosperous commuter mix of professional offices, light manufacturing and the trade workshops grouped on the Woodhatch and Holmethorpe industrial estates just north and east of the town centre.
Each of those Reigate processes throws fume, dust, mist or vapour into the workplace air, and COSHH demands it is captured at source - that capture system is local exhaust ventilation, and it must be thoroughly examined and tested at least every fourteen months. We cover the lot, from the Holmethorpe Industrial Estate units to the one-bench Reigate workshops, taking capture and face-velocity readings and leaving a clear pass or remedial verdict with the hoods labelled.
By sector
Where fume, dust, mist or vapour is pulled away at the point it is made, that is LEV - and for employers in Reigate and across Surrey it stands as their COSHH evidence.
Oil-mist and coolant-mist extraction on CNC machining centres and precision shops in the units at Holmethorpe and Woodhatch, where fine machining throws off airborne mist that has to be captured at the tool.
Steam-canopy and yeast and grain-dust control at Reigate's food producers and at Pilgrim Brewery on West Street, Surrey's oldest brewery, brewing here since 1984 and supplying pubs across the county and the Oval.
Fine-dust extraction and downdraught tables at Reigate cabinet shops and joinery works, where hardwood and MDF dust is drawn off at the blade before it can reach the lungs.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Woodhatch and Holmethorpe 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 prestige-car bodyshops that serve this affluent commuter town. 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 Reigate Grammar School, Reigate College and the other schools across the town, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Reigate
We are out under Reigate's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
An independent monumental mason's in Reigate had lost control at the cutting bench because the dust capture fan wasn't reaching its rated speed. We took benchmark readings, watched capture at each hood with smoke and dealt with the slipping belt. One point failed at first and passed once the belt was sorted, with everything logged and reported. We also 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 a Reigate 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 Holmethorpe Industrial Estate 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 a Reigate line.
Where exposure is in question - a precision engineering and light 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.
On most Reigate sites - the Holmethorpe Industrial Estate units and the smaller workshops alike - it is the fourteen-month clock that bites: let it lapse and the system is non-compliant that day, however well it seems to run. We examine it, tag each hood with its status and next-due date, and hand over the report an HSE inspector or insurer will want. Where something fails you get the reading, the cause and the remedy - never just a red sticker.
How it runs
Full visual and structural check of every hood, duct run, filter and fan across the Reigate 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 Reigate duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Woodhatch 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 light 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.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Holmethorpe Industrial Estate units, term-time access at the Reigate university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
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 Reigate, but a Holmethorpe Industrial Estate fabrication shop and a Bell Street canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
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 Holmethorpe Industrial Estate or a smaller Reigate workshop needs for their COSHH file.
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 Holmethorpe Industrial Estate 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 a Reigate 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.
precision engineering and light manufacturing, food and drink production, woodworking and joinery, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and laboratory fume cupboards - the trades clustered around Holmethorpe Industrial Estate and Woodhatch and across the wider Surrey.
Local knowledge
Reigate Castle's mound hides the town's strangest piece of engineering: the Reigate Tunnel, cut through the sandstone under the castle grounds in 1823 and reckoned to be one of the oldest road tunnels in England. That instinct for working the soft greensand ran on into the sand mines and the light-engineering workshops that grew up around the town. Every one of those modern shops carries a duty to control the mist, fume and dust its work throws off. We test and certify local exhaust ventilation to the standard the law sets, so the extraction reads true against its design figures.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
Stay compliant with COSHH and HSG258. No-obligation quote, UK-wide.