Sevenoaks · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Sevenoaks workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Sevenoaks
Sevenoaks takes its name from the seven oak trees that once stood in the deer park at Knole, and it grew from a Wealden market town into one of Kent's most sought-after commuter towns, barely half an hour by rail from London. Knole itself, one of the largest houses in England and the seat of the Sackville family for over four centuries, still dominates the town from its parkland above the High Street.
Its working economy runs on light engineering, the building and fabrication trades and food production, much of it grouped in the industrial units on the Vestry Industrial Estate and Connections Business Park off Otford Road and around the Bat and Ball goods yard.
Wherever a Sevenoaks process releases fume, dust, mist or vapour, COSHH puts the duty on you to control it at source, and the extraction that does so is LEV - subject to a thorough examination and test at least every fourteen months. We work across the range, from the Vestry Industrial Estate units down to the smallest Sevenoaks workshop, measuring capture and face velocity and issuing a plain pass-or-remedial result with every hood tagged.
By sector
A system that catches fume, dust, mist or vapour at the point it is released is LEV, and for Sevenoaks employers and others across Kent it is the record COSHH looks for first.
Oil-mist and coolant-mist extraction on the CNC and machining lines in the light-industrial units on the Vestry Industrial Estate and around Bat and Ball, the working heart of a town better known for commuters than machine shops.
Steam canopies and flour-dust control in the bakeries, kitchens and food units serving Sevenoaks and the surrounding Weald villages.
Fine-dust extraction and downdraught tables at the cabinet shops and joinery works on the Vestry and Connections estates, where hardwood and MDF dust is captured at the tool before it reaches the lungs.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Vestry Industrial Estate and Cramptons Road units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Sevenoaks bodyshops and the vehicle units off Otford 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 Sevenoaks School and the technical and research benches carried on the district defence heritage around Fort Halstead, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Sevenoaks
We are out under Sevenoaks's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
Control at the welding bays of an agricultural engineering workshop in Sevenoaks had dropped off, the bench capture hoods let down by a filter well overdue for replacement. We carried out a full thorough examination and test, taking velocity readings, running smoke visualisation and checking the filter. One point failed initially on a loose joint and passed after remedial work, with the benchmark readings logged and reported. We flagged a worn part to the foreman for their maintenance records.
The test
An HSG258 statutory LEV test goes well beyond a walk-round look. On a Sevenoaks 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 Vestry 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 Sevenoaks 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
The duty is written into COSHH Regulation 9: where LEV controls a hazardous substance, the employer must have it thoroughly examined and tested at least every fourteen months and keep the records for five years.
For the great majority of Sevenoaks sites, from the Vestry Industrial Estate units to the one-man workshops, the fourteen-month deadline is what catches people out: once it passes the system is non-compliant regardless of its actual state. We carry out the examination, label every hood with its status and next-due date, and issue the report an HSE inspector or your insurer expects to see - and if a point fails, you get the number, the cause and the fix rather than a bare fail.
How it runs
Full visual and structural check of every hood, duct run, filter and fan across the Sevenoaks 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 Sevenoaks duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Connections Business Park 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.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Sevenoaks 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 Sevenoaks, but a Vestry Industrial Estate fabrication shop and a High Street canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Vestry Industrial Estate units, term-time access at the Sevenoaks university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
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 Vestry Industrial Estate or a smaller Sevenoaks workshop needs for their COSHH file.
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 Vestry Industrial Estate unit will ask to see.
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 Vestry Industrial Estate and Connections Business Park and across the wider Kent.
Local knowledge
Fort Halstead, on the greensand ridge above Dunton Green, was requisitioned in 1938 and became the Royal Armament Research and Development Establishment, where British rocket and early atomic-weapons research was carried out for decades. That legacy of precision and testing still shapes the engineering and technical firms scattered across the Sevenoaks district, and every one of them carries a duty to control the mist, fume and dust its work throws off. We test and certify local exhaust ventilation to the standard COSHH 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.