Upminster · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Upminster workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Upminster
Upminster sits at the far eastern edge of Greater London in the borough of Havering, an affluent commuter suburb of around 25,000 people that began life as a farming village in old Essex. Its landmark is the white smock windmill on the rise above St Mary's Lane, raised by James Nokes in 1803 and turning to grind the district's flour for well over a hundred years.
Behind the shopping parades its working economy runs on the light-engineering, motor-trade and fabrication units grouped along Gerpins Lane and Bryant Avenue, close to the A127 and the M25.
Every Upminster 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 Gerpins Farm Industrial Estate plant to the single-bench Upminster 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 Upminster and the wider Greater London it is your evidence under COSHH.
Oil-mist and coolant-mist extraction on lathes and machining centres in the light-engineering and manufacturing units off Gerpins Lane and Bryant Avenue, where metalworking fluids are thrown off as a fine airborne mist.
Steam canopies and flour-dust control in Upminster's bakeries and food units, a trade with deep local roots in a parish that once milled its own flour and grew market-garden produce for the London markets.
Fine-dust extraction and downdraught tables at the joinery and cabinet workshops around the Gerpins Farm and Warley Street 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 Upminster trade 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 body and paint shops on the Gerpins Farm Industrial Estate off Gerpins Lane. 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 labs of Upminster's secondary schools, including the Coopers' Company and Coborn School, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Upminster
We are out under Upminster's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
An independent fabrication shop in Upminster had fume extraction arms performing below benchmark, with a leaking flexible connection behind the drop-off. We took benchmark readings, visualised the capture at each hood and dealt with the blocked filter we found. Every point passed on re-test once that filter was cleared, closed out with a signed report. We worked across two evenings after closing to keep disruption to a minimum.
The test
A statutory LEV test under HSG258 is not a visual once-over. On an Upminster system it answers three things: is the system intact, does it still capture, and does that capture match what it was designed to do.
Ductwork, hoods, filters, fans and dampers checked for damage, blockage and leakage across the Gerpins Farm 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 an Upminster 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
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 Upminster sites - the Gerpins Farm Industrial Estate 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 Upminster 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 Upminster duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Bryant 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 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.
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 Upminster, but a Gerpins Farm Industrial Estate fabrication shop and a Corbets Tey Road 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 Gerpins Farm Industrial Estate or a smaller Upminster workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Gerpins Farm Industrial Estate units, term-time access at the Upminster university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at an Upminster 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 manufacturing, food and drink production, woodworking and joinery, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and laboratory fume cupboards - the trades clustered around Gerpins Farm Industrial Estate and Bryant Avenue and across the wider Greater London.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Gerpins Farm Industrial Estate and Bryant Avenue, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Greater London.
Local knowledge
The clay under Upminster fed a brickmaking trade for most of the nineteenth century, with kilns at Potkilns near Bird Lane firing bricks, tiles and drainpipes, and the local brickworks supplying the very bricks that built Upminster Court in 1906. That making-and-firing instinct still shows in the town's engineering and motor-trade units, 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. A booth or a fume arm that has drifted below its design airflow is caught on the gauge, not by eye.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
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