Wells · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Wells workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Wells
Wells is England's smallest city, a cathedral city of roughly 12,000 people at the foot of the Mendip Hills. Its medieval cathedral, begun around 1175, is what earns the place its city status and gives it a draw far larger than its size.
Behind the tourist frontage sits a working economy of engineering, joinery, food production and vehicle trades, much of it out on Cathedral Park and Kestrel Way. Those workshops carry the same duty to control airborne contaminants as any larger city.
Wherever a Wells 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 Cathedral Park units down to the smallest Wells workshop, measuring capture and face velocity and issuing a plain pass-or-remedial result with every hood tagged.
By sector
Any system that draws fume, dust, mist or vapour off at source counts as LEV, and across Wells and the rest of Somerset it is the evidence COSHH expects you to hold.
Fine-dust extraction for the cabinetmakers and joinery shops around Cathedral Park and Kestrel Way. Hardwood dust is a Schedule 1 carcinogen under COSHH, so wood-dust LEV is tested to hold exposures below the workplace limit.
Tailpipe fume extraction for the garages and MOT bays off Strawberry Way and Tucker Street. Engines run indoors release carbon monoxide and diesel exhaust, so extraction reach and capture are checked at the point of work.
Flour-dust and steam extraction for Wells bakeries and the kitchens feeding the Market Place cafes. Flour is a known respiratory sensitiser and a leading cause of occupational asthma, so capture at mixing and proving is examined.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Cathedral Park and Kestrel Way units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Wells 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 Strode College in Street and the Royal United Hospital in Bath, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Wells
We are out under Wells's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A furniture workshop in Wells had airflow at its tool-capture hoods reading below benchmark since the last test, pointing to a filter well overdue for replacement. We checked static pressure, cleared the blocked filter and the ducting, then re-tested each point against benchmark. The system met control standards once the ducting was cleared, and we issued the readings and the LEV report.
The test
A statutory LEV test to HSG258 is far more than a look round. On a Wells system it settles three questions: is the ductwork and plant intact, does it still capture at the hood, and does that capture still match the design.
Ductwork, hoods, filters, fans and dampers checked for damage, blockage and leakage across the Cathedral 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 a Wells line.
Where exposure is in question - a woodworking and joinery process, say - sampling confirms whether control is actually protecting the people at the process.
The duty
COSHH Regulation 9 makes it plain: any LEV controlling exposure to a hazardous substance has to be thoroughly examined and tested at intervals no greater than fourteen months, and the resulting records kept for at least five years.
For the great majority of Wells sites, from the Cathedral Park 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 Wells 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 Wells duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Kestrel Way 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 woodworking and joinery bay, a vehicle servicing and mot 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 Wells 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. We plan testing around production shifts at the Cathedral Park units, term-time access at the Wells 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 Cathedral Park production line we can usually fit the re-test around your shifts. We will not pass a system that does not control exposure.
woodworking and joinery, vehicle servicing and MOT, bakeries and food production, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and laboratory fume cupboards - the trades clustered around Cathedral Park and Kestrel Way and across the wider Somerset.
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 Wells, but a Cathedral Park fabrication shop and a High Street canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
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 Cathedral Park unit will ask to see.
Local knowledge
Wells holds city status on the strength of its cathedral alone, and with around 12,000 residents it is the smallest city in England. That scale hides a full spread of workshops, garages and food producers packed into a compact centre and its edge-of-town estates. Every one of them runs local exhaust ventilation that the law expects to be thoroughly examined and tested at least every fourteen months. We survey, examine and certify LEV across the city so those systems actually control what they were fitted to capture.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
Stay compliant with COSHH and HSG258. No-obligation quote, UK-wide.