Asbestos testing in Vaughan for commercial buildings

If you are planning a renovation, fit-out or demolition in a commercial building in Vaughan, whether a Highway 7 office or medical suite, an industrial-office core in Concord, or a plaza unit in Woodbridge or Maple, you need to know whether the materials you are about to disturb contain asbestos. Sofisa Group Inc. is a WSIB-cleared and insured Ontario commercial general contractor and asbestos abatement contractor based in Mississauga, serving Vaughan and York Region. We coordinate asbestos testing for property managers, building owners, landlords and tenants' project managers: sampling, a qualified assessor's survey and analysis by an accredited lab. When asbestos is confirmed, we carry out the abatement.

Sofisa is not a laboratory and does not act as an independent consultant. The assessor and the lab are qualified third parties; we arrange the work, read the results against your scope and plan what comes next.

Vaughan has new towers around the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre, but much of the space being renovated is older: office and medical suites along Highway 7, Keele and Jane, and industrial-office cores and warehouse mezzanines in Concord and along Steeles that have been re-partitioned several times. Testing is usually needed:

• Before a tenant fit-out or re-planning that opens walls, ceilings or floors
• Before interior or full demolition, including when an older adjacent block is absorbed into a new fit-out
• When an existing survey doesn't cover the areas now being worked on
• When suspect material has been damaged, for example after a leak or by other trades

For background on which buildings are most likely to contain it, see asbestos in commercial buildings built before 1990.

The assessor samples what your work will disturb, typically joint compound, floor tile and mastic, ceiling tile, pipe and duct insulation, and sprayed fireproofing. We review your drawings and any existing survey first, coordinate the assessor and an accredited lab, then read the report against your scope so any abatement is priced and scheduled ahead of construction. In Ontario, the owner is expected to identify asbestos-containing materials before construction work begins and share that information with contractors, and Ontario Reg. 278/05 sets out how asbestos work is classified and carried out. Asbestos is one of several designated substances in Ontario, and testing is often part of a broader hazardous building materials assessment. Confirm requirements for your project.

Testing tells you what is in the building; it does not replace a City permit. In Vaughan, the Building Standards Department issues permits for construction, renovation and demolition. The City's demolition permit page notes that the Building Code Act, 1992 requires a building permit before demolition starts, that applications go through the City's Online Permitting Portal / ePlans Portal, and that approval from the City's Cultural Heritage division is required before applying for a demolition permit. Where a project includes demolition, put the heritage approval and the permit in the programme alongside the survey and any Type 3 notice.

Almost everything in Vaughan's industrial areas loads at grade, and in industrial condo bays the unit next door keeps shipping. Woodbridge and Maple plaza units are re-tenanted with neighbours trading either side. Sampling is limited to small areas, so the assessor's visit is scheduled around the tenant's shipping and trading hours, and sampled spots are sealed or patched afterwards. We plan access with the property manager or landlord before the assessor arrives.

If the lab confirms asbestos in the work area, the abatement is done before other trades start. Ontario classifies asbestos work as Type 1, Type 2 or Type 3, each with different precautions, and Type 3 work usually involves a notice to the Ministry of Labour before it starts. Our blog on Type 3 asbestos notice timelines in Ontario explains the lead time involved. See asbestos abatement in Vaughan for how removal runs in York Region units, our abatement services for the full scope, and the commercial asbestos abatement cost guide for what drives the price.

Because Sofisa also does interior demolition in Vaughan and drywall and framing in Vaughan, the test results feed straight into one plan: abatement first, then demolition, then the rebuild. See commercial contracting in Vaughan for everything we take on in the city, and asbestos testing in Mississauga for Peel. Crews mobilise from the Mississauga yard along the 427 and the 400.

Send the building address, the unit or suite, a short description of the planned work and any drawings. If there is an existing asbestos survey or management plan, include it, even if it is old: it tells the assessor what has already been sampled and where the gaps are. Then contact us or call, and we'll arrange the site visit.