What construction-side clients use us for

Asbestos has been banned in Austria since June 1990 (Asbestos Ordinance, with transitional periods until the end of 1993) and across the EU since 2005 at the latest, but it is still embedded in millions of square metres of existing buildings. Every renovation, every demolition and every refit at a tenant change in pre-1990 buildings can hit an asbestos-bearing layer. Anyone renovating, demolishing or managing here carries regulatory obligations.

This is exactly where we accompany construction firms, remediation and demolition contractors, property managers and public clients: legally sound, documented, lab-independent.

1. Clearance measurement after asbestos abatement

What it is: fibre-concentration measurement in the air of the abated area after cleaning and before reuse: proof that the abatement actually left the working area asbestos-free.

Standard framework: sampling and counting logic of VDI 3492; handling of asbestos-containing materials per ÖNORM M 9406. Analysis at an accredited partner lab.

What you get:

  • Sampling protocol with measurement-point plan
  • Lab report with fibre concentration and methodological documentation
  • Release recommendation ("area can be reoccupied") or re-abatement recommendation
  • Archivable PDF for the construction file

Use cases: after Eternit remediation, after floor-adhesive removal, after asbestos sprayed-coating abatement, after asbestos-board removal in heating systems, after large-scale abatement in schools / care homes / public buildings.

Indicative price: from €690 per measurement point (number of points project-dependent). Quote after review of the abatement plan.

2. Site inspections and pre-abatement reports

What it is: on-site survey of asbestos-suspect and other pollutant-relevant materials, as the basis for abatement or demolition planning, tendering, and contract drafting.

What we cover: asbestos in all typical building components (Eternit, floor coverings, floor adhesives, sprayed coatings, fire protection, cardboard, joint sealants), and where relevant to the assignment: MMF, PCB, PAH, lead, wood preservatives, radon.

Output: structured report with:

  • Material list with sampling-point plan
  • Lab results (accredited partner lab, ISO/IEC 17025)
  • Per-material risk classification
  • Recommended abatement or disposal paths
  • References to applicable legal frameworks (GKV, ÖNORM M 9406, ÖNORM B 3151, AVV)
  • Appendix with original lab reports

Indicative price: on-site deployment €490 (half day) or €690 (full day), each including 2 sampling locations and an unlimited number of samples; each further sampling location €89, including sampling and the results discussion. A sampling location is an outdoor site (a playground, for instance), an apartment, or a building storey where the building is not residential; in residential buildings each apartment counts. Whether a half or full day fits, we assign in the quote based on the property and distance. Travel €0.46 per kilometre (half day one way, full day both ways, because no other client is visited that day). How many samples we take is decided by the case, not by the price: we earn nothing on the sample count, and laboratory costs are passed through at cost unchanged (asbestos material from €63 net; mineral matrix from €145 net; MMF from €63 net). The structured written pollutant report is charged as per the quote. Concrete quote after pre-review.

3. Quality control during asbestos remediation

What it is: independent, measurement-based control of remediation quality. We prove with samples and measurements whether the remediation reached its goal: control and final fibre-concentration measurements, control samples, review of the disposal documentation, an independent release recommendation.

What we check, analytically:

  • Fibre concentration in and around the working area (control and interim measurements to VDI 3492)
  • Control samples for the effectiveness of the fine cleaning
  • Completeness and plausibility of the disposal documentation per AVV (SN 31437g)
  • Agreement between the lab result and the contracted work

What you get:

  • Measurement and inspection reports with a measurement-point plan
  • A report on any anomalous readings, with clear framing
  • Final clearance measurement closing the remediation phase
  • Archivable closing documentation for the construction file

Use cases: remediation in occupied or in-use buildings (apartment buildings, schools, care homes), public clients with proof obligations, general-contractor models with pollutant remediation in the work package, remediation waves across multiple properties.

Indicative price: quote after initial call, scope and measurement extent are project-dependent.

4. Worker training and awareness

What it is: in-house or online training for staff who encounter potentially asbestos-bearing materials in their work, before it becomes a problem.

Audiences we typically train:

  • Site managers and foremen before entering existing buildings
  • Foremen and crews in remediation and demolition firms
  • Property managers and caretakers with pre-1990 portfolios
  • Facility managers in schools, care homes, public buildings
  • Procurement, tendering, technical staff in public bodies

Typical content:

  • Where asbestos occurs in Austrian building stock, by year and component
  • How suspect materials are visually identifiable (and where optics aren't enough)
  • What to do on a suspected find, and what not to do
  • Which legal obligations apply in Austria (reporting, sampling, disposal)
  • When a specialist firm must be engaged

Format: on-site (half day or full day) · hybrid · remote webinar · custom modules for internal onboarding programmes.

Indicative price: quote after needs clarification. For framework agreements with an annual training budget, we offer fixed packages.

5. Consulting on Austrian asbestos law

What it is: technical (not legal) consulting on applying the current Austrian asbestos law in concrete construction projects.

Legal framework we operate in:

  • Grenzwerteverordnung (GKV) in its current version: workplace limit values
  • ÖNORM M 9406, handling of weakly bound asbestos-containing materials
  • ÖNORM B 3151, dismantling of buildings as the standard demolition method (material separation for recovery and disposal)
  • AVV, waste catalogue ordinance (SN 31437g for asbestos-containing waste)
  • BMLFUW Decree 10/03/2017, MMF classification for older buildings
  • Employee Protection Act (ASchG) with protective ordinances
  • EU Asbestos Directive 2009/148/EC and EU 2023/2668 (tightened limits 2025/2026)

We additionally draw on the German TRGS 519 (asbestos): the Austrian Labour Inspectorate names it as state of the art.

Typical advisory questions:

  • "Which procedures are standard-compliant for this abatement?"
  • "What must the tender specify so we draft a legally sound work contract?"
  • "How do we document the disposal route in line with AVV?"
  • "Who in our organisation carries which obligations?"
  • "What changes for us under EU Directive 2023/2668?"

Format: point advisory calls (often clarified in the free initial call) · structural compliance audits · procedure documentation · training and onboarding concepts.

Disclaimer: We are not lawyers. Our consulting is technical, not legally binding. For legally binding interpretation we recommend engaging an appropriate law firm, we routinely collaborate with such firms.

Other services

Beyond the asbestos core, we cover the following on demand:

  • Pollutant inventories for building portfolios (asbestos, MMF, PCB, PAH, lead, radon, uniform documentation, measurement-based risk prioritisation)
  • Radon measurement obligation service under §§ 98 ff. of the Radiation Protection Act 2020 (StrlSchG 2020), for ground-floor and basement workplaces in the 104 Austrian radon protection zones
  • Framework agreements for multi-property portfolios with fixed response times and priority slots
  • Companion handling of other pollutants (PCB, PAH, lead, MMF, wood preservatives) when they become relevant within an asbestos assignment

Sectors we work with

  • Construction firms and general contractors, pre-abatement inspection, quality control, clearance
  • Remediation and demolition contractors, independent quality control and clearance
  • Property managers with portfolios, inventory, abatement planning, staff training
  • Industry and trade, stock documentation, quality control during remediation, training

You are a municipality or public body? For municipalities in the asbestos case there is a dedicated page: Asbestos support for municipalities.

About us

Who stands behind the assignments, how we're structured, and what you can rely on.

Accountability and structure

Contracting party AustriaUngiftig FlexCo · Talgasse 43, 2620 Neunkirchen, Lower Austria
Managing Director ATDr. Maximilian Mandl
Scientific DirectorDr. Maximilian Mandl, Geochemist (ETH Zurich)

Austrian assignments are billed by Ungiftig FlexCo. Scientific direction lies with Dr. Maximilian Mandl across every project: the same accountability, the same standards.

Lab independence

We run no lab of our own and hold no stake in any lab. For each assignment we select the most appropriate accredited partner lab (ISO/IEC 17025), documented transparently in the report on request. This ensures our findings are not skewed by internal capacity or sales interests. We also hold no stake in any remediation firm, take no commissions, in either direction, and are paid solely by the client.

Our work is grounded in current Austrian asbestos law (GKV in its current version, ÖNORM M 9406, ÖNORM B 3151 (demolition), AVV/SN 31437g, BMLFUW Decree 10/03/2017, ASchG) and in the EU Asbestos Directive 2009/148/EC plus EU Directive 2023/2668 (tightened limits, phased 2025/2026). For work procedures we supplement this with the German TRGS 519, drawn upon in Austria as state of the art. Details and consulting offer under Consulting on Austrian asbestos law.

Why companies get the on-site assignment only

Private clients can choose two leaner routes with us: sending in samples, and the video-guided virtual inspection. Both rest on the client taking the sample. We do not offer either to companies, for two reasons.

Worker protection. When a company's own employees take the sample, that is work within the meaning of the 4th section of the Austrian Grenzwerteverordnung. That regulation applies to workplaces, construction sites and external work sites within the meaning of the ASchG (§ 1 Abs 1 GKV), and its 4th section covers work in which employees are or may be exposed to asbestos dust or to dust from asbestos-containing materials (§ 21 GKV). Among other things, § 25a GKV then applies: employees who may be exposed to asbestos dust must be instructed before taking up the activity and at regular intervals thereafter, by a suitable person, through theoretical and practical exercises. The duration has to be proportionate to the tasks, but the eight required contents under § 25a Abs 2 GKV are mandatory, and practical exercises cannot be held over a video call. Independently of that, § 4 ASchG obliges employers to identify and assess the hazards to their employees' safety and health, and § 41 ASchG requires them to ascertain the properties of the working substances they use.

For completeness, because it is often missed: the written notification to the labour inspectorate required by § 22 Abs 1 GKV before work under § 21 does not apply to sampling carried out to establish the presence of asbestos in a given material, provided exposure is only occasional and of low level and the assessment under §§ 4 and 41 ASchG has shown the TRK limit is not exceeded (§ 22 Abs 4 Z 4 GKV). The Austrian legal texts cited here exist in German only; renderings on this page are ours, not official translations. The duty to instruct under § 25a GKV has no such exemption. Anyone with trained staff and a completed assessment can send samples straight to an accredited laboratory and does not need us for it. We simply do not offer companies these two routes, because their core is the client doing the sampling.

What the result has to cover. A sample sent in answers exactly one question: what is in that piece of material. For a private client who wants to know whether one particular tile contains asbestos, that is the whole question. The hazard assessment under § 4 ASchG is a different one: it concerns the workplace and the people in it, and therefore also where the same material is built in elsewhere, what condition it is in, and who is exposed to it. That can only be established at the property.

Insurance and confidentiality

We carry professional liability insurance; the sum insured and underwriter are disclosed on request. Confidentiality and NDA readiness are standard, a sample NDA is available on request.

Availability

On-site appointments in Vienna, Lower Austria, Burgenland and Styria. Other regions by arrangement.

For continuous-throughput projects (schools, property portfolios, multiple parallel remediations) we offer framework agreements (see Other services).

Scientific depth

Dr. Mandl publishes regularly in the Ungiftig blog on technical topics, from MMF risk classification to PCB in joint sealants. The blog serves as a public knowledge base and reference library for interested clients.

How an assignment runs

  1. Initial call (free), scope clarification: which building, what trigger, what deadline, what service.
  2. Quote, binding, broken out per item (site visit, samples, quality control, clearance, etc.).
  3. Site visit or quality-control start, depending on assignment type.
  4. Lab work at the accredited partner lab (ISO/IEC 17025); lab pass-through at actual cost.
  5. Report and handover, structured report, risk classification, release recommendation where applicable.
  6. (If framework agreement), transition into ongoing accompaniment with fixed response times.

Indicative prices

What does it roughly cost? The price calculator lets you combine deployment, sampling locations and travel and see the estimate immediately.

Service Price
Initial call free
On-site deployment, half day (2 sampling locations, unlimited samples) €490
On-site deployment, full day (2 sampling locations, unlimited samples) €690
Each further sampling location €89
Travel per kilometre (half day one way, full day both ways) €0.46
Written pollutant report as per quote
Sample cost, asbestos, single piece from €63 net
Sample cost, asbestos, loose material or dust from €85 net
Sample cost, asbestos-bearing mineral matrix from €145 net
Sample cost, MMF from €63 net
Clearance measurement (per point) from €690
Quality control (remediation, measurement-based) quote after initial call
Training quote after needs clarification
Consulting structural / compliance audit quote after initial call
Framework agreement portfolio individual quote

Updated: July 2026. Lab pass-through at actual cost, no mark-ups.

Frequently asked by construction-side clients

After any asbestos abatement in interior spaces before reuse. In Austria, the clearance measurement follows the sampling and counting logic of VDI 3492 (fibre concentration in indoor air). Clearance is performed in the cleared, cleaned working area before handover to the user. Without documented clearance, reuse is not legally defensible.

Our quality control is measurement-based and analytical: with control samples and fibre-concentration measurements (VDI 3492) we prove whether the remediation reached its goal, review the disposal documentation under AVV for completeness, and give an independent release recommendation. Where readings are anomalous, we report it with clear framing. At the end stands the final clearance measurement.

Yes, tailored to the audience: site managers, foremen, property managers, caretakers, staff in material-contact roles. Content: How do you recognise asbestos-suspect materials? What do you do on suspected finds? Which legal obligations apply in Austria? When must a specialist firm be brought in? Format on-site, hybrid or remote.

Point questions are often resolved in the free initial call. For structural consulting (compliance audit, procedure documentation, training concepts) we issue a quote after scope clarification. We are not lawyers, we advise on the technical application and interpretation of the applicable rules (GKV, ÖNORM M 9406, ÖNORM B 3151, AVV, BMLFUW decree).

Yes, via Ungiftig FlexCo. Sum insured and underwriter disclosed on request. NDA readiness is standard, sample NDA available on request.

Site visits typically within 1 to 2 weeks. For urgent engagements with a fixed start date, we clarify availability in the initial call and re-prioritise if necessary. Framework agreements with fixed response times are available.