You cannot swap corners in a licensed industry. So the real value engineering happens long before we price the removal.
Value engineering is a term used frequently in construction, and in most trades it is fairly easy to picture. On the mechanical and electrical side, a specification names a particular make and model, and there might be another product on the market that does exactly the same job at a different cost. You propose it, the client and architect review it, and they either approve it or ask you to stick with the original. That is value engineering.
Asbestos does not work like that, and I want to be clear about why. We are a licensed industry with clearly defined boundaries we must operate within. By the time a job reaches us as the licensed removal contractor, the scope is set: you are either removing the material, encapsulating it, or not touching it. There is no flexibility in that scope, and there are certainly no corners to cut. So if you are looking for value engineering in the removal itself, you are looking in the wrong place.
Where it genuinely exists is much earlier, and it comes down to understanding what the client actually needs. A client might tell me they want an asbestos-free building. It is a very broad ask, and often neither necessary nor achievable. They may believe it is achievable when it is not. True value engineering means sitting down with the client and their team, being transparent and honest, and saying that not everything needs to be done. You are trying to achieve X, Y and Z, and to get there you only need A, B and C. That conversation can save a client a great deal of money without compromising a thing.
In an ideal world, that thinking starts with the duty holder on the client side and the consultant who carried out the survey, because they are experienced enough to understand which remedial methods are available. That is where most of the real value lies. By the time it reaches the licensed removal contractor, the lines are clear: this is what needs doing, this is what we price against, and this is what we deliver.
So when someone tells me they have value-engineered an asbestos package by finding a cheaper way to carry out the removal, I want to look very closely at what has actually changed. In a licensed industry, the honest answer is usually nothing good.
