Petrol, solvent, LPG, oxy-acetylene and battery charging, usually in one building with no zoning drawing.
A garage or vehicle workshop is a DSEAR site: petrol in tanks and cans, solvent and brake cleaner, LPG and oxy-acetylene, paint mixing and battery charging usually share one building. The assessment works out which of them need zones, checks ignition sources and equipment, and where zones are needed produces the zoning drawing most workshops do not have.
Petrol decanted into open containers, and the drained tank itself. The single highest-risk routine task in the building.
Solvent baths with the lid open are a continuous release source. Lid position changes the zone more than anything else you can do.
Large stocks of flammable aerosols stored on open racking, often next to a welding bay.
Cylinder storage, the state of the hoses and flashback arrestors, and whether cylinders come inside overnight.
Lead-acid charging gives off hydrogen. In a closed store room with no ventilation, that is an explosive atmosphere forming quietly overnight.
Damaged high-voltage packs vent flammable gas and can reignite hours later. Quarantine distance and location need deciding in advance.
Oily rags self-heat. The bin in the corner is a genuine ignition source, not a housekeeping detail.
Most garages need very little zoned area once the work is looked at properly. The value is in proving that, not in painting the whole workshop as a hazard.
A realistic assessment usually finds that the zones are small and local: around the fuel draining point, inside and immediately around the parts washer, and at the battery charging position. Everything else in the building falls outside, which means you are not obliged to replace perfectly good equipment.
Where equipment does sit inside a zone, it needs to be the right ATEX category. Zones and equipment categories →
If you hold petrol, brake cleaner, parts washer solvent, LPG, oxy-acetylene or charge vehicle batteries, a dangerous substance is present at work and DSEAR applies. There is no size threshold and no minimum quantity below which the duty disappears.
Fuel draining is the highest-risk routine job in most workshops. An open transfer of petrol into an open container in a building with electrical equipment at floor level is a textbook Zone 1 activity, and it is usually done in whichever bay is free.
Yes, though the hazard is different. High-voltage battery damage can produce flammable and toxic vent gases, and a damaged pack can go into thermal runaway hours later. Where you quarantine a damaged EV, and how far it is from the building, belongs in the assessment.
Very often, and it is nearly always missed. A solvent washer with the lid open is a continuous release source. Closing the lid is free and changes the zone.
Exhaust gas and running engines are the obvious ones, but the DSEAR issue is usually what is stored around it: aerosols, brake cleaner, LPG for the heater and the waste oil tank in the corner.
Drums, cabinets, bunding and separation.
When a charging area needs a zone, and how far it extends.
How zones are drawn and what they mean for equipment.
No charge for the conversation. Most quotes go out the same day.