Is There Asbestos In Wooden Flooring

Containing between 15 and 85 percent asbestos these adhesives were manufactured mostly in the first half of the 20th century.

Is there asbestos in wooden flooring.

But if you have a home built before the mid 20th century there is a good chance that the floor tiles contain asbestos. Evil culprits like lead and asbestos can lie harmlessly on a floor but pose serious health risks when disturbed through sanding. Click here to read more. As time goes by and more homes are remodeled fewer homes contain asbestos tiles.

As with any asbestos containing material acm the first step to finding asbestos in linoleum sheet flooring and vinyl tiles is. Linoleum is an all natural floor covering composed of dried linseed oil wood dust cork and jute and it doesn t contain asbestos. Tiles that are disintegrating should be. Examine the condition of the tiles.

Because linoleum was invented long before vinyl people often refer to both types of flooring as linoleum but there s a big difference. Dry asbestos particles are lighter than air wet ones are less prone to become air borne. Asbestos vinyl sheet flooring has two layers a top layer of vinyl and a bottom layer made from paper that contains asbestos. Many older homes have asbestos tiles for flooring.

9 x9 12 x12 and 18 x18. You could also cover the tiles with new vinyl flooring linoleum or even ceramic tiles. However some companies produced asbestos adhesives as late as 1984. Asbestos floor tiles were manufactured in three sizes.

However as a favor to future owners of your house make some note of the fact that asbestos tiles are under the new flooring. The asbestos floor tile identification articles in this series illustrate that with the combination of design appearance and an idea of floor tile age many asbestos containing floor tiles or sheet flooring products can be reliably identified even before confirmation by a test by a certified asbestos testing laboratory. Intact asbestos tiles are not a major risk and can in fact be left in place and covered with other materials such as carpet vinyl linoleum or concrete. That way no one will be endangered years from now when they start to rip up the new flooring and find asbestos tiles beneath.

If floor tiles were installed between 1920 and 1960 there s a good chance they contain asbestos because most flooring tiles manufactured during this period did. Therefore if your house was built or remodeled around 1984 or before there is a chance that black mastic adhesive on your floor may contain asbestos.