How To Test For Asbestos In Vinyl Flooring

You can either engage an asbestos remediation expert or obtain a test kit for which you ll remove a flooring sample to mail to an asbestos testing lab.

How to test for asbestos in vinyl flooring. When you take a sample presume the worst and protect yourself from asbestos. In this case it needs to be removed very carefully to avoid asbestos exposure. 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. If you want to test for asbestos keep in mind that asbestos is only dangerous when it degrades and becomes airborne.

What are asbestos floor tiles. Southwest clean air agency recommends you use a certified asbestos abatement. If in performing the above test you discover your asbestos backed sheet vinyl flooring is tightly glued to any thing other than particleboard or plywood there may be no safe way for you to remove it. Testing of vinyl flooring for asbestos.

But when vinyl asbestos flooring is in good condition it is considered nonfriable. If you have time and about 40. When vinyl asbestos flooring is crumbling or damaged it is considered friable. Stain proof fireproof stylish and affordable vinyl products strengthened through the inclusion asbestos in their manufacture were a very popular choice in many new zealand houses.

You can also have a flooring sample tested for asbestos using one of the certified asbestos testing labs in this asbestos testing lab list. One armstrong world industries vinyl resilient sheet flooring product thought to have been installed in 1967 was tested in a lab and found to contain 70 percent asbestos. Flooring attached and disposing of the removed sections. If you do not have one you can buy them in any hardware store.

Therefore if you don t see signs of disintegrating pipes insulation walls vinyl flooring or other old materials in your home testing for asbestos may not be necessary. Multiple layers of tiles. Asbestos was used in vinyl wallpaper from the 1920s and in the vinyl floor tiles and sheet flooring that rose to prominence in the 1950s. An example would be a floor slab made from asbestos cement.

But the flooring companies aim wasn t so much to make the floor tiles fireproof as it was to make the tiles more durable. For 100 protection you need to use n100 or p100 dust masks. Such products some sold under the brand name solarian were installed as recently as 1980 long after governmental restrictions on asbestos were initiated. This method is easy and is not time consuming.

For about 35 years flooring companies included asbestos when they manufactured the vinyl tiles. Lab testing of flooring for asbestos content.