How To Tell If Vinly Floor Has Asbestos

We describe sources of asbestos in older forms of sheet flooring including felt backed flooring rubber backed flooring and vinyl cushion backed resilient flooring products.

How to tell if vinly floor has asbestos.

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. Asbestos flooring often has black mastic which is a type of adhesive on the back. Step 3 date the tiles. If your building was built before 1980 mastic mixed with asbestos may have been used to seal your tiles to the floor.

Vinyl is a type of plastic that has long been a popular material for floor tiles and sheets. Unlike many asbestos containing materials vinyl asbestos flooring is generally safe to be around. Mastic is a type of glue used to adhere tiles and vinyl flooring to the subfloor. Our photo left shows armstrong excelon 12x12 vinyl asbestos flooring made in 1972 identified in our floor tile photo guide asbestos floor tile identification photos 1949 1959 detailed photo guide to asphalt asbestos and vinyl asbestos floor tiles and resilient flooring produced in 1900 1980.

Another time period that asbestos floors were popular in was between the years of 1920 and 1960. You can t see it if the floor is intact but you can spot the black adhesive if some of the tiles have already popped off the floor. As with any asbestos containing material acm the first step to finding asbestos in linoleum sheet flooring and vinyl tiles is. The tiles may have asbestos too.

The mastic itself usually has asbestos in it. This article describes sheet flooring products known to contain significant levels of asbestos. Vinyl or asphalt tiles that have these colors in it have a high likelihood of asbestos fibers. 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.

Such products some sold under the brand name solarian were installed as recently as 1980 long after governmental restrictions on asbestos were initiated. 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. One of the main ingredients used in old asbestos tiles was asphalt so they were primarily made in dark colors only. But that changes as soon as you decide to remove it.

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