Sheet Vinyl Flooring Asbestos Paper Backing

Asbestos vinyl sheet flooring poses a significantly greater asbestos exposure risk than floor tiles or wallpaper.

Sheet vinyl flooring asbestos paper backing.

Such products some sold under the brand name solarian were installed as recently as 1980 long after governmental restrictions on asbestos were initiated. Never worked with asbestos before maybe i ll use a paper filter. Sheet vinyl flooring should be removed to avoid or minimize disturbance of the asbestos containing backing. The backing would be one suitable for use as a surface covering for example a felt perferably a rubber bonded asbestos backing a vinyl sheet backing a cellulosic felt or other backing which lendsitself to surface covering applications.

Make sure to cut all the way down to the floor so your sample includes flooring backing and adhesive. Probability of asbestos in sheet flooring in a 1990 home. The backing of the vinyl sheet didn t crumble or anything like that but it did separate when i ripped the sheet off the floor. Oct 22 2015 dennis said.

The house i live in was supposedly built in1990. I started removing old flooring in the bathroom when upon an internet search on how to i started seeing articles about asbestos in vinyl flooring. Asbestos vinyl sheet flooring has two layers a top layer of vinyl and a bottom layer made from paper that contains asbestos. Like floor tiles vinyl sheet flooring is a long lasting and economical material and it also offers more aesthetic options to suit a homeowner s taste.

With a utility knife and while wearing rubber gloves cut a one inch long 1 8th inch wide sliver of sheet vinyl flooring. My father wasn t particularly concerned about this when i asked him. It is sheet vinyl with a paper type backing. Unfortunately vinyl sheet flooring manufactured with an asbestos backing poses a serious exposure risk when it is disturbed.

My concern is that there may be asbestos behind the sheet vinyl perhaps in the paper backing or glue adhesive. He said that asbestos in flooring was more in the 1950s and thought that the sheet vinyl was probably a replacement floor anyway. This will entail peeling the sheet vinyl from the flooring beneath if the backing does not separate in the process or removing the sheet vinyl in sections with the underlayment attached. Remove a piece of floor molding or a floor heat register to access an edge of the sheet vinyl flooring.

Manufacturers often made this type of flooring with a friable asbestos backing which means asbestos fibres are easily released into the air if the sheet flooring is disturbed or damaged. 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.