Is It Asbestos Or Vinyl

Walls and floors around wood burning stoves protected with asbestos paper millboard or cement sheets.

Is it asbestos or vinyl. Asbestos containing products are still manufactured and sold in the us but manufacture distribution and installation is strongly regulated by the epa. Asbestos containing sheet flooring or resilient flooring product identification. If your building was built before 1980 mastic mixed with asbestos may have been used to seal your tiles to the floor. Textured paint and patching compounds used on walls and ceilings.

Whether your tiles are 12 12 9 9 or any other size they are all equally likely to contain asbestos. Vinyl tiles with asbestos are all 12 12 or 9 9 tiles with asbestos. Vinyl floor tiles and the backing on vinyl sheet flooring and adhesives. Possible signs of asbestos mastic include discoloration and an oily texture.

If the material is in good condition it normally does not pose a threat because the asbestos is enclosed in vinyl preventing the fibers from escaping. Asbestos vinyl floor tiles. Asbestos in vinyl products becomes dangerous when microscopic fibers of the mineral are released and become airborne. Will not release asbestos fibers unless they are disturbed or damaged in some way.

Asbestos containing ceiling tiles floor tiles undamaged laboratory cabinet tops shingles fire doors siding shingles etc. For about 35 years flooring companies included asbestos when they manufactured the vinyl tiles. 9 9 vinyl tile and mastic. You can assume this floor tile contains asbestos.

Manufacturers have been using asbestos for decades so asbestos containing tiles come in a vast array of colours styles and sizes. This article describes sheet flooring products known to contain significant levels of asbestos. Above we show a 9 x 9 cork patterned vinyl asbestos floor tile found in a 1960 s ranch style home in new york. What are asbestos floor tiles.

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. Asbestos vinyl flooring was a durable and economical material that offered many aesthetic options to suit a homeowner s taste. If an asbestos ceiling tile is drilled or broken for example it may release fibers into the air. Mastic is a type of glue used to adhere tiles and vinyl flooring to the subfloor.

But the flooring companies aim wasn t so much to make the floor tiles fireproof as it was to make the tiles more durable. Roofing and siding shingles. Cork pattern vinyl asbestos floor tiles were produced in at least three hues by armstrong as well as montgomery ward and sears and possibly kentile and other companies.