Vinyl Sheet Flooring Asbestos Backing
If the vinyl resilient sheet flooring backing material were dry sanded or scraped during building demolition for example or if the sheet flooring is worn through so that foot traffic continues to damage the backing material it is possible for unsafe levels of asbestos fibers to be released in a building.
Vinyl sheet flooring asbestos backing. The only way to know for sure is to do a test scraping some pieces off and sending them to a lab for testing around 30 per sample. Vinyl sheet flooring comes in large pieces and is usually cut to the size of the room and laid down in one piece. Details for identifying asbestos or asbestos suspect sheet flooring products are at resilient sheet flooring id guide.
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. What makes asbestos dangerous. Spray the starting edge.
Asbestos backed vinyl sheet flooring is where the backing the side attached to the floor see figure 1 contains friable easily broken. Asbestos vinyl sheet backing. Using the utility knife and sufficient pressure to fully penetrate the thickness of the vinyl cut a piece of flooring approximately one by two feet.
Manufacturers often made this type of flooring with a friable asbestos backing which means mineral fibers are easily released into the air if the sheet flooring is disturbed or damaged. Asbestos vinyl sheet flooring poses a significantly greater asbestos exposure risk than floor tiles or wallpaper. Asbestos vinyl sheet flooring poses a significantly greater asbestos exposure risk than floor tiles or wallpaper.
While asbestos is useful as a binding agent in the manufacture of vinyl and rubber floor coverings it isn t needed to make linoleum tiles or sheet flooring. 1 vinyl flooring installed between the 50s and the 90s has a possibility of containing asbestos. I unknowingly tore up some.
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.