Asbestos Vinyl Sheet Flooring

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 sheet flooring.

Dry asbestos particles are lighter than air wet ones are less prone to become air borne. 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. We include research citations on asbestos use in sheet flooring backer materials. The removal procedures described in this publication address the removal of asbestos backed sheet vinyl only if.

It also was installed over tongue and groove wood floors particleboard and plywood. A majority of the vinyl flooring made before 1986 contained asbestos in the tiles or in the backing materials. Asbestos backed sheet vinyl flooring was commonly installed in many ways including over hardwood softwood and concrete floors. 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.

However you re not completely in the clear because asbestos was a common ingredient in the mastic used to hold these flooring materials to the subfloor. Click here to read more. Asbestos vinyl sheet flooring can be more dangerous to remove than tiles if proper precautions are not practiced. Unfortunately vinyl sheet flooring manufactured with an asbestos backing poses a serious exposure risk when it is disturbed.

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. It is possible to make a tentative identification of floor tiles based on the individual tile pattern color and thickness. Asbestos backed vinyl sheet flooring is where the backing the side attached to the floor see figure 1 contains friable easily broken asbestos material. As with any asbestos containing material acm the first step to finding asbestos in linoleum sheet flooring and vinyl tiles is.

Asbestos vinyl sheet flooring poses a significantly greater asbestos exposure risk than floor tiles or wallpaper. We are told that the paper layer can contain from 40 to 70 percent asbestos. This fact sheet provides information regarding asbestos backed vinyl sheet flooring and vinyl tiles containing asbestos. Even some of the early peel and stick tiles used asbestos as the main ingredient.

What is asbestos backed vinyl sheet flooring.