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I replaced the kitchen & den floor of my 20 year old home with new vinyl. During the job of them ripping out the old floor in the kitchen, they mentioned that they thought it might have contained asbestos, but continued to to finish the job. They did not rip out the den floor because they thought it contained asbestos. I did not think of it at the time if there was a health risk, or if it was asbestos. Was asbestos used in flooring 20 years ago? How can I tell? Also they need to replace the floor in the den, because it was defective, and they will put the new flooring over the recently installed one. Is three layers of flooring OK? What is the practice? Thanks in advance.
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Yes, asbestos was used in flooring materials. Send it to a laboratory for testing. Encapsulation is one method of dealing with the "asbestos problem".
In CA, one must hold the proper license for handling asbestos, even to remove a piece for testing purposes. But I won't tell, just take precautions.
*Expand a little on the problem with the new flooring in the den and why it has to be replaced.The story that your contractor is giving you may have holes in it, I don't know.Sometimes asbestos is an excuse and not a reality.As Rich indicated, check it out in a lab first.Was this project a fixed price quote and maybe the removal was harder than anticipated and that is why it wasn't removed? Can you provide more info.
*How young does a house have to be before one can be reasonably sure there is no asbestos in it?Rich Beckman
*A call to your local building authority in whatever state or province that you live in will indicate when asbestos was outlawed in your jurisdiction.I've seen asbestos products in houses and buildings available and installed 10 to 12 years ago but haven't seen any since.
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I judge you should have more concern about the 3 layers of flooring than the health concerns to yourself. My recommendation is to pull it all up and lay new. At some point in the future the prior flooring will begin to fail and regardless of how well the final layer was installed, substrate problems will telegraph up. Most industrial hygenists I deal with judge the asbestos scare as most noxious to those who deal with it every day where the asbestos particles become airborne. You as the home owner will not come into contact enough to worry. Another worry for you is the one of revealing known asbestos when selling the home. Not telling can come back to bite you. The recommendation to send a bit of flooring to a lab is a good one and should be seriously considered. Knowledge of the problem is half the solution.
*I have asbestos flooring in my house. The house was built in 1977. I took samples of all my floors and wall/ceiling texture to a lab to verify asbestos. The cost of testing was the same for one sample as it was for five ($50). My floors all came back positive. The lab tech told me that good quality flooring had asbestos into the early 80's. Therefore one should be suspect of any flooring of that vintage. I have heard horror stories about people sanding the floor and some government agencies finding out about it and condemming the house. I was wondering if anyone knew what agency covers the regulation of asbestos for the homeowner? Is it okay for a homeowner to remove the floor themselves? In the case of my floors, they have pretty much have come unglued already. It would be easy to cut them up and remove them. I know the proper way to remove the floor would be to use Citrasol solvent as a cutting fluid to keep the dust down and desolve the rest of the glue. Of course a HEPA respirator and sealing off the rest of the house and covering the walls with plastic would be a good idea. What else should be considered? What about disposing of the waste? My main concern is to do it right without having my house condemed.
*When I did my kitchen, it had the old square vinyl tiles. House was built in 1956, and I assumed asbestos. This type of tile is called 'VA' tile -- Vinyl/Asbestos. This tile came in about three colors at the time, every house in the neighborhood used one of the three -- beige, green, and a color I call 'vomit', kinda a pukey reddish brown, with yellowish-brown swirls, kinda look like noodles in puke. Yummmm. :)I was pulling up the subflooring also, and pried it up with the tile still glued to it, I broke or split very few tiles. A solid tile is safe, just don't inhale it. :) It's when something containing asbestos is broken up, and it potentially releases airborne asbestos particles. Don't inhale them either. Landfill didn't have any problem taking the stuff, no questions when I took a dumptrailer full of tiles and subfloor to them. BTW, the guy at the landfill was the first use I heard of the 'VA tile' name, have heard it called that several times since in our area.ALAD
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I replaced the kitchen & den floor of my 20 year old home with new vinyl. During the job of them ripping out the old floor in the kitchen, they mentioned that they thought it might have contained asbestos, but continued to to finish the job. They did not rip out the den floor because they thought it contained asbestos. I did not think of it at the time if there was a health risk, or if it was asbestos. Was asbestos used in flooring 20 years ago? How can I tell? Also they need to replace the floor in the den, because it was defective, and they will put the new flooring over the recently installed one. Is three layers of flooring OK? What is the practice? Thanks in advance.