Test Vinyl Adhesive Asbestos

You can assume this floor tile contains asbestos.

Test vinyl adhesive asbestos.

Mastic is a type of glue used to adhere tiles and vinyl flooring to the subfloor. Thousands of workers harmed by asbestos exposure have filed lawsuits against asbestos adhesive manufacturers to seek compensation for their medical costs and suffering. 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. If your building was built before 1980 mastic mixed with asbestos may have been used to seal your tiles to the floor.

Asbestos mastic will also always be black in color. This article provides dates of manufacture of asbestos containing adhesives mastics sealants and includes photographs and text describing the appearance of such products. How to recognize roof or floor adhesive mastic or sealant that may contain asbestos. When you remove that floor covering to make way for new flooring you may encounter the mastic and wonder whether it is safe to remove the main concern surrounding this question is that black mastic often contains asbestos.

In the 1990s for example two engineers filed lawsuits against north american refractory company narco. For 100 protection you need to use n100 or p100 dust masks. A small sample of the material which might be or contain asbestos is placed in a sealable container to be sent to a lab for testing. You can visually identify vinyl flooring materials that contain asbestos by reviewing the vinyl asbestos floor tiles and sheet flooring identification photo guide see resources.

Pre paid postage envelope was included in the kit. Common in homes built in the 20th century black mastic was used as an adhesive for ceramic tile linoleum and other flooring materials. Simply place a one inch by one inch piece of the building material you wish to test for example ceiling tile floor tile roofing etc. Above we show a 9 x 9 cork patterned vinyl asbestos floor tile found in a 1960 s ranch style home in new york.

Possible signs of asbestos mastic include discoloration and an oily texture. Since any one positive sample of flooring backing or adhesive indicates that the entire type of sheet vinyl flooring is asbestos it may not be necessary to test all the samples. When you take a sample presume the worst and protect yourself from asbestos. A tool is used to cut into the substance to be tested to get a sample of fibers.

Multiple layers of tiles. This method is easy and is not time consuming.