Asbestos Backed 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 backed vinyl sheet flooring.

One armstrong world industries vinyl resilient sheet flooring product thought to have been installed in 1967 was tested in a lab and found to contain 70 percent asbestos. Or if your existing flooring is in good condition your best option may be to simply. Details for identifying asbestos or asbestos suspect sheet flooring products are at resilient sheet flooring id guide. Asbestos vinyl sheet flooring has two layers a top layer of vinyl and a bottom layer made from paper that contains asbestos.

Asbestos backed sheet vinyl flooring was commonly installed in many ways including over hardwood softwood and concrete floors. Additional guidance can be found in the how to safely remove asbestoscode of practice 2011. Unfortunately vinyl sheet flooring manufactured with an asbestos backing poses a serious exposure risk when it is disturbed. Vinyl sheet flooring comes in large pieces and is usually cut to the size of the room and laid down in one piece.

It also was installed over tongue and groove wood floors particleboard and plywood. Asbestos containing sheet flooring or resilient flooring product identification. The removal procedures described in this publication address the removal of asbestos backed sheet vinyl only if. We are told.

This article describes sheet flooring products known to contain significant levels of asbestos. 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. Rather than removing it consider installing a new floor directly on top of it. Another possibility is to lay 1 4 inch underlayment on top of your existing floor and then lay new flooring on top of that.

Such products some sold under the brand name solarian were installed as recently as 1980 long after governmental restrictions on asbestos were initiated. Asbestos vinyl sheet flooring poses a significantly greater asbestos exposure risk than floor tiles or wallpaper. 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. The most dangerous of these products is asbestos vinyl sheet flooring.

But before about 1978 in products that looked like this same material asbestos fibers were used as a strengthen material on vinyl sheet flooring backing. Where asbestos backed vinyl sheet flooring is to be removed it must only be removed by an a class asbestos removal licence holder in accordance with the workplace health and safety regulation 2011. Removing your asbestos backed sheet vinyl flooring.