Is It Asbestos Or Vinyl

The asbestos industry in the us has been severely curtailed as manufacturers suffering from the effects of extreme but necessary regulation have turned to less regulated alternative materials.

Is it asbestos or vinyl.

Vinyl floor tiles and the backing on vinyl sheet flooring and adhesives. Asbestos vinyl flooring was a durable and economical material that offered many aesthetic options to suit a homeowner s taste. 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. Mastic is a type of glue used to adhere tiles and vinyl flooring to the subfloor.

Asbestos in vinyl products becomes dangerous when microscopic fibers of the mineral are released and become airborne. Above we show a 9 x 9 cork patterned vinyl asbestos floor tile found in a 1960 s ranch style home in new york. Asbestos was used in vinyl wallpaper from the 1920s and in the vinyl floor tiles and sheet flooring that rose to prominence in the 1950s. Asbestos vinyl floor tiles.

Manufacturers have been using asbestos for decades so asbestos containing tiles come in a vast array of colours styles and sizes. Possible signs of asbestos mastic include discoloration and an oily texture. For about 35 years flooring companies included asbestos when they manufactured the vinyl tiles. 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.

Roofing and siding shingles. If your building was built before 1980 mastic mixed with asbestos may have been used to seal your tiles to the floor. But the flooring companies aim wasn t so much to make the floor tiles fireproof as it was to make the tiles more durable. Textured paint and patching compounds used on walls and ceilings.

This article describes sheet flooring products known to contain significant levels of asbestos. Asbestos containing ceiling tiles floor tiles undamaged laboratory cabinet tops shingles fire doors siding shingles etc. Walls and floors around wood burning stoves protected with asbestos paper millboard or cement sheets. Asbestos is a mineral that lends fireproofing qualities to any substance it is mixed with.

You can assume this floor tile contains asbestos. Asbestos containing sheet flooring or resilient flooring product identification. Asbestos containing products are still manufactured and sold in the us but manufacture distribution and installation is strongly regulated by the epa. What are asbestos floor tiles.

Will not release asbestos fibers unless they are disturbed or damaged in some way. If the material is in good condition it normally does not pose a threat because the asbestos is enclosed in vinyl preventing the fibers from escaping. Whether your tiles are 12 12 9 9 or any other size they are all equally likely to contain asbestos.