Sheet Vinyl Flooring Asbestos Paper Backing

The backing of the vinyl sheet didn t crumble or anything like that but it did separate when i ripped the sheet off the floor.

Sheet vinyl flooring asbestos paper backing. Examples of armstrong linoleum flooring linowall wall covering. Such products some sold under the brand name solarian were installed as recently as 1980 long after governmental restrictions on asbestos were initiated. 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. This will entail peeling the sheet vinyl from the flooring beneath if the backing does not separate in the process or removing the sheet vinyl in sections with the underlayment attached.

We are told that the paper layer can contain from 40 to 70 percent asbestos. Sheet vinyl flooring should be removed to avoid or minimize disturbance of the asbestos containing backing. 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. Remove a piece of floor molding or a floor heat register to access an edge of the sheet vinyl flooring.

With a utility knife and while wearing rubber gloves cut a one inch long 1 8th inch wide sliver of sheet vinyl flooring. The backing would be one suitable for use as a surface covering for example a felt perferably a rubber bonded asbestos backing a vinyl sheet backing a cellulosic felt or other backing which lendsitself to surface covering applications. Never worked with asbestos before maybe i ll use a paper filter. Unfortunately vinyl sheet flooring manufactured with an asbestos backing poses a serious exposure risk when it is disturbed.

Make sure to cut all the way down to the floor so your sample includes flooring backing and adhesive. At asphalt based sheet flooring we report that some tests of red backed asphalt core vinyl sheet flooring found that the floor did not contain asbestos. My father wasn t particularly concerned about this when i asked him. But other asphalt impregnated felt products and floor backers did contain asbestos so unless you have had a lab test performed it would be prudent to assume that the material contains asbestos.

Asbestos vinyl sheet flooring has two layers a top layer of vinyl and a bottom layer made from paper that contains asbestos. Asbestos vinyl sheet flooring poses a significantly greater asbestos exposure risk than floor tiles or wallpaper. He said that asbestos in flooring was more in the 1950s and thought that the sheet vinyl was probably a replacement floor anyway.