Asbestos Backed Vinyl Sheet Flooring

Details for identifying asbestos or asbestos suspect sheet flooring products are at resilient sheet flooring id guide.

Asbestos backed vinyl sheet flooring.

Unfortunately vinyl sheet flooring manufactured with an asbestos backing poses a serious exposure risk when it is disturbed. Additional guidance can be found in the how to safely remove asbestoscode of practice 2011. Or if your existing flooring is in good condition your best option may be to simply. Asbestos backed sheet vinyl flooring was commonly installed in many ways including over hardwood softwood and concrete floors.

It also was installed over tongue and groove wood floors particleboard and plywood. The removal procedures described in this publication address the removal of asbestos backed sheet vinyl only if. Such products some sold under the brand name solarian were installed as recently as 1980 long after governmental restrictions on asbestos were initiated. This article describes sheet flooring products known to contain significant levels of asbestos.

Asbestos vinyl sheet flooring has two layers a top layer of vinyl and a bottom layer made from paper that contains asbestos. Rather than removing it consider installing a new floor directly on top of it. 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 type of flooring often has an asbestos backing that is considered friable and the fibres are easily released if the material is disturbed or damaged.

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. Asbestos vinyl sheet flooring poses a significantly greater asbestos exposure risk than floor tiles or wallpaper. Asbestos containing sheet flooring or resilient flooring product identification. 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.

Vinyl sheet flooring comes in large pieces and is usually cut to the size of the room and laid down in one piece. 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. 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. We are told.

The most dangerous of these products is asbestos vinyl sheet flooring. 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. Another possibility is to lay 1 4 inch underlayment on top of your existing floor and then lay new flooring on top of that.