Asbestos Backing On Vinyl Flooring

Figure 1 asbestos backed vinyl sheet flooring.

Asbestos backing on vinyl flooring.

Asbestos backed sheet vinyl flooring was commonly installed in many ways including over hardwood softwood and concrete floors. Unlike many asbestos containing materials vinyl asbestos flooring is generally safe to be around. Asbestos vinyl sheet flooring poses a significantly greater asbestos exposure risk than floor tiles or wallpaper. If the flooring was installed between 1952 and 1986 your vinyl flooring might contain asbestos.

It also was installed over tongue and groove wood floors particleboard and plywood. Asbestos backed vinyl sheet flooring is where the backing the side attached to the floor see figure 1 contains friable easily broken asbestos material. 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. However you re not completely in the clear because asbestos was a common ingredient in the mastic used to hold these flooring materials to the subfloor.

Asbestos vinyl floor tiles were far from rare. Unfortunately vinyl sheet flooring manufactured with an asbestos backing poses a serious exposure risk when it is disturbed. Vinyl is a type of plastic that has long been a popular material for floor tiles and sheets. 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.

Asbestos vinyl sheet flooring can be more dangerous to remove than tiles if proper precautions are not practiced. But that changes as soon as you decide to remove it. Identifying asbestos tile flooring by date. Asbestos tiles were popular widely advertised products found in all parts of the u s.

If the vinyl resilient sheet flooring backing material were dry sanded or scraped during building demolition for example or if the sheet flooring is worn through so that foot traffic continues to damage the backing material it is possible for unsafe levels of asbestos fibers to be released in a building. We are told that the paper layer can contain from 40 to 70 percent asbestos. The vinyl sheeting itself does not contain asbestos. Asbestos vinyl sheet flooring has two layers a top layer of vinyl and a bottom layer made from paper that contains asbestos.

Our photo left shows armstrong excelon 12x12 vinyl asbestos flooring made in 1972 identified in our floor tile photo guide asbestos floor tile identification photos 1949 1959 detailed photo guide to asphalt asbestos and vinyl asbestos floor tiles and resilient flooring produced in 1900 1980.