Sheet Vinyl Flooring Asbestos Paper Backing

True linoleum flooring does not contain asbestos but some other sheet flooring products do.

Sheet vinyl flooring asbestos paper backing.

Asbestos vinyl sheet flooring can be more dangerous to remove than tiles if proper precautions are not practiced. Asbestos was widely used as a filler in both asphalt based and some vinyl based floor tiles of varying thicknesses and extending to some thin flexible self adhesive backed tiles as well as some sheet flooring. Asbestos backed sheet vinyl flooring was commonly installed in many ways including over hardwood softwood and concrete floors. My concern is that there may be asbestos behind the sheet vinyl perhaps in the paper backing or glue adhesive.

Dry asbestos particles are lighter than air wet ones are less prone to become air borne. We are told that the paper layer can contain from 40 to 70 percent asbestos. Asbestos vinyl sheet flooring has two layers a top layer of vinyl and a bottom layer made from paper that contains asbestos. The removal procedures described in this publication address the removal of asbestos backed sheet vinyl only if.

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. High gloss surface vinyl sheets or vinyl tiles have an additional polyurethane coating applied at the end of the process. Asbestos vinyl sheet flooring poses a significantly greater asbestos exposure risk than floor tiles or wallpaper. The backing may be felt or highly filled paper made from wood pulp and calcium carbonate.

My father wasn t particularly concerned about this when i asked him. Examples of armstrong linoleum flooring linowall wall covering. He said that asbestos in flooring was more in the 1950s and thought that the sheet vinyl was probably a replacement floor anyway. Never worked with asbestos before maybe i ll use a paper filter.

Manufacturers often made this type of flooring with a friable asbestos backing which means mineral fibers are easily released into the air if the sheet flooring is disturbed or damaged. 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. Vinyl sheet flooring comes in large pieces and is usually cut to the size of the room and laid down in one piece.