When did they stop putting asbestos in vinyl floor tiles?

pinkteapot

EDIT: post longer than I thought. Short version - are vinyl floor tiles from 1990 likely to contain asbestos?


Just bought a new house. Previous owner had a built-in desk in the study which has been removed. Carpet had been laid up to it, so there are two holes in the carpet, 54"x22" and 22"x14".

Owner left spare carpet offcuts and I'm sourcing underlay scraps. I plan to infill the holes, by using spray adhesive to put down rectangles of underlay and carpet. I know it'll look a bit naff, but it's better than the holes we have now, and will do until we recarpet in the future.

Around the edge of each hole is gripper rod. I want to take these out, as you'll feel them as ridges underfoot.

However, sparky friend came round at the weekend and noticed that under the carpet are old vinyl floor tiles. Carpet's been laid on top, and gripper rods glued to the tiles.

Sparky said to be careful as sometimes these old tiles contain asbestos. Getting the glued-down gripper rods up will inevitable damage the tiles.

Our house was built in 1990. He thinks we're probably OK as he thinks the asbestos tiles were mainly in 1960s and 70s houses.

However, does anyone know when manufacturers stopped putting asbestos in vinyl tiles?

Is there any way I can find out if the tiles are safe to damage?

yangptangkipperbang

1986 according to this !

http://homerenovations.about.com/od/vinylflooring/a/Asbestos-Vinyl-Tiles.htm

Gloomendoom

However, this would suggest that there is little or nothing to worry about if they do have asbestos in them...

http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/flooring/msg061807037844.html?5

muckybutt

Upto 2000 there were still tiles and artex in circulation that contained ACM's

The tiles them selves contain small amounts of ACM and don't generally pose much of a health hazard, the only time you would raise the stakes is if you drilled into them or ground them up in some sort of way creating a dust cloud, pulling small pieces up or removing cracked ones isn't much of a risk.

If you do remove small pieces of broken tile please dispose of them responsibly though by double bagging them and disposing of them at certified asbestos disposal sites, your local council will tell you where these are.

vaio

another vote for nothing to worry about.

The fibres (if there are any) will be encased in vinyl so unless you grind the tiles up and snort the proceeds you'll be fine

DevCoder

Id probably still damp down the tiles before doing any work, and wear a face mask.

Just to be safe.

pinkteapot

Thanks all. I'll probably be posting a pic of the gripper rods on here and asking how best to get them up, as they seem to have been stuck down with HUGE amounts of glue!

vaio

flooring bolster or paint scraper