Flooring - Asbestos?

likelyfran

We have lived in a social housing building of flats for about ten years.

Whilst looking for flooring for a relative, I came across info about the old 'Marley' floor tiles and how they contained asbestos.

I thought 'hang on' and went to have a look at the old flooring in our communal hall areas - it's continuous rather than tiles but clearly been down probably for decades and has the 'Marley' mottled pattern, just the same as the tiles.

It was badly fitted and there's a big gap running down one wall, between the flooring and the skirting board which has always looked like you can see rubble or earth in it but I now see that there's loads of white powder which I'm wondering about ie. that it might be asbestos. Am pretty concerned about this because if it is, it's been 'missed' by several landlord surveys and inspections (wouldn't surprise me) and we've all been exposed to it for years.

Going to try to upload a couple of photos - would be greatful if anyone with knowledge about such flooring could give me an opinion on whether this is likely to be asbestos - thanks.

Am trying to add pictures but it's not working, will keep trying.



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likelyfran

Ok, have urls from tinypic but MSE is continually giving me 'action blocked' message, have no idea why

Will have to leave this for now and come back to it.

Davesnave

It's unlikely that the asbestos in the tiles would separate to create dust, unless they were breaking-down very noticeably.

If the floor is intact, what you're seeing is more likely just dust and cement residues that have always been there since the skirtings were put on.

To be honest, I'd be slightly more worried about why a gap is apparently opening up!

wealdroam

Here's the picture:

societys_child

Looks like salts coming out of the cement or possibly flooring adhesive from when the covering was laid.
If it does contain asbestos fibres they'll be embedded in the vinyl and (could in theory) be released if the vinyl was broken or ripped into small pieces to remove it.

Edit: Looked at the pic again and the wall looks like it suffers from damp, which could point to it being salt.

Davesnave

Yes, it looks like efflorescence.

As above, the asbestos was incorporated into the materials making up the tile, so to be released, it would involve the breakdown of the tiles themselves.