Positive asbestos (Chrysotile) found in paper backing stuck to floor. Advice?

icicat

Hello all,

In my flat there is some paper stuck to the floorboards in the kitchen. This was backing to the old lino tiles that were pulled off before I bought the flat. The glued parts remain. It appears they just boarded over the paper with plywood and stuck vinyl tiles on top of the wood.

The way I discovered it was when I took the units out I realised they only boarded over the floor up to the units and can see large pieces of the paper present stuck down on the floorboards under the plywood, so guessing there is alot more under the already covered area of the floor.

It tested positive for Chrysotile and unfortunately I have been working along side it for a while now before getting it tested and likely to have disturbed and let out dust

I managed to remove some of it with peelaway1 (paint remover) soaking it thoroughly whilst scraping off, though still took some hard scraping on the wood (some of the kitchen has ceramic tiles and it came off easy on that. Just wondering on what to do with it now? Should I just brush some watered down PVA and board over the rest of the exposed parts? Or should I get a professional company to come in? Just worried about the cost if it's something I could do as long as I take precaution. Though the glue it's stuck down with is a !!!!!!! Very tough to remove advice appreciated.

chappers

HSEs recommendation is to use a ffp3 mask which is essentially a valved disposable mask and Tyvek suit and to spray with 8 parts water to 1 part washing up liquid, to spray under the tiles as you lift them.
Waste is classed as hazardous and should be double bagged and taken to the tip. However the risk is classed as low when removing.
It's all on the HSE site

unforeseen

TBH I would just do as you suggest OP. Paint with PVA and board over. It's not going to get disturbed.

Chappers there are no tiles. They have been removed leaving the lining paper

icicat

cheers guys, yeah gonna pva and then board over it all. There are areas I started to remove with peelaway and will have to finish off removing those, though will need to wet it good before disturbing any of it. An asbestos removal quote was around £1200 to lift all the vinyl tiles and plywood and remove all the paper. Thats about half the budget for my kitchen so will have to leave it be.

There are parts of the paper on the concrete ceramic tile area of the floor that is easy to remove with peelaway as it gets to the glue (its worse to remove from the wood). These parts are butted up to the wall and I would like to remove them. Do you think soaking it and scraping up will be ok? It can only really go airborn if dry right?

unforeseen

Yes keep it wet and make sure to wear rubber gloves when handling

PhilE

Your saying you got it tested, did the company who did the test give you advice on how to proceed? Get a few professional opinions before going ahead yourself. Especially if there are kids in the house.

icicat

The company that tested it for me didn't offer any advice as it was just a testing lab that delivered results. The only options I seem to get from removal companies are to either remove all the floorboards in the kitchen or encapsulate it, so spraying it with pva solution and cover over it with plywood.

To be honest I feel so helpless as to turn to for advice on this. I can imagine pulling up the floorboards is going to cost thousands and become a huge disruption, whilst leaving it underneath does not make me comfortable living with it as well as leaving it there for future owners in case they decide to go pulling up the floors. If I was to leave it and encapsulate I was thinking of putting asbestos stickers on the floorboards to warn anyone pulling up the floor for whatever reason.

Right now I feel pretty angry this massive burden has been put on me by the previous owner who probably had no idea it was asbestos as it has been left all torn up and exposed/uncovered underneath the kitchen units. Even a reputable professional kitchen builder was certain it was just paper when he had a look as well as another contract builder when I spoke to him about it said that stuff is just paper. Just goes to show how unaware they are about this stuff. Right now I haven't gone into the kitchen since discovering the test results.

Tomorrow I'm going to suit up and put on my mask and get some pva spray and spray it all down. I need to also clean everything. My main worry is I started applying thick paintstripper paste to some of it and may need to remove it before putting the board over. I was thinking of really soaking it with the pva water though how likely will fibres be released even if it is really soaked?

chappers

the bottom line is that this sort of asbestos is right at the low risk end of the scale. paste it all over with PVA if you're really concerned and then finish your floor over it as intended.

icicat

Hey Chappers. Yeah I also heard this paper has a fairly low concentration of asbestos. Though I wish the lab report gave me some sort of indication of that. I've decided to hire a removal company to remove as much of it as possible as there are some fairly large sections of paper that I'm not comfortable with. It's going to cost alot of money but worth the peace of mind. The only thing is most of the companys I spoke to pretty much use a cold water solution and scraping and to get the really glued on paper off I would imagine chemicals and steam would be needed? I'm worried that they will not be able to remove it and will just encapsulate most of it which isn't what I want, especially for the money. Otherwise they will pull off the floorboards which might be best to get rid of the contaminated wood, however replacing them would be more of a cost.

PhilE

Always big unexpected expenses in your home mate, been there.

You need some professional advice on how to proceed first and foremost. Encapsulation isn't going to be a massive cost, if it can be done.

Are you in the South at all? Depending on your area I may be able to recommend someone.

icicat

Hey PhilE, yeah this place is starting to rack up a hefty bill with all the problems and whats worse is property prices being so bad I'm likely not to see much return on it. I'm based in Surrey. I've been talking to quite a few companys for removal gathering quotes. It's pretty much the budget I was going to spend on the entire kitchen gone on this bloody asbestos. After this I am done with old renovations! Just getting a newbuild next time

The biggest concern is uncertainty as most of them are saying if they cant remove the really tough glued on parts they will need to just encapsulate, though if I'm paying all that money I want the whole lot off! Though not sure how much of this stuff is glued that is under the actual plywood and vinyl floor. The other and far more expensive option is to have the floorboards removed. Though that just seems too drastic and could cause more contamination underneath the floorboards. They are tongue and groove so the dust should be kept out. It's odd that I have never seen this issue anywhere else online and thinking maybe that's because the norm is to just board over it. As long as the plumbing is all good there is no other reason to lift the floor.