Help! vinyl floor asbestos? does anybody know how to tell?

Doxford2016

Hi all!

Having my usual panic about something... this weeks drama: Potential Asbestos

Were current;y renovating our bathroom ourselves. our property is victorian terraced but the bathroom is a more modern extension. We couldnt get any info on how old it is when we bought our house but I would take a guess at 70's/80's at the very earliest.

We have taken up the old lino floor, it was a wood effect lino and had no backing on it (the back was white and sticky to stick it down) and it was installed on top of plywood.
There was no packing paper or anything like that,

I have only learned now that Lino/Vinyl floors can contain asbestos :shocked: and now I am freaking out.
I have bought a testing kit for £40 online which i will send off with a small piece of the flooring (there is a small bit left in one corner) which should arrive in a few days

I just wondered if anyone could offer me any advice/peace of mind? Should our bathroom be off limits for now until we suss this out or is it quite unlikely from the sound of the floor (i.e. it wasnt rigid/brittle, had no backing paper or fibrous material attached) that it has any asbestos?
:huh::huh::huh::huh:

phill99

Sorry to be blunt but you are more likely to die from a heart attack caused by worry, stress and anxiety than you from dying of an asbestos related illness.


Put this into perspective: virtually all houses in the UK have asbestos in them in some form. It was still used as a building product up until the late 1990s. Most however is in such minute traces that it poses no risk.


Vinyl flooring is an oil based product and, having been in the building and property industry for 33 years, I am not aware that it contains asbestos. The same with linoleum which is a natural product. the only floor covering I am aware of that had traces of asbestos was what was known as 'Thermo plastic tiles' and even these are fine if left in situ.


This seems to be where a little information is a bad thing and you are over reacting to rumour and media led fear.

Norman_Castle

My large kitchen, hallway and bathroom all have asbestos in the tiles under the flooring I’ve laid over the top and I'm currently alive.
Not sure about rolls of vinyl flooring but in the 70s a lot of square vinyl floor tiles were manufactured containing asbestos and for added risk stuck down with bitumen containing asbestos. Its considered a low risk and only potentially dangerous if broken or cut with a small risk of fibres possibly being released in the dust when damaged.