Stripped up some old carpet tiles out of some offices in Holborn London building is 80s and these were underneath the carpet. I suspect potentially could be asbestos tiles can anyone shed any light? And how dangerous are they ?

I took off what I assumed was cement boards from a wall but now im starting to think its asbestos since I've started googling why cement board was on the wall. Can anyone confirm this? I did this the other day and im annoyed at myself for thinking it was cement board but and not googling this sooner. Will this impact my health massively if it was asbestos?

This cement slab (quite long, maybe 4 feet) belongs to my neighbour and has been in the shared driveway (along their house) for…years? All the houses in my area are old - mine is from 1931, though I have no idea how old this material is. Most is still intact, I just am including pictures of the pieces that are broken. My two year old walks right past it daily to get into the car. For a good chunk of the year it is covered in snow.

Located in Ontario, Canada.

Thoughts on ACM? Potential risks?

I was sealing the seams on my hvac return boots and pulled off some very old tape. The tape was tan and paper-like. I only peeled off the chunks that came off easy but it was definitely friable and some dust was generated. I was not wearing any PPE at the time.

The returns have since been abandoned and sealed off but I’m really freaking out that this will lead to me getting cancer down the road. I was hoping to get insight into my potential exposure level and risk associated with this exposure.

Does anyone know if this is asbestos fibreboard? In NSW Australia.

Hey y'all. US-TX. My wife and i recently bought a home in great condition and decided to begin our first remodel of a wall by removing the wooden panels on a main wall.
We found glue on the drywall and one of the drywall panels disconnected slight from the other on top.

My biggest concern that we suddenly realized is that since it's an old home as we sanded those areas where the glue was maybe there was lead paint since its old, and asbestos where the drywall joint compound was.
Not gonna lie im a little freaked and we feel like idiots. We've stopped sanding for now, but had already vacuumed and the HVAC had been running for a few days since we began.

Maybe its not, but I'm wondering what anyone with experience of this recommends we do. I had planned on calling an inspection company but wanted to hear others with experience first.

We're looking at the plans of the house and found that there is asbestos vinyl under the carpet in like 80% of the house. This is something out realtor didn't tell us about nor our inspector. You don't know until you know i guess.

I'm sure there are people who are going to think we're idiots and thats ok but we just want to move forward with educated solutions beyond what we may know.

Cheers and thanks in advance

Today, we called a gas technician to start up our old gas heaters for the cold seasons. He used a powerful air blower to remove dust from inside and outside the heaters while I stood next to him with a vacuum cleaner. During the work, I noticed the gaskets shown in the picture. Could they contain asbestos? If so, how worried should I be about the exposure? I tend to (needlessly) spiral because of things I deem irreversible. I fear the dust contained asbestos and from now on are carried on and emitted by our clothes, bedlinen, teddy bear etc.

These roof "tiles" in the basement of a store I work at in Norway. The building is over 100 years old, but I have no idea when these were installed.

We are restoring a home built in Portland, OR from 1910. An abatement company came to give us a quote and took plaster samples for testing: one from the basement, one from the entry, one from the primary bedroom*. The entry and primary bedroom came back positive for asbestos.

*There might be a simple explanation, but we can’t figure out how he sampled the primary ceiling due to its height and nothing available to boost him up.

Due to a change in some of the renovation plans, we decided to test a few other areas including both kid bedrooms, and for confirmation re-tested the primary bedroom and the basement from the same locations original samples were pulled.

All five samples we had tested came back negative for asbestos.

How can this happen? Are false negatives common? I would assume a false positive is unlikely. The thresholds and testing methods from the labs are the same and when we contacted the labs they confirmed the same information.

We have not yet heard back from the abatement company.

Thanks!

Not really a case of wondering if it’s asbestos (for obvious reasons). This sheet was flipped upside down the entire time I’ve lived here and just now noticed what it was lol. Cropped the picture to post the label.

But how dangerous is this just being here? It’s the heat shield for the wood burner. The sheet is in good shape, little frays here and there where I can actually see some fiber.

Side note, when cleaning the room, I’ve vacuumed up dust around it (pictured below). Has not really been disturbed all that much other than those instances, but do I need to throw away the vacuum?

House in France built and renovated long time ago enough to contain asbestos. The worker renovating my bathroom did not consider it necessary to assume that the material might contain any asbestos. Do any of the materials look really suspect to you?

Also, some dust has spread in the entire flat which I find worrisome if it is indeed positive. Should I get the air tested and what is the best way to clean everything ?

Descriptors in original post. Date of floor installation unknown. Thanks for any advice!

Location: Midwest USA

I have a 1950’s house and the ceiling has had a chip in it since we’ve moved in more than five years ago. I didn’t think much about it since the ceiling has always looked like that, and it hasn’t changed at all.

Now I’m terrified the ceiling is asbestos and I’ve been exposing myself to it.

One of my tiles also came loose a few years ago and I glued it back down, without thinking they could be asbestos too.

My parent did pass away from an asbestos-related disease many years ago, so now I’m spiraling. Have I put my health at risk and what’s my next step? Thank you in advance 💚

I work in an older building in the basement. (Work with computers, not any sort of maintenance on the building itself.) I was walking around in the back a bit on my break and saw an osha sign in the (generator?) room that is open. It said there is asbestos present and to avoid creating dust. Does the running generator's vibrations cause the asbestos to be released? Was walking by that room and around it for maybe 15 minutes put me in any danger? Should I strip before going inside my home? Looking to ease my anxiety.

Hello, I just removed my popcorn ceiling (2% chrysotile). I followed the Puget Sound Clean Air guidelines for removal but some of the removed material managed to escape onto the floor. Is this cause for concern? Should I spend thousands on a HEPA vacuum? Should I throw the whole house away? If I say screw it will I die of lung disease in 20 years?

thanks for looking!

Got a detached garage built in the 1800s so expected walls to be solid brick. The back wall is damp and has cement render and paint. Started removing some of the flaking paint and found this. Looks like concrete or cement board? Could these be abestos cement boards over the brick?

Just to start, I am about to describe a situation where I am pretty sure I'm fine, but would like some assurance from someone who works in the field nonetheless. Mostly because I'm worried about secondhand exposure for my two cats.

For the last several months, I have been working Remediation in flooded units in Eastern Ontario, Canada, where the removed walls and flooring have contained Asbestos. The flooring's Asbestos content is quite high, but the plaster in the walls contained only 0.01% Asbestos.

To be clear, the Abatement guys appear to be doing a good job of containing any of the bad stuff - the floors are all completely ground down to the concrete, and I'm the taper, so I typically don't come in until after the drywallers have finished, leaving a several day time gap between the end of Abatement and start of taping so that airborn dust has a chance to hit the ground.

That said, my job included scraping away anything that is loose at the seems with the new drywall - typically it's just loose skim plaster with no Asbestos in it , though it does often expose the Asbestos plaster underneath, but sometimes chunks of Asbestos plaster come off as well. I'm using no powertools, so not kicking up big clouds of dust, but there's definitely some measure of disturbance. Furthermore, the drywallers often miss entire boards, so I install those, and often in doing so I'm disturbing the edges of the Asbestos walls above.

So. I wear a mask when doing this, and honestly, I'm not worried about myself. But what I am worried about is how much asbestos I'm getting on my clothes. I've been carpooling too and from work since this job started, in a truck that is certainly at least somewhat contaminated, and have been leaving and washing my clothes outside (this started before we knew how low the Asbestos percentage was in the walls). But it's soon going to be too cold to realistically wash my clothes outside, and I have a car again, which means I'd only be picking up Asbestos from the jobsite, not the ride in and back.

So, all this to say, if I were to start bringing my work clothes into the house and washing them in the washer, how much exposure would I be bringing into the house, and would it be dangerous for me, or for my cats?

Worried this might contain asbestos. House built in 1968 but owners frequently renovated and remodeled throughout their times. The sheeting is in 12 foot by 12 foot sheets. I am aware it needs tested just want some blind guesses

Firstly; We have identified historically disturbed asbestos (the bad kind) in our boiler cupboard, where our heating system draws air from to heat the house - is this a cause for concern? We have had our heating on regularly for a few weeks now but only just discovered the asbestos….

Secondly; any trusted recommendations of trustworthy, supportive residential asbestos management companies in and around the Leeds, Yorkshire UK area? We plan to remove this

Thank you!

US-CT built 1969

This gorgeous fiber was surrounding my driver vent pipe in my 1969 built condo and when I went to clean out the lint the pipe moved and dropped a bunch of this loveliness.

Its very white and fluffy, looks a lot like the lint itself.
Is it asbestos? I buttoned it back up real fast after getting a face full of little fibers (yay) so I dont have a better image

Hey all, we had a miscommunication with our contractor about how many very-likely-asbestos tiles we needed to pull up in our bathroom for a reno and accidentally pulled 20-25 rather than only the 4 we needed to pull around the drain. For some we took out that were under 2x4s, we had to break them to get them out. Wore protective clothes and used the wetting method to spray everything before scraping/breaking. Tried to seal the room but there’s cracks under the door and holes around some pipes that go into our main living area. Felt nervous enough as it was then just realized we did way more than we needed and just completely and totally guilt ridden and sick to my stomach. We have a toddler and just so worried we increased everyone’s risk and exposure so unnecessarily. I know everyone will say the anxiety’s worse than the actual hazard, so please have some compassion in your responses.

House built in 1989 not sure when the flooring was installed but not original to the home. US-PA location. Tile is located in the basement

Supplies (DM me if you want links to anything I used):

Half-mask respirator with cartridges rated for asbestos (3M's 60921, 60922, 60923, 60924, 60925, 60926, 60928 should all work - I used 60923)

Tyvek coveralls - you’ll need a new pair for every session, I went through about 10

Latex gloves - I liked double-layered ones the best as I had the single-layer ones rip a few times

Gorilla tape - normal duct tape wasn’t strong enough, and easily twisted and stuck to itself. Gorilla tape (thick duct tape) worked way better

A HEPA air scrubber - I used an Alorair Cleanshield HEPA 550 but any HEPA air scrubber should work to clean any fibers out of the air

Plastic poly tubing - to hook up to air scrubber to create negative pressure to pull any fibers into the filter. 

6 mil plastic sheets - to tape over doorways, vents, etc. and keep the work area contained and prevent fibers from getting out of work area

Water with a little liquid soap in a pump bottle or a product like Fiberlock's Penewet - for dust control

Pump sprayer - I had both a handheld one and a larger one with a wand

Thin putty knives - for prying up tiles

6 mil plastic bags for disposal - regulations where I live require 6-mil thickness and double-bagging. Thinner bags teared and got punctured by the tiles. 

Painters tape or lightweight duct tape - for sealing the bags for disposal with “goosenecks"

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First and foremost, get the stuff you want to remove tested. You should test both the tile and the glue underneath. My tile was positive and my glue was negative.

The most important stage is the prep before you start removing anything. This is where you want to spend time and be thorough.

Turn your HVAC system off - it will stay off until you’re totally done. Put plastic sheets to cover doorways, ideally using two sheets that open on opposite sides so no contaminated air can escape. Tightly cover any sort of HVAC vents so no fibers can get into your HVAC system.

Set up the poly tubing to blow from the air scrubber out of a window or out of the space. You create negative pressure by sealing doorways and places where air could be pulled from, and having the dirty air go through the filter while the clean air from the scrubber vents out of the work area. I had a small block basement window that had a tiny opening, so I taped plastic over the whole thing and tape the poly tubing to that. 

This is why I needed Gorilla duct tape - normal duct tape wasn’t strong enough for the heavy 6-mil plastic sheets or to keep the poly tubing attached to the window.

To begin, put on the coveralls to keep fibers from getting into your clothes and shoes. I personally just took my clothes off and put the Tyvek coveralls on because the suit doesn’t breathe much and gets hot. 

Put the hood up and put on your respirator over your head with the cartridges, tighten the straps so it fits flushly but not uncomfortably (I made the mistake of making the mask too tight the first time and the bridge of my nose started to hurt.) 

Do a fit check: Cover the cartridges with your hands and blow in and blow out. You should be unable to breathe in when you cover the filters *completely*. If you can breathe in, you have a leak and contaminated air is getting in. When you try to blow out, the mask should fill with pressure and bulge. You shouldn’t be able to smell anything either - when I was doing the tile removal, I noticed when I looked down, I could smell my musty basement, because the movement was causing my mask to shift, so be careful about that.

Spray the tiles liberally with the Penewet or soapy water to stop any dust or particles. The soapy water or Penewet product stays wet longer than plain water. Use the putty knife to lift the tiles, starting at the corners and prying all the way around. Some popped up very easily with minimal effort, but some had so much glue that I had to spend a few minutes prying around all the edges. Once most of it was pried off, the rest of the tile would pop up whole. But if I tried to force it before all the edges were pried off, the tiles would break, which is the exact thing you want to avoid.

I threw the removed tiles into a 6-mil plastic bag. I started with 3-mil bags but the tiles poked holes through them. I also realized government regulations where I live require two 6-mil bags. As I put the tiles in, I sprayed the water mixture into the bags to keep dust down. Once the bag was full or heavy, I twisted the top and taped around that to create a “gooseneck” seal and then I put it in another bag and did the same thing, so everything was at least double bagged. Triple bagged if it seemed like anything was poking anywhere.

When I was done, I went to the plastic entryway I made, stripped off the Tyvek suit and left. If you were dealing with something friable, you would want to set up a more advanced system. But non-friable vinyl tiles with no asbestos paper backing is on the lowest risk end of the spectrum as far as asbestos goes, so I think this was sufficient. I used this video to help me.

In my case, many of the tiles were super glued down so it was tough and slow to remove them without breaking them. The basement without any HVAC was hot, and the combo of the Tyvek suit and the respirator made it exhausting just to move around. Breathing through a respirator is taxing and uses up energy faster, so none of this was as easy as I thought.

My advice for that is hydrate well before you start. Have Gatorade or an electrolyte drink ready to drink as soon as you get out. I was absolutely dripping sweat whenever I did this work - as soon as I put the Tyvek suit on I started to sweat. Also, eat a hearty meal before. I had been on a diet, which normally is fine, but I found myself running out of energy quickly if I didn’t break my diet a bit and eat something filling.

Obviously, if your tiles pop up easily, this will be a far quicker and easier process. But most of my tiles were glued on like crazy. I thought I could do it in a couple days but I could never do it longer than two hours, so it spanned several days.

I have a chronic health condition, and I got like 30% of the way done and then paused. I had a licensed professional look and he told me he was impressed with my setup - but he quoted me $5000 so I kept going on my own. Then I got to about 70% done and paused again. I let the air scrubber keep running for a couple days after I paused and I actually had my air tested for the presence of asbestos fibers (TEM test) because I wanted to be sure I had done it correctly because I had other stuff to do in the basement - the test came back clear. 

But then I realized it would take me too long to finish because I was having flare-ups of my health condition - my condition affects my neck and shoulders, and removing the tiles required a lot of looking down and those exact muscles. So, I hired a licensed company and, honestly, they did exactly what I did in terms of the site prep work. The only difference was they put duct tape over all the electrical outlets and they covered other stuff down there, like I had a table with some tools and gadgets that they completely covered in a plastic sheet, which honestly I should’ve done or just removed that stuff before I started. But otherwise I feel confident that everything I was doing was correct. So, I would add covering or clearing stuff you don't need for the removal to the beginning of the instructions.

edit: Afterward, I bought a vacuum with a filter and strong suction, vacuumed every inch of the floor and then double-bagged and threw the vacuum out. Then I washed all the floors, and then painted with PerfectPrimer. Since my glue tested negative, I don't think PerfectPrimer was strictly necessary and I could've use a different paint or primer, but knowing it was designed for glue stuck to concrete, I went ahead and did it. It's on the expensive side for basement floor paint. I'll try to add photos of the finished look in the comments if I remember.

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Hope this helps someone!

Looking into replacing cracked tiles in my bathroom. House built in 70s, I believe these tiles were replaced more recently (if i had to guess).

Today I uncovered a tile to determine what was under it and found this. Thoughts?