Removed marley tiles, the internet has me worried

Removed marley tiles, the internet has me worried

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JohnStitch

Original Poster:

2,900 posts

170 months

Sunday 4th October 2015
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I'm prepping the downstairs of my house for a karndean LVT floor and yesterday removed the Marley tile floor from our dining room. This floor would have been down since the mid 60s when the house was built. Anyway, whilst googling something else this morning I was met with a load of sites talking about asbestos being present in these tiles. I didn't know that and took no precautions when taking them up. To be fair they mostly popped straight up or broke quite cleanly , there was no shattering and it didn't seem terribly dusty. So now I'm left with a concrete floor that while smooth, is black with the remnants of the adhesive. I also read that this could contain asbestos. Does this need to be removed to lay the latex screed for the LVT? Also, as I've pulled this up without any protection, am I likely to have put myself at risk? Got 3 more rooms to do so would be good to know...


Pheo

3,324 posts

201 months

Sunday 4th October 2015
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I did the same thing. Not a lot you can do about it now. For extra rooms I got aproper respirator etc and damped it down. Vinyl tiles are lower risk asbestos but you still should take precautions and Doubke bag it

Simpo Two

85,147 posts

264 months

Sunday 4th October 2015
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What kind of flowers do you like?

Things could be worse. You might have a VW and they make asbestos in their exhaust you know.

steve2

1,771 posts

217 months

Sunday 4th October 2015
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I have taken up thousands of metres of these tiles and at the most they may contain 0.001% of asbestos so you should be ok.
Damp the floor down and pop a respirator on and gloves, we call them crunchies.
The fitter latex img the floor should prime the floor first before the latex.

JohnStitch

Original Poster:

2,900 posts

170 months

Sunday 4th October 2015
quotequote all
Sorry if I'm being a bit thick here, but when you say damp the floor down do you mean before pulling up the tiles?

Also been reading about airborne particles sticking around for years, other than keeping windows open in the areas that I'm removing the tiles, is there anything else I should do? (think I should stop googling for answers)

groucho

12,134 posts

245 months

Sunday 4th October 2015
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Send a sample off for analysis, around £50. Then you will know one way or another. If they do contain asbestos, you could always get specialists in.

davepoth

29,395 posts

198 months

Sunday 4th October 2015
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JohnStitch said:
Sorry if I'm being a bit thick here, but when you say damp the floor down do you mean before pulling up the tiles?

Also been reading about airborne particles sticking around for years, other than keeping windows open in the areas that I'm removing the tiles, is there anything else I should do? (think I should stop googling for answers)
Yup, damp it down before lifting them, which will stop any dust getting airborne. A mask is a sensible precaution even though the risk is low.

roofer

5,136 posts

210 months

Sunday 4th October 2015
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It's usually the adhesive that contains Chrysotile. As long as you are not grinding or drilling it, then snorting lines of dust you'll be fine.

steviejasp

1,646 posts

164 months

Sunday 4th October 2015
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I too have been uplifting these for years and my dad did it even longer.
Admittedly he did die of mesothelioma 10 years ago frown