Abestos Vinyl Sheet Flooring

Asbestos was used in vinyl wallpaper from the 1920s and in the vinyl floor tiles and sheet flooring that rose to prominence in the 1950s.

Abestos vinyl sheet flooring.

Unfortunately vinyl sheet flooring manufactured with an asbestos backing poses a serious exposure risk when it is disturbed. Asbestos vinyl sheet flooring has two layers a top layer of vinyl and a bottom layer made from paper that contains asbestos. Asbestos vinyl flooring was a durable and economical material that offered many aesthetic options to suit a homeowner s taste. Asbestos vinyl sheet flooring can be more dangerous to remove than tiles if proper precautions are not practiced.

The asbestos floor tile identification articles in this series illustrate that with the combination of design appearance and an idea of floor tile age many asbestos containing floor tiles or sheet flooring products can be reliably identified even before confirmation by a test by a certified asbestos testing laboratory. We describe sources of asbestos in older forms of sheet flooring including felt backed flooring rubber backed flooring and vinyl cushion backed resilient flooring products. Like floor tiles vinyl sheet flooring is a long lasting and economical material and it also offers more aesthetic options to suit a homeowner s taste. We are told that the paper layer can contain from 40 to 70 percent asbestos.

This article describes sheet flooring products known to contain significant levels of asbestos.