Asbestos in your home

[AHoy]

It's asbestos awareness month, so I thought I'd share where there might be asbestos in your home. Any house built or renovated before 1987 might contain asbestos. 

Inside the house:

- Backing of vinyl sheet floor covering

- Carpet underlay
- Cement flooring
- Compressed asbestos sheet
- Flues to fireplaces
- Insulation below wood heater
- Internal and external ventilators
- Internal angle mouldings
- Internal walls & ceiling
- Kitchen splashback
- Loose fill insulation in roof cavity
- “Tilux” marble finish wall panel
- Vinyl floor tiles
- Wall sheeting - internal

Outside the house:

- Backing for electrical meter boards
- Dog kennels
- Downpipes
- Eaves and gables ends
- External angle mouldings
- Fences
- Garages
- Gutters
- Insulation for hot water pipes and tanks
- Internal and external ventilators
- Ridge capping
- Sheds & external toilets
- Wall sheeting – external

Stay safe when renovating everyone!

[woodenwookie]

The weird thing is that there is NOTHING wrong with NATURAL asbestos. Like so many things in its natural state asbestos is harmless until man makes it into stuff.

My wife's dad used to run an asbestos mine in Zimbabwe and there was no one that got issues from it. The issue comes from taking the asbestos and shredding it into fine shards. Those shards get into the lungs and it's them that cause the problems. If you think you have it in your home then always wear respirators when working with it.

[Noyade]

A couple of years ago I was crawling under the house to re-route the telephone line. Of course it was dark and I was using a torch to guide me and then around a few footings I noticed large mounds of fibro sheeting. I thought nothing of it at the time but on the return trip I realised the house had been built in 1947 and renovated in the late 80's - so more than likely this was asbestos based fibro that the renovator has disposed of rather inefficiently.

Now imagine a fat man crawling very fast to escape but in the process kicking up more and dust which became acutely visible under the torch light - while holding his breath. In the end you start gasping bigger and bigger lungfuls of air and dust. Comical.