Asbestos Paper Under Hardwood

When you remove that floor covering to make way for new flooring you may encounter the mastic and wonder whether it is safe to remove the main concern surrounding this question is that black mastic often contains asbestos.

Asbestos paper under hardwood.

A house we bought had carpet in the kitchen. Asbestos flooring felt is one of the few asbestos products completely banned in the u s and regulations now require other products to contain less than one percent asbestos. The asbestos threat is a little overblown but serious enough to take heed. Not uncommon on old fir or pine subfloors.

However old asbestos felt remains in the floors and roofs of millions of american buildings constructed between 1900 and 1980. No scraping or sanding would help. We we pulled it up it had tar paper under it. An added benefit when laying wood floors over plywood is the absorption of vibration by the felt which results in a reduction of noise.

Used to be we just took a machine to it not knowing about asbestos. The flooring was tested the middle layer contains asbestos. Older flooring felt may contain asbestos making its removal critical. If the material tests positive for asbestos your best bet is to either leave it alone and cover over it with new flooring or have the material professionally removed by an asbestos remediation company.

Iirc asbestos was first used in the 1890 s in small and specialized applications. Common in homes built in the 20th century black mastic was used as an adhesive for ceramic tile linoleum and other flooring materials. I have just the right amount of click type bamboo flooring suitable for below grade with 3mm thick underlayment and would like to use that. Hmmm ending in the 1950 s but when did they start using asbestos in that stuff.

Widespread use in building materials wasn t until the 1930 s. The real problem was the installer glued the carpet with a product that melted the residue from the tar paper into the wood. Flooring felt or tar paper is sometimes laid under tile flat carpeting or old linoleum. We had no choice but to relay new flooring over that part.

Vapor concerns concerns about roofing felt stem from the bituminous impregnating agents tar and asphaltic bitumen and whether fumes from the felt may rise into rooms. If what you found under the vinyl is roofing paper commonly used under flooring and it dates to before the late 1970 s it is possible there is asbestos fiber in it asbestos fiber was commonly used in roofing materials until it was outlawed as stated the only real danger in this is if you create an airborn dust otherwise the asbestos is locked into the material. If it has no asbestos it can simply be sanded off with a drum sander and a very low grit paper 12 16 or 24 whatever it takes.