Is it harmful to dispose old carpet, there is dust under it on asbestos tiles. House is from 50’s ?
We have a house from 1950's that we bought last year. We have Carpet over the asbestos tiles in the basement.
The other day when i removed the carpet, there was a lot of dust on top of the tiles. The tiles look strong and solid but there is dust on top of it.
I am curious if its SAFE/HARMFUL to remove the carpet and clean up all the dust. The dust appears to be settled from years of use of the carpet.
Thanks,
Posted in old rugs
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May 14th, 2010 at 2:17 pm
All carpets leave a filthy mess of dust after they’re removed. I think this dust is normal, and can be vacuumed up like any dust.
As for floor tiles, I’m pretty certain that asbestos WAS used in floor tiles as well as sheet flooring at least sometimes back then, but I don’t think any of us can know for sure unless you’ve had it tested. That might be a whole ‘nother can of worms.
May 14th, 2010 at 2:17 pm
Are you sure the floor tiles are asbestos? I’ve never heard of that. Asbestos tiles were used for siding and were about 10% asbestos. It’s very expensive to deal with asbestos. If my house had asbestos floor tiles I would move out of it right away. The diseases from asbestos are horrible. If you find that the tiles are not asbestos it would still be a good idea to not sweep them and cause whatever it is to become airborne. I would use a hand sprayer to wet it down with soapy water then mop it up. The soapy water will prevent it from getting in the air by a great deal.