Or if your existing flooring is in good condition your best option may be to simply.
Asbestos backed vinyl sheet flooring.
Asbestos containing sheet flooring or resilient flooring product identification.
Removing your asbestos backed sheet vinyl flooring.
Another possibility is to lay 1 4 inch underlayment on top of your existing floor and then lay new flooring on top of that.
This article describes sheet flooring products known to contain significant levels of asbestos.
This type of flooring often has an asbestos backing that is considered friable and the fibres are easily released if the material is disturbed or damaged.
The most dangerous of these products is asbestos vinyl sheet flooring.
Such products some sold under the brand name solarian were installed as recently as 1980 long after governmental restrictions on asbestos were initiated.
Details for identifying asbestos or asbestos suspect sheet flooring products are at resilient sheet flooring id guide.
Unfortunately vinyl sheet flooring manufactured with an asbestos backing poses a serious exposure risk when it is disturbed.
We are told.
Asbestos backed sheet vinyl flooring was commonly installed in many ways including over hardwood softwood and concrete floors.
It also was installed over tongue and groove wood floors particleboard and plywood.
Where asbestos backed vinyl sheet flooring is to be removed it must only be removed by an a class asbestos removal licence holder in accordance with the workplace health and safety regulation 2011.
But before about 1978 in products that looked like this same material asbestos fibers were used as a strengthen material on vinyl sheet flooring backing.
Vinyl sheet flooring comes in large pieces and is usually cut to the size of the room and laid down in one piece.
Additional guidance can be found in the how to safely remove asbestoscode of practice 2011.
Manufacturers often made this type of flooring with a friable asbestos backing which means asbestos fibres are easily released into the air if the sheet flooring is disturbed or damaged.
One armstrong world industries vinyl resilient sheet flooring product thought to have been installed in 1967 was tested in a lab and found to contain 70 percent asbestos.
Dry asbestos particles are lighter than air wet ones are less prone to become air borne.
Asbestos vinyl sheet flooring can be more dangerous to remove than tiles if proper precautions are not practiced.
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.
Asbestos vinyl sheet flooring poses a significantly greater asbestos exposure risk than floor tiles or wallpaper.
Asbestos vinyl sheet flooring has two layers a top layer of vinyl and a bottom layer made from paper that contains asbestos.
