Asbestos Anxiety!

[TeaPea75]

Hi all,

This brown board is on the side of the chimney breast in the kitchen:

It looks smooth and isn't very thick. It's hidden by a kitchen cabinet and tiled over up to where the cabinet starts. You can see it from the outside too, the chimney is plastered for about 6inches and then the board starts and stands a bit proud, it's painted white here:

The house was built around 1910 and the bloke I bought it off was a big DIYer. My Dad did the tiling on it so I'm worried about health.

Is it/could it be asbestos? If so what should I do? Very worried!

Thank you!

 

[Nige F]

Can't see the pics

 

[TeaPea75]

Whoops! Sorry, I'm new to this:

Brown board on kitchen chimney

• TeaPea75
• 28 Sep 2016

Top of brown board on side of chimney

• TeaPea75
• 28 Sep 2016

Has this worked?

 

[Newboy]

Not possible to tell from a photograph - the only way to be sure is to have it tested.

http://test4asbestos.com/asbestos-testing-2/

 

[TeaPea75]

Thanks very much

 

[^woody^]

Asbestos board is not brown.

That second picture looks like a wardrobe from Argos.

 

[TeaPea75]

It's a kitchen cupboard from Ikea!

 

[^woody^]

LOL. Nearly right then

I can't make out where the brown board is from the photos, but brown board is almost always MDF or hardboard.

 

[TeaPea75]

Yes, definitely the flat pack family!

Thanks woody - I'm feeling much calmer about it now. The brown board is the first picture - that's it 'naked' (top of tiles at bottom of photo, with bits of tile grout wiped onto the brown board) - and the second picture is the top of the same board but that has been variously wallpapered and then painted white.

 

[^woody^]

If you can see an edge or can scrape an indent, you should be able to see if it looks very fibrous like MDF or hardboard.

 

[TeaPea75]

The only edges available are the top ones (can be seen in second photo) and they are painted, so I can't really tell. Would asbestos be fibrous too?

 

[^woody^]

Would asbestos be fibrous too

Nothing like hardboard is. Asbestos board fibres are very hard to see on the least dangerous type, and with most types you need a microscope.

 

[TeaPea75]

Thanks Woody, you've helped a lot.

 

[benben5555]

Asbestos is safe as long as it isn't damaged or disturbed. It doesn't look suspicious to me but if you wanted to be safe you could paint over it to seal it in, this is the recognised way of encapsulating asbestos. Then just dont drill into it in the future

 

[TeaPea75]

Thanks very much, I'm really glad I came online.