How to clean up after possibly asbestos floor tile removal?

[Golaboots888]

Hello

On Saturday I removed some old floor tiles that had been in a downstairs bedroom under a carpet and underlay.
The reason for this is that the room had been suffering from damp and many of the tiles had curled up.

They were stuck down with a bitumen paint. I took recommended precautions, gloves, P3 respirator etc so am not concerned with the removal.

How should I clean the floor prior to a new coat of bitumen paint? There is a lot of grit etc, some of it could be from the tiles.
I'm guessing hoovering is a no no and I don't fancy sweeping it. Should I soak the floor and then sweep?

If anyone could link me to some advice that would be appreciated.

 

[lymmranger]

Ok some questions for you...

is this an older house?
and were they the hard vinyl tiles?
are they elsewhere in your house?

the reason I ask is that you have possibly just compromised your floors damp proofing!

houses at one time had no DPM under the concrete, your floor was designed to have concrete then the tiles stuck down with bitumen.

Yes some (not all) had miniscule amounts of asbestos within their construction but do not worry about it the chances of health problems from these tiles is extremely low, you have more chance of getting run over.

have you removed them all?

you may need to have the floor screeded, putting down a liquid DPM first

 

[Golaboots888]

Thanks for the reply.

Our friend/surveyor thought largely the same as you.
He advised removing the tiles and painting down a new DPM.

The opinion was that it was 50:50 if they were asbestos based but even if they were they would be white asbestos and held within the matrix of the vinyl tile so very unlikely to cause any problems as you say.

I was just planning on being extra cautious due to a slim chance of something rather unpleasant.

That part of the house is 1960s but other parts of the house do not have the same tiles.

 

[lymmranger]

asbestos is nasty stuff.....

...........however a whole new industry of expensive experts has grown around this fact

blue is the real bad one - white is not!

I have yet to see real proof that "marley" tiles are dangerous - after all 60`s-80`s built houses all have them and I don't recall any doom and gloom stories on the news

 

[dazlight]

Also its not a good idea to apply ( paint ) a liquid dpm straight onto rough concrete as it will eat it up and might pin hole.
Best bet is pre latex screed the floor with Ardex NA, them use ardex DPM 1c then Ardex NA again.

 

[mattysupra]

care should be taken on what advice is given on a forum !

read here - http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/guidance/a23.pdf

 

[lymmranger]

care should be taken on what advice is given on a forum !

read here - http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/guidance/a23.pdf[/QUOTE]

Matty - I am totally aware of your qualifications and experience

also thanks for that link (now bookmarked this time )

But! - my comments were made from experience! - where I trade the local housing trust kicked off at us and its tenants big style over this very subject (we were screeding over them before fitting sheet vinyl).

silly buggers moved tenants out whilst men dressed as spacemen "went in"
we had suggested that they test one of the many fragments first...
Oh no "we are going in now, today!" (even though people had lived in them for 30 years plus)
afterwards (months) a rather sheepish officer (health and safety of course) of the trust came round and admitted that tests had prove negative
He went on to say that in our area "Marley" had stopped using asbestos at the time the properties were built
...hence my comments (may not be 100% accurate - this incident was 10 years ago)

However you are totally correct in suggesting caution!

I will immediately throw myself off our racking in shame

Edit- to add more clarity to my rambling!