Wall Tile Query

[martindp84]

We decided today to decorate our landing and, on removing the wallpaper from one wall we were met with these tiles:

Walltiles1

• martindp84
• 7 Jan 2018
• 1

We decided to remove them to replace with modern plasterboard and only half way through did it occur to us that they might have asbestos in them. I have included a closeup of one of the tiles that broke during removal, is there any way to tell from the pictures if there is asbestos in them?

Walltiles2

• martindp84
• 7 Jan 2018

All the research I’ve done online so far has been inconclusive.

Thanks in advance for any help you are able to provide

 

[foxhole]

Perforated board usually sound proofing.

 

[martindp84]

thanks for the reply. so is it safe to assume less likely to have asbestos in? i dunno if it helps any but our house is a 19th century end terrace. that said, we have no way of knowing when those tiles were put up. for the sake of argument, if the previous owner did put them up, and knew there was asbestos in them (i know that bit would be difficult to prove) would they have to disclose that when selling the house?

 

[Newboy]

Get them tested - they look suspiciously like ceiling tiles that we deal with on a regular basis and those do contain asbestos.

 

[martindp84]

thanks for the reply i’ll get them tested. until i started doing the research on the net yesterday i, rather naïvely, thought that asbestos only came in that corrugated roofing sheet they used to put on the roof of council garages back in the 70s and 80s

 

[StephenOak]

Asbestos can be found in all sorts of things. My wife had cause to look at the asbestos section of her firm's website and there is a warning to chaps doing work (on older properties) of the sort of things that asbestos can be found in, and it is a long list, including floor tiles and toilet cisterns.

 

[SammyInnit]

http://www.hse.gov.uk/asbestos/essentials/aib.htm

Looks very much like asbestos to me.

thanks for the reply i’ll get them tested. until i started doing the research on the net yesterday i, rather naïvely, thought that asbestos only came in that corrugated roofing sheet they used to put on the roof of council garages back in the 70s and 80s

Commonly in the home it can be found in floor tiles, lagging, old loft insulation, ceiling coating such as artex, soffit facia boards, it was used in anything and everything.

If you're working on a job doing renovation work it might be worth while doing an online Asbestos Awareness course. They're not expensive and it can give you a bit of knowledge about the stuff. I have to have an awareness cert (normally) for any building I work on commercially that predates 2000.