How To Effectively Remove Floor Tiles That May Contain Asbestos

If you suspect that the flooring tiles in your home may contain asbestos, have an asbestos testing company come out and confirm your suspicions. If the tile floors in your home are more than a decade old, and you were not involved in the installation process, it is a good idea to have them tested before you remove them. If your tile floors contain asbestos, you are going to want to take specific steps while removing the floor tiles.

Close Off The Work Space

Asbestos is most potent to you when it is in fiber form, which will happen when you remove the asbestos tile floors from your home. In order to limit the spread of asbestos fibers in your home, try to close off the workspace. For example, if you are working in your kitchen, which opens into your living room, put up plastic sheets floor to ceiling to block off the airflow from your kitchen to your living room and create a designed pathway for all waste to be removed from your home. Use plastic sheeting, which you can easily purchase from a dollar store, to close off the other areas of your home and create a designated workplace.

Protect Yourself

You don't want to breathe in the asbestos as you are working on removing it from your home. Go down to your local home improvement store and purchase a full-body biohazard suit or paint suit. Purchase a mask that covers both your eyes, nose, and mouth. You don't want to breathe in the asbestos as you are removing it.

Wet The Tile

Before you start to remove the tile, you need to wet it with amended water to prevent the fibers from getting loose in the air as you cut and pull out the tile. Make sure that it is wet all around before you start working.

Start Around The Edges & Remove The Tile

Start on the edges of your floor and use a hammer along with a putty knife to work under the edge of your tile flooring and loosen the tile. After you manage to get the first tile loose, use the putty knife to gently remove the rest of the tile. Try your best to keep the tiles intact and not break them up as you work; this will help limit the asbestos that is released into the environment.

Remove The Sheeting

Vinyl floors are often attached to sheeting. This sheeting may be covering your entire floor or may just be located on the edges of your floor. It is usually one large, continuous piece so you will not be able to remove it the same way that you did the vinyl tiles. Wet the vinyl sheeting with amended water, and use a knife to cut the sheeting down into manageable squares that you can easily pull off your floor. You may need to use a knife or scraper to get all of the sheeting off your floor. Make sure that you keep the floor wet as you work to reduce the spread of asbestos.

Pull Up Adhesives

If there is adhesive stuck to your floor, you'll want to remove that as well. There may be asbestos fibers stuck to the adhesive. Use water to work the adhesive off your floor and use a razor to scrape it off if necessary. Do not sand or grind it down; this will potentially release an abundance of asbestos fibers into the air.

Dispose Of The Waste

As you remove the asbestos infected vinyl tile, sheeting and adhesive you should be placing it in poly-lined waste boxes. When you are done, you should seal these boxes up with duct tape and take them to the appropriate disposal facility in your area.

When you are done, thoroughly clean the work area. Wipe the entire area down with wet rags, and throw those rags away. Clean all surfaces, including the wall and ceiling, at least twice. Then run an air filter in the area where you removed the asbestos for a day or so to pull out any other remaining fibers and wipe everything down for a third time. Throw away the outfit you used to clean in. When you are sure everything is clean, remove the barriers with the rest of your home. It is always best to clean again if you are not sure if the work area has been decontaminated. Contact a business, such as Delfa Contracting LLC , for more information.   

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