Asbestos floor tiles

[candyflossy]

Hi, I am very concerned regarding the tiles underneath the carpet. They are black and approx 8x8 or 9x9. They were suspected of being asbestos tiles. My house was built in the 1950s so no doubt I am very worried. The man who lift up the carpet damaged the sides of the tiles by removing the carpet grippers! What are the chances of the tiles being non asbestos?

Just spoken to the previous owner and he said it could be bitumen tiles? Is there such tiles? And if there are, what do they look like? Thanks for your help.

They could be. But tiles are generally only around 2% asbestos. What did the carpet man say? Can you just leave them alone?

Go onto the HSE website and look for the info on removing asbestos tiles.

They are very very low risk (even if they are asbestos) - the carpet over the top will stop any dust from coming up form them. The only way they would cause a risk is if you were to sand them.

The only way you can be really sure is to get them sampled and tested in a lab.

www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/guidance/a23.pdf

Thanks for the replies. We need to change the carpet because it was flooded therefore lifting up carpet to dry. We are still waiting to send off a sample. So it is safe to say it should not do much harm if they are only slightly damaged by removal of caret grippers?

You would really have to bash it to get any dust released and it's the dust you can breath in that's the problem - should be fine if no dust coming up