Asbestos worry.

[ghostspirit]

I live in a private rent house. Temporary accommodation. The landlord is an arse.

In the kids bedroom the wall has crumbled away alot behinde the radiator. When the heating is on i can smell and kind of taste the dust in the air. The kids are in there sleeping so I'm worried incase in could be asbestos. It's an old house 1930s maybe before that. Any advice.

Asbestos is more typical in post war to 70s properties.

Hope it's not. My dad died of cancer due to asbestos. So I'm probably just over thinking...I hope

To put your mind at rest - order an asbestos sampling kit. Google it. they send you a pack. You put some of the material in the bag. Send it back. Get results next day after they receive the sample.

Thank you I will google

Post some photos.

It is several million times more likely to be crumbling plaster.

In our 1930s house there was low grade asbestos on the garage roof, on the ceiling in the 1980s lift conversion , and some vinyl flooring type stuff in the bathroom. I am with pp that it's likely to be plaster. Agree with getting it tested either by post or by a proper asbestos professional.

Couple of pics bit hard to see really.

is there a hollow space behind the plaster, perhaps with vertical timber studs visible?

No. Can't see anything timber looking.

It's pretty crumbly. Looks a bit like cement

Where those grey patches are, is that just the brickwork? That is very poor plastering though - obviously been badly patched over the years.

But some of our blown plaster has been white. I think in the past it was a different plaster - line based was it? And not the pink stuff. Will need to look it up.

lime plaster was used up to about the 1940's. It is usually white with a greyish tone.

Often found over wooden laths on ceilings and partition walls, usually cracked, loose and repaired. Also found direct onto brickwork

That was it, could be cement plaster or filler which can be white. As I see it has been badly patched, and chances are whoever did it did not take the radiators off to fix the plaster behind it. I would hazard a guess it's safe (but not very indicative). Would be worth testing anyway. You could ask the landlord to repair, but it would require a few days work to do properly.

Damn autocorrect, the blown plaster not very insulative