Possible Asbestos Tiles Need Advice

10 years ago

Looking for a little advice..We just bought a house and when we started pulling up the carpet on the ground floor, there was the remnants of black mastic on the floor. We put down a moisture barrier and then started installing the floating wood floor. When we got to another room, we saw that there are tiles still on that surface that look like they are VAT but we are not sure. I have a few questions:
-Was it okay/safe to install floating for over the mastic?
- if the previous owners didn't remove the tile properly are we still at risk? How long do the fibers stay in a house?
- we were thinking about putting tile down in the hallway..is it a bad idea to install tile over the mastic?

Thanks for the help.

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Comments (6)

glennsfc
10 years ago
The mastic may or may not contain the fiber. And, even if it does, it's not going anywhere and is not a health threat; fibers are not going to leap out of the adhesive matrix on their own. It is OK to install your floating floor over the mastic residue.

It usually is a bad idea to install tile over a resilient tile. However, I can think of a situation where tightly-bonded resilient tile flooring could provide an acceptable substrate, provided the bond strength of the resilient tile to the slab remains strong and any surface waxes or polishes are removed.

If the previous owner removed a sheet vinyl product with a mineral fiber backing and sanded that off...I'd be a little concerned. Removal of a VAT or an AT tile releases very few fibers when compared with mineral fiber backing. You have nothing to worry about in my opinion. You could have an environmental testing firm test your home's air to find out if fiber levels are any different from the usual background fiber level for your location.
brand79
Original Author
10 years ago
Thanks so much for the information. I feel better about all this. Where we are thinking about putting the new tile, only has mastic on the floor - the tile has already been removed (sorry I don't think I made this clear.) Can we install the new tile right over the mastic or should we seal the mastic or put down some sort of board and then install the tile?
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glennsfc
10 years ago
Whatever moisture retarder material use use to seal the mastic would be fine. You could invest a little money in skim coating the mastic with Ardex Feather Finish, Mapei Planipatch Plus or another similar cementious skim coating product and then lay your moisture retarder over that. Follow the flooring manufacturer's guidelines, if you have any.
Prining
10 years ago
You can probably put a cement board on the surface and give yourself a fresh surface to lay the tile on. That would be better.

Here is a link that might be useful: asbestos specialist
brand79
Original Author
10 years ago
What is your opinion on removing the mastic with something like bean a doo? I have been researching it and some people say it works great and others that it ruins the concrete so that nothing will stick to it.
glennsfc
10 years ago
It won't remove the mastic totally. Any solvent will just liquify the mastic and drive it as a contaminant deeper into the concrete.