Ceiling - foam like, asbestos?

[korbox]

Hello all,

I bought a house built in 1974. All upstairs ceilings are made out of some strange brown foam like sheets rather than normal plasterboard. These are quite big sheets and not small tiles. I am wondering if this could contain asbestos. The ceiling is covered in artex (artex got checked for asbestos and there is none). It does not look to me like it consists of fibers (a few that I can see could be coming from mineral wool insulation).
What is this stuff?

There is a similar topic on this forum:
//www.diynot.com/forums/plastering-rendering/brown-ceiling-asbestos.373059/

but the sample shown on the picture does not look exactly like what I found in my house. This one clearly has fibers, mine is more like a sponge.

Here is the picture showing a small bit:

Untitled

• korbox
• 15 Sep 2013
• 1

Thanks for any help

 

[dann09]

I have come across, and removed that stuff before - i think that it was all the rage, for five minutes, back in the day.

Was it for insulation, or fireproofing or something else - i dont know.

I dont recall any mention of asbestos, and one of my crew had worked at Turners Asbestos.

Essentially, i dont know.

 

[korbox]

It looks like it was for insulation. There is something like 'CHFM Insulation' or 'GHFM Insulation' written on the back of it. I couldn't find any reference to any of these on Google.
I had another look and the sponge itself does not look like is made of fibers at all. On top the sponge there is a thin layer of something similar to paper and this seems to have very small fibers. I might be clutching at straws here though. I have found out recenlty that soffits in my house are made of asbestos and now everything looks like asbestos to me.

 

[dann09]

Thanks for that info.

Your soffits are probably made from asbestos cement panels. Dont disturb them and they wont bother you.
To remove them? You remove them. Just like anything else.
You dont go smashing other things to dust and bits, neither would you do that to asb panels.

 

[korbox]

As for the soffits it is too late for me. I made a hole in it for an extractor fan outlet. Only after doing this it occured to me that what I was drilling in wasn't really plastic. I sent a sample to the lab and they said it's brown and white asbestos
Certainly I won't be drilling in this anymore.

As for the panels even when being carefull will always produce some mess so it would be good to know. I suppose the only way to know for sure is to send a sample to the lab.