Asbestos containing floor tiles????

[toomuchworknotenoughtime]

Panic.

We are renovating an Edwardian house that's been bashed about a bit and underneath the carpet were some old brown tiles in the old hearth.

They are brown and almost clay like. Fairly uniform colour about 5mm thick and stuck to the concrete hearth with a bitumen type glue.

We started removing these. They came away fairly easily, sometimes whole and sometimes they would break in two or more pieces. There was no discrenable dust (save for some detritis on the surface from plastering recently).

Then, after removing half and wondering what they were, the dreaded "A" word popped up and we pannicked. Does anyone have any idea what they are.

I've uploaded a couple of pictures here. (The muck on the surface is splashes of plaster):

 

[ajrtd]

Hard to tell if they contain asbestos but just in case(if you're that worried). Wet the area your working in to stop any likely hood of fibres getting airborne, double bag the tiles and tape up the bags.

Do not use your vacuum cleaner in the area until you have cleared most if not all of the dust. Ring your local authorities refuse department they should have a site where you can dispose of them.

 

[Sophie83]

If you google asbestos testing, i had a quote for some areas of asbestos and it was £50 per sample, if you want peace of mind.

 

[toomuchworknotenoughtime]

Thanks for replies. Our builder popped in and reckoned they were slate. Anyway, he removed the rest of them so all problems over. And if they did contain asbestos and we inhaled some then it's too late now.

(In the 70s my brother and I used to play on our asbestos garage roof with parts breaking off regularly so I'm probabyly ****ed already!).