Asbestos in insulation?

[Monty_jon]

I insulated my loft in the late 80’s early 90’s and it need doing again, would the old insulation it contain asbestos?

I can’t remember if I used Rockwool or Fiberglass

All I can vaguely remember is I purchased it from the B&Q and it was in rolls!

 

[Deleted member 174758]

I insulated my loft in the late 80’s early 90’s and it need doing again, would the old insulation it contain asbestos?

I can’t remember if I used Rockwool or Fiberglass

You should be OK. Mineral wool (often a greenish or cream/brown in colour) and fibre glass (often pink or salmon/orange in colour) don't contain asbestos.

 

[Monty_jon]

I think it was a yellow orange colour, its hard to tell now as its a very dirty grey!

 

[Monty_jon]

Was asbestos ever made in rolls like rockwool?

 

[Deleted member 174758]

In my working life, which spans 5 decades, asbestos was often just in sheet form (e.g. Asbestolux fireboard - white, cement asbestos board - grey, often corrugated), sometimes loose fill (combined with cellulose - generally required a compressor to blow into place), spray asbestos (which required specialist application equipment) and pipe lagging. The latter two were normally restricted to boiler rooms, boiler laggings, steam pipes, etc). Never seen asbestos in rolls other than for steam pipe/boiler lagging, a specialist trade - and even then it was grey. Not something B&Q would have ever sold. That's not to say it wasn't in use, but the extremely short fibre length of asbestos means that to make use of it it needs to be combined with other materials and/or woven into a product (e.g the asbestos/cotton rope used in sash windows).

If the OPs is an orangey/pink or orangey/yellow colour it is most likely to be fibre glass which started coming in in the late 60s/early 70s for DIY insulation (mineral wool was really a product of the 1980s). Prior to fibreglass coming in one of the few available loft insulations was cellulose fibre insulation board, such as Sundaela (no asbestos in it, but a begger to cut). That was most often nailed to the undersides of rafters when it was used

 

[Monty_jon]

In my working life, which spans 5 decades, asbestos was often just in sheet form (e.g. Asbestolux fireboard - white, cement asbestos board - grey, often corrugated), sometimes loose fill (combined with cellulose - generally required a compressor to blow into place), spray asbestos (which required specialist application equipment) and pipe lagging. The latter two were normally restricted to boiler rooms, boiler laggings, steam pipes, etc). Never seen asbestos in rolls other than for steam pipe/boiler lagging, a specialist trade - and even then it was grey. Not something B&Q would have ever sold. That's not to say it wasn't in use, but the extremely short fibre length of asbestos means that to make use of it it needs to be combined with other materials and/or woven into a product (e.g the asbestos/cotton rope used in sash windows).

If the OPs is an orangey/pink or orangey/yellow colour it is most likely to be fibre glass which started coming in in the late 60s/early 70s for DIY insulation (mineral wool was really a product of the 1980s). Prior to fibreglass coming in one of the few available loft insulations was cellulose fibre insulation board, such as Sundaela (no asbestos in it, but a begger to cut). That was most often nailed to the undersides of rafters when it was used

Thank you, that puts my mind at rest

I seem to be having a bit of anxiety with asbestos at the moment!

 

[Deleted member 174758]

Everyone does. I think people are right to be a bit cautious. In fact some of the most sensible things you can do when carrying out demolition, remodelling or insulation work are really simple but effective things such as to wear a good quality, well fitting dust mask (minimum P3 with a valve), to avoid walking around the house in your dusty clothes after completing a task (spreading potential contaminants), and to control dust on floors by damping down with a water spritzer (plant spray) and sweeping it up with a shovel/dustpan and brush and bagging it regularly. Don't vacuum it up - unfortunately domestic vacuums don't filter well enough and with very small fibres like asbestos they actually suck the stuff straight through the filters and blow it out the back of the vac, distributing it over a wider area. Those are all things any tradesman should do

If you want some informative and accurate reading go and read the HSE web site, here. It will help you identify where asbestos was potentially used in a domestic dwelling.