Carpet ripped up, bitumen, asphalt (asbestos) subflooring?

[endecotp]

Getting rid of the mouldy carpet was clearly the right thing to do. I would caution that digging any further down, though, is probably the wrong choice. Follow the advice above about sealing it.

Of course there is damp below the subfloor. It’s the ground; the ground is damp. The asphalt that you have there is separating you from the damp ground under your house, and I don’t believe there is any indication that it has failed in any way.

 

[crazydaze]

Yes. I've left the house for a week. The symptoms have disappeared. Beyond the respiratory issues, this also includes muscular aches disappearing. It would seem to suggest prolonged exposure from mould from what I can gather.
The symptoms since the carpet was removed have certainly been more concentrated in this room (kitchen). That has been well tested now beyond any considerations that it is purely psychological.
I'm looking to replace the flooring and start from scratch as the problem has gone on too long, and then proceeds to become worse even after removing the problematic carpet weeks later.
A damp proofer that checked for moisture in September and then another more recently showed a significant amount of moisture, inches below this subflooring. Originally in September the advice was to let it dry. If I recall, the depth of the moisture detected may have been significantly deeper than the subflooring.

You’ll wait forever for it to dry naturally if it ever dries at all.

My advice as per before still stands.

 

[JennyLaslo]

Drying isn't the issue. Having respiratory symptoms are. It's clearly tied to the house. It's clearly become more concentrated since the carpet was removed. I cannot conceive of a solution that doesn't involve removing the subflooring.
I don't see a DPM fixing or incapsulating a compromised potentially mouldy subfloor to anything approaching an absolute degree currently and in my follow up reading.
When you've had respiratory issues since September, and you remove a carpet, wait 4 weeks for it to vent and you're having stronger and more concentrated symptoms than ever before, it's time to restart in my opinion.
Appreciate the responses.

 

[crazydaze]

Drying isn't the issue. Having respiratory symptoms are. It's clearly tied to the house. It's clearly become more concentrated since the carpet was removed. I cannot conceive of a solution that doesn't involve removing the subflooring.
I don't see a DPM fixing or incapsulating a compromised potentially mouldy subfloor to anything approaching an absolute degree currently and in my follow up reading.
When you've had respiratory issues since September, and you remove a carpet, wait 4 weeks for it to vent and you're having stronger and more concentrated symptoms than ever before, it's time to restart in my opinion.
Appreciate the responses.

The. Jenny, you need to do some research on what’s involved in digging out the entire subfloor of the property and re-building it from the ground up, compared to what I have suggested, which would achieve pretty much the same thing, unless, you have rising damp.

 

[Munroast]

Drying isn't the issue. Having respiratory symptoms are. It's clearly tied to the house. It's clearly become more concentrated since the carpet was removed. I cannot conceive of a solution that doesn't involve removing the subflooring.
I don't see a DPM fixing or incapsulating a compromised potentially mouldy subfloor to anything approaching an absolute degree currently and in my follow up reading.
When you've had respiratory issues since September, and you remove a carpet, wait 4 weeks for it to vent and you're having stronger and more concentrated symptoms than ever before, it's time to restart in my opinion.
Appreciate the responses.

Why not ? if it is all sealed then nothing can come off it - just put a lino on top of it, nothing will come through that either.

may be its all psychosomatic, you think its making you ill, this creates you stress and the stress causes the respiratory problems ?

If the floor is properly sealed (have another read of @crazydaze 2nd post of the thread) then nothing is going to come through it, NOTHING - then put a lino on top of that for belt and braces

 

[endecotp]

This really is a medical matter, not a DIY question. I’m going to click “ignore” now. Please don’t waste your time and money doing unnecessary building work in the hope that it might fix your health problems; you might as well spend the cash on homeopathy or crystals.

 

[Stuart981]

I removed Marley tiles from my kitchen floor which revealed the black bitumen below. I was quoted a fortune to remove it all. In the end I sealed the bitumen with SBR then laid vinyl tiles with flooring adhesive. That was several years ago and not had any problems.