Might there be asbestos on my floorboards? (Ed.)

[richttt]

Hi,
I just had my hallway carpet uplifted and the floorboards fixed into position,(1930 roughly build) the carpenter lifted everything etc, I warned about a black sticky feeling thing on floorboards, he lifted the carpet and underlay to look and said it’s fine, I have since read that there could be asbestos used in this? He did state after the job that there was a few bits of old vinyl stuck to the ground which he took off to smooth out, no sanding was done just lifting of old carpet and underlay, removal of nailed in carpet grippers, he did lift and place down floorboards with the black stuff tho by hand and scrapped some stuff over (as per pic) after he finished i thought it could now be asbestos buitmen disturbed on the ground? If so how dangerous is it? Do I now need to get the house deep cleaned? Myself and child where in the house while the job was being done there is now Lino over the floor
Thanks in advance

 

[dazlight]

You will be fine. Even if sanding was done it’s less then 1% in the adheisve.

 

[DIYWell]

By coincidence, I had experience of asbestos bitumen last year when I had to have a property surveyed and an asbestos management plan put in place.

First off, asbestos bitumen was around 8% asbestos, not 1%. Over time it dries out and becomes brittle rather than sticky. However, even in it's brittle form, the asbestos is so embedded in the bitumen, release of fibres is minimal. So minimal it's not even classed as needing a licensed contractor to remove it.

What you have is painted boarders. Decades ago carpet was expensive and fitted carpet almost unheard of. The fashion, if you were rich enough, was to put down effectively room sized rectangular rugs. Where there was a gap between carpet edge and wall, it was painted dark brown. At some point your hallway has had a runner and the edges painted. If it were asbestos bitumen used to glue tiles, it would have covered the entire width.

Minor bad news - the old paint quite probably had lead in it. It's not a huge issue given the limited sanding. If you see paint dust, just wipe it up with a damp cloth. Anything else will just be vacuumed up over time.