When vinyl asbestos flooring is crumbling or damaged it is considered friable.
Vinyl flooring and asbestos.
For about 35 years flooring companies included asbestos when they manufactured the vinyl tiles.
If the material is in good condition it normally does not pose a threat because the asbestos is enclosed in vinyl preventing the fibers from escaping.
Asbestos in vinyl products becomes dangerous when microscopic fibers of the mineral are released and become airborne.
Our photo left shows armstrong excelon 12x12 vinyl asbestos flooring made in 1972 identified in our floor tile photo guide asbestos floor tile identification photos 1949 1959 detailed photo guide to asphalt asbestos and vinyl asbestos floor tiles and resilient flooring produced in 1900 1980.
Asbestos is a mineral that lends fireproofing qualities to any substance it is mixed with.
Asbestos was used in vinyl wallpaper from the 1920s and in the vinyl floor tiles and sheet flooring that rose to prominence in the 1950s.
Asbestos vinyl floor tiles.
But the flooring companies aim wasn t so much to make the floor tiles fireproof as it was to make the tiles more durable.
But when vinyl asbestos flooring is in good condition it is considered nonfriable.
An example would be a floor slab made from asbestos cement.