Building Inspection, Diagnosis & Repair Info

Corrugated cement asbestos roofingAsbestos Building Materials

Where is asbestos likely to be found in or on a building?

We provide a summary of the most-common asbestos containing building materials, including assumed asbestos containing building materials (roofing, flooring, insulation, drywall, etc), suspected asbestos containing materials, and assumed asbestos containing materials.

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Occurrence of Asbestos in Common Building Materials

Asbestos containing acoustic ceiling tiles (C) InspectApedia.comThis article describes the most-common locations where asbestos may be found in building s.

Because asbestos was used in thousands of products including many that may appear on or in buildings, this article is not an exhaustive catalog of asbestos products.

For a complete guide to recognizing asbestos-containing materials in buildings see the individual asbestos-containing products described at ASBESTOS IDENTIFICATION IN BUILDINGS

Two other InspectApedia.com articles provide longer lists of asbestos-containing products used on or in buildings and in other products as well:

Asbestos in Ceilings & Textured Paints / Coatings

Asbestos was widely used in some, not all, ceiling tiles. See ASBESTOS CEILING TILE IDENTIFICATION

Asbestos was widely used to provide body in some textured paints used on ceilings and walls. See CEILING PAINT TEXTURED / POPCORN ASBESTOS.

Asbestos in Drywall & Insulating Wall Sheathing

Asbestos was used in joint compound and (generally of less concern) in some gypsum board or drywall products.

See DRYWALL ASBESTOS CONTENT

Following are references to or examples of some common asbestos-containing building drywall materials discussed in that article series.

Asbestos in Joint Compound, Bondex example:

Bondex manufactured a joint compound that was commonly used on construction sites during the installation of drywall. From 1961 to 1977, Bondex joint compound contained asbestos. - retrieved 15 June 2015 original source: www.courts.mo.gov/file.jsp?id=54841

 [LOIS J. WAGNER, ROBIN G. ) WAGNER and WENDE L. WAGNER, ) Individually and as Wrongful Death ) Beneficiaries of ROBERT WAGNER, ) ) Appellant-Respondent, ) ) WD72474 (Consolidated with WD72482 v. ) and WD72619) ) BONDEX INTERNATIONAL, INC., and ) Opinion filed: June 19, 2012 SIMPSON TIMBER COMPANY, ) ) Respondent-Appellant, ) ) CONWED CORPORATION, ) ) Defendant. )

Watch out: The Wood Conversion Company who produced Nu-Wood products later became Conwed Cororation. Court documents assert that some Conwed ceiling tiles contained asbestos. - (Wagner v. Bondex, Simpson, & Conwed, 2012)

See details about asbestos in Simpson Lumber Co. products at SIMPSON CEILING TILES

APPEAL FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF CLAY COUNTY, MISSOURI The Honorable Kathryn E. Davis, Judge Before Division Four: Lisa White Hardwick, Chief Judge, Presiding, Joseph M. Ellis, Judge and Victor C. Howard, Judge]

Asbestos in Flooring Materials

Everlast Vinyl Asbestos Floor Tile (C) D Friedman D Grudzinski

Although not defined strictly as "PACM", both OSHA standards also require asphalt and vinyl flooring material installed no later than 1980 be "considered" and "treated" as asbestos-containing, until the building owner proves the flooring is not ACM.

This includes not only the flooring material, but associated mastics and backings.

See  ASBESTOS FLOORING IDENTIFICATION for details about vinyl-asbestos flooring including floor tiles and sheet flooring.

Also see SHEET FLOORING TYPE IDENTIFICATION

Asbestos in Heating Systems or in Portable or Wall Mounted Heaters

Asbestos heating pipe insulation in poor condition

The use of corrugated asbestos paper and asbestos cement on heating and some water pipes and pipe elbows has been widely recognized. Because in poor condition this material is more friable than cementious or vinyl-based building products it has received plenty of attention.

Asbestos was widely used as an insulating material on heating boilers, pipes, and on some forced-air systems, including on the exterior and occasionally the interior of HVAC ducts and (rarely) in the air handler unit of the furnace itself.

See  these key articles on heating system and plumbing system asbestos insulation products and locations:

Asbestos in Insulation used in Buildings

Asbestos was not often used directly as a building insulation material, but a very widely-used loose-fill or pour-in form of vermiculite building insulation from the Libby mine contains significant levels of asbestos.

See VERMICULITE INSULATION asbestos content.

Asbestos was also found, perhaps by cross contamination, occasionally in fiberboard sheathing products but those are generally a wood or cellulose product, not an asbestos product.

See SHEATHING, FIBERBOARD ASBESTOS CONTENT

Asbestos in Plumbing Systems

Asbestos was used in water mains in some cities.

See TRANSITE WATER & SEWER PIPE ASBESTOS RISK

Asbestos in Roofing Materials

Cement asbestos roof shingles

The risk of high levels of airborne asbestos from cementious roofing products is probably very low unless the workers are using power equipment like sanders and saws on these substances.

See  ASBESTOS ROOF MATERIALS.

According to NRCA, the National Roofing Contractors' Association, their studies up to February 1992 had not found a single roofing job at which these limits were exceeded, and NRCA reported that in some cases no fiber release was detected.

But it appears that the association may have been referring only to asphalt-based roofing materials, not jobs involving the demolition of other ACRM such as cement-asbestos roof shingles (or "asbestos roof tiles" as some consumers refer to them) which might produce different statistics.

Asbestos in Siding Materials

New and old fiber cement and asbestos cement shingles side by side (C) Daniel Friedman

The most common siding material containing asbestos fibers was cement-asbestos shingle siding popular from about 1940 to 1970.

See ASBESTOS CEMENT SIDING.

It is possible that other siding materials such as asphalt building siding may contain asbestos fibers as well, particularly if that material was produced during the same years that asbestos fibers appear in asphalt roof shingles.

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Reader Comments, Questions & Answers About The Article Above

Below you will find questions and answers previously posted on this page at its page bottom reader comment box.

Reader Q&A - also see RECOMMENDED ARTICLES & FAQs

Was asbestos likely to have been used in the concrete entry pad at our front door?

Hey! I have a 1964 home that was built in the downtown area of a small city. The home has a concrete pad at the front door and we were wanting to replace this pad and by doing so, some of the existing 1964 work will need to be Jack hammered. Would there potentially be asbestos in the concrete slab from 1964? Thanks! On 2020-06-27 by Steve

Explanation by (mod) - no

It's possible, but not likely in that for a simple entrance like that, the Mason would have not have had a reason to use an asbestos fiber or additive in the concrete.

Asbestos would have been used in cement or concrete where extra heat resistance was needed. But keep in mind that over a century of use and millions of people making things we can't know for certain what a given individual might have done, so I'm always trying to balance being reasonable in assessing risk with being careful not to say that something was "impossible".

by Steve

If you don’t mind, what would’ve led a mason to use such materials and fibers?

Answer by (mod) -

Steve

At ASBESTOS LIST of PRODUCTS  Please use your browser's search tool (usually CTRL-F) hat page for "concrete" to see the various applications of asbestos in cement or concrete.

There you'll see that along with a list of research documentation and examples we say

Asbestos in Concrete - asbestos was used in a variety of concrete products as fibre reinforcement, as a filler, and in certain soft concrete products and in insulating cement. .

...

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