Carpet over Asbestos Tile

6 years ago

My wife and I bought and moved into a house a couple months ago. Tore the basement carpet off (it was taped down) and had new carpet installed (with tack strips etc.). The floor under the carpet is the 9x9 vinyl tile that probably contains asbestos. (we don't know if it does for sure, but it checks all the boxes of typical vinyl asbestos tile)

Unfortunately, neither of us had any idea what asbestos flooring looked like until I saw something on the internet about it a couple weeks ago. Now I am very nervous that there is asbestos in the air in my home due to the carpet installer drilling/nailing into the flooring to install the tack strip.

What level of danger do you think there is to my family? Is there a way to test the air for asbestos? And if there is, how can that be remedied? The tile is all encapsulated now, but I am worried about the fibers that were blown around when he drilled into the floor before covering it up. Any suggestions would be welcome. Thanks.

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Comments (2)

SJ McCarthy
6 years ago
Level of danger to your family? Somewhere around zero. I'm not kidding. Do you remember the bell curve? The left side of the bell = negative infinity (or as close to zero as possible without reaching 0%). The right side of the bell = positive infinity (or as close to 100% as you can without reaching 100%).

A single incident with a minute amount of asbestos dust thrown into the air = extremely small amount of risk of future illness. Infinitesimal. Your chances of anyone in your home having health issues DIRECTLY related to asbestos exposure is somewhere around 0.00000000001%.

If you are SUPER concerned you are welcome to put in an 'air scrubber' with hepa filter. Then allow the filter to run non-stop until you are sure the air in the room has been filter 3-5 times (close the door and forbid anyone to enter for a few days). That's about all that can be done.

It really is a 'wait and see' approach. But with 0.00000000001% chance of illness, I would be more concerned about getting hit by a meteor...or shark attack. Those are the odds you are facing.
PRO
CoolAir Inc.
6 years ago
The long term exposure is dangerous but a minor incident does not matter. As you have said all is encapsulated so there is no harm in the future as well.
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