Removing Asbestos Linoleum from 1968

[broken_legs]

Has anyone else tried this on their own?

What did you do when you did it?

thx

[spike98]

One word, don't.

Hire a pro.

We have Asbestos out at our plant. When equipment is worked on and the material is removed, its a huge hassle.

You will need a clean room and a decon tent. For PPE you'll need disposable coveralls, booties, gloves,and a half face mask (minimum!)

Then you have to find out how to dispose of it. I dont know how its done because we contract it but there is regulations on how its disposed.

[whiskas]

In most cases the easiest thing is to simply lay your tile or vinyl or whatever you're doing over top of it.

[Kloubek]

^^ 100% agree. It will take virtually every material on top.

[broken_legs]

hmmmm

OK well I removed it myself. I heard about 10 different stories from everyone I talked to. I was on the fence until I decided to hell with it, i can do it myself (and im a cheapo) :D

Just finished this morning

The old lino was 3 layers thick.

I used polly and sealed the kitchen, covered the ceiling, walls, all surfaces.

Used disposable coveralls, mask and goggles and boots.

Rented that lino-ripper-upper tool from home depot, sealed myself in the room and went to town. Got the top 2 layers off and half of the first layer.

To keep the dust down I misted with a spray bottle for about 20 minutes before I started, and dumped water on all the lino as it was coming up.

Put everything in 3mil bags and selaedand removed as I was going.

The hardest part was removing the blue paper backing (thing that has all the asbestos in it) from the sub floor. TO do this, i just dumped a bunch of water on it and let it sit for a couple hours.

It came off in nice long curly peices with no dust.

I'm taking pictures of most stuff (aside from lino removal as not to asbestosize my camera :) ) I think i might post a before and after thread soon.


Also, the lady at the dump didnt care about the asbestos, and it says on the website its OK as long as its wet and sealed in bags.

Apparently the big worry is the really 'frieable' or dusty vermiculite insulation type stuff.

After sealing myself in that room for 5 hours (and sweating like a mother F'r) I checked the mask and there were no fibres or anything in the filter. It looked clean and new.

[broken_legs]

OK I got this asbestos removal racket down to a science - Just finished another room last night and it was soooo much easier.


Heres some tips for you DIYers:

Supplies:
- 2 or 3 XL disposable coveralls (~18$)
- 1 giant box of nylon disposable gloves (surgeon style) ($5)
- 1 big 5 gallon bucket (5$)
- 1 pair of rubber boots (13$ @ walmart)
- 1 disposable mop or brush
- 1 spray bottle
- 2 rolls of thick painters tape (8$)
- 1 small fan (that can be window mounted) (??)
- 1 box 3 mil industrial cleanup garbage bags (10$)
- 1 respirator with pucks rated for asbestos (45$)
- 1 roll of 2 mil poly (10$)


Step 1:

Demo the room. Lino goes under counters and all over. Depending on what you're reno consists of, you may want to completely demo the room.

Step 2:

*BEFORE* you start tearing up lino, get a utility knife and start cutting it into manageable strips. Think 1 ft x 3 ft max. Something that will come up in big enough pieces to make your life easy, but small enough to easily handle and pack into a garbage bag. Best done at your leisure before you gear up and start sweating your bag off.

Step 3:

Seal in the room with poly. It will open up to 8ft, so run the poly up to 8ft and secure with painters tape on the inside of the room, and outside. Leave yourself an entrance that you can easily "seal". Put some old carpet or matting or cardboard down as a walkway into the room so you're tracking anything into the house when you exit the room. I made a path of cardboard to the door.

Step 4:

Mount the fan in the window blowing outwards. Seal around any open spaces in the window so air is only leaving. This is your positive airflow. If you did a decent job sealing the room the poly will suck in at the door way indicating air is flowing from inside the house into the room and out the window. Use this time to make sure you're not blowing any air back into the house. Make sure your poly has a decent seal.

TIP: Close other windows in the house so wind gusts outside don't blow down your poly.


Step 5:

Fill your bucket with water and "wet" the floor with a mop. The water will work into the cuts you made for later.

Step 6:

Drive to home depot and rent the lino stripper machine.

Step 7:

Put on the coveralls, tape them to your rubber boots, respirator and goggles etc... Pick a corner and start ripping lino with the stripper.

If you see any dust, just pour more water on the floor. Dont be afraid to really get it wet. It should be a swamp. The other option is to use the spray bottle to squirt under the lino as your ripping it to keep the dust down.

TIP: If you have multiple layers take it all off on the first pass. All that should be left is the blue asbestos paper backing on the first layer. take off the top 2 layers all at once, we'll deal with the asbestos paper later.

Don't strip *into* the sub floor. If wood is coming up with the lino stop, wet, and wait.

Step 8:

Bag lino and remove. All that should be left is the blue asbestos paper backing on the floor. Get this WET. Really wet. Don't be afraid to just dump a whole bucket o water on it. I went through an entire 5 gallon pale on a tiny bath room. Spread the water around, make sure all areas are soaking well - Leave it for at least 4-5 hours.

TIP: BY now there should be no dust whatsoever. Shut off the fan so the room doesn't "dry out". If you leave it on the water will evaporate and not soak into the paper backing.


Step 9:

Use stripper to remove paper backing, it should come up easily. If its not peeling off the floor and you can still see dry areas, don't waste your effort, add more water and go watch TV. This is why you ot extra sets of coveralls. Throw out the old ones and chill. Put on some new ones and try again in a couple hours.

The backing will come up in big wet pieces, bag it. Take it to the dump. You're done.

Turn the fan back on to dry out the room. There will be a gooey mess left from the backing. You can scrape it off when its dry later or mop it off wet. Make sure you have the fan on and use a respirator again in case you make dust (there might be asbestos in the glue too)

Now you can add a new sub floor, or new flooring... I used some leveling compound to "seal" in the floor after I screwed down all the squeaks. This made me feel more comfy that all the "contaminated" wood was safely sealed away.

Also, i checked the pucks on my respirator again, and no flecks of dust or anything.