How To Tell If A Roof Has Asbestos

Asbestos was only fully banned in the uk construction industry in 1999.

How to tell if a roof has asbestos.

But fear not because we re on hand to inform you about how to identify asbestos in your garage roof. One of the most common materials containing asbestos fibers is attic and wall insulation. The mastic itself usually has asbestos in it. It isn t easy to identify asbestos especially if you don t know what it looks like.

It is made of a mix of cement and asbestos fibers and as the majority of the materials which contain asbestos it is only dangerous when damaged and in poor condition. This type of roof can be quite easy to recognize as it usually has a green coloration and a striated texture. Asbestos was molded into many different shapes and sizes to fill different needs. It is virtually impossible for anyone but a trained professional with a high powered microscope to tell definitively whether a shingle contains asbestos.

Tips to spot an asbestos garage roof. However asbestos fibers can cause serious lung and respiratory problems if inhaled. Since asbestos building materials cannot be easily spotted with the naked eye the best clue is to find out when the roof was actually built. Shingles placed on a roof before the mid 1980s might contain asbestos.

This makes it very difficult to spot especially when it has been mixed to create cement. On roofs themselves asbestos cement can be frequently found in the form of panels gutters insulation roof shingles siding downpipes or the entire roof itself. For example sheets of asbestos were used to make up walls and slats of asbestos were created to serve as roof tiles. You can t see it if the floor is intact but you can spot the black adhesive if some of the tiles have already popped off the floor.

In older homes specifically asbestos may be found in many different materials from pipe insulation to flooring adhesive to roof shingles. Determine the age of the building. They ll take fingernail sized samples and test them in a laboratory. When a building is quite old it has a good chance of having asbestos building materials.

Asbestos flooring often has black mastic which is a type of adhesive on the back. But just because your insulation is old doesn t mean it is dangerous. Each mold has a different location that may be stamped with manufacturer s information. When was it built.

Due to its microscopic size asbestos was usually mixed with other materials to create asbestos containing materials acm s. This government guide contains a useful diagram to identify where asbestos may be present on your property. The only reliable way to know if your home contains asbestos is to hire an environmental consulting firm or asbestos building inspector for asbestos testing. The tiles may have asbestos too.

You can t see or smell asbestos but exposure to loose fibers can cause lung disease such as mesothelioma asbestosis or lung cancer.