Is it asbestos?

[Lusso]

new and need help already lol , moved into a new house built in the 60

had it rewired and new heating system put in "gas central heating"

Anyways the gas engineer capped off the pipes from the grants bac boiler " its just a cast iron matrix that heats water from a coal fire so i decided to rip it out! so this boiler was fitted in 1985 along wit a purpose built chimney stack to the side of the house! live in a rura village in scotland by the way and they only got the gas here 15 year ago.

Anyways i take out the fire place and hearth and see were the ne lintel has been but in and just take a line of brick away each side t reveal the pipe work either side of the boiler. but all this grave like stuff comes out and i see its packed all round the boiler , it gray in colour and has some mettalic flakes in it too ! is this suf asbestos and how dangerous? as i continued and took the lot out wit the boiler the missus is going nuts with me lol saying act first thin later sort of stuff!

I know some firms were using vermiculite but this also contain asbestos and when will it be safe to use this room ? hope not like nuclear fallout

Oh here's a pic of boiler fitted in 1985 , and a pick of the grave like substance

[image

[meow2222]

I've no idea what it is. But if its asbestos, its the blue and brown types that are the problem. White or light grey is now known to not be the problem it was first thought. So as long as its not flecked with blue or brown, not a problem. If OTOH its cotton wool like tufts of brown fibre, yes, problem.

NT

[Adrian Brentnall]

- and I've never heard of it containing asbestos.

Perhaps you could show you sample to the public health people at your local council, if you're really worried...?

Regards Adrian ======return email munged================= take out the papers and the trash to reply

[Peter Parry]

No, it is vermiculite.

Not particularly.

No, it doesn't.

[mcbrien410]

Have a gander here...

If it was fitted in the mid 1980's then it is probably Vermiculite.

Chris

[Ian Stirling]

AIUI, some vermiculite mines do have issues with asbestos in the product. It's contamination due to them occurring in the same place.

[<me9]

Vermiculite is based on mica, not asbestos. there have been some scares in america of contamination with asbestos, but most sources seem to be clear, prolly just the american compensation culture.

By 1985 Asbestos was no longer used in this country in building materials. Artex contained small quantities until the early 80s. If the insulation is contemaranious with the boiler installation it won't be asbestos.

The description sounds like vermiculite, your web link no longer works so I can't view the picture.

[Matt]

It is close to impossible to positively identify the type of asbestos, and even more so when they have been mixed with binding agents unless you examine the fibres under a microscope.

[Andy Dingley]

For happy, smiling domestic life in the 21st century Barrat-home themepark, vermiculite (in plant pots) is the major remaining environmental source of asbestos. sqrt (bugger-all), but it is there.

Of course when I were a lad, you'd be down the pits and chewing a lard and asbestos butty for your dinner and think yourself lucky....

[Bioboffin]

Not necessarily - as this web site makes clear:

> Of course when I were a lad, you'd be down the pits and chewing a lard

They didn't know that Asbestos was a risk in the 1900s... ;-)

[Lusso]

Cheers all i think its vermiculite after all and unless im very unluck

ie its an asbestos contaminated batch which i doubt, everything i cool so thanks for all your reply's et

-- Lusso

[The Natural Philosopher]

sounds like what they filled my aga up with when thye installed it a couple of years ago

Quit panicking: Asbestos in low quantities seen once will not even do more than give you a panic attack.

Asbestos was unobtainable in 1983 when I got back from Africa, with the last packet of rawlplastic that we used to suck and spit and plug holes with.

So its not asbestos, and I am still alive having handled and lived with the stuff all my life more or less.

[The Natural Philosopher]

They did by about 1960,which is in te 1900's...;-)

But of course teh lack of understanding about risk analysis was even worse then than it is today, so the fact that one in a thousand heavy snmokers who lived and breathed asbestos shards for 40 years died of cancer, meant that a schoolkid seeing asbestos once poking out of a wall would die instantly writhing in agony...

so they banned it all lock stock and bloody barrel.

Probably the biggest overreaction to a minor health hazaard till Edwina Curried Egg declaimed about how free range chicken eggs were all covered in salmonella shit.

True to the nth degree, but unwise. I guess she was a bit frisky after a leather and willow session with John Major.