Asbestos in carpet adhesive

[jdamelia]

I recently purchased a home built in 1970, and decided to remove some old carpet from the stairs to uncover the hardwood underneath. When I removed the carpet and the carpet padding, there was a hard yellow substance stuck to the stairs with a very thin white material on top of it. I am assuming this is adhesive, but I am not sure. My question is, can this contain asbestos? I want to remove it, and the material is crumbling a bit and can be scrapped off, but I am hesitant in case it might be hazardous in some way. Does anyone know if this is/could be adhesive and if it might possibly contain asbestos?

Thanks!

[louie]

It could be, though it's unlikely. If you're curious, you can look through the yellow pages for asbestos abatement. Find a lab that does testing, possibly by calling abatement contractors to ask them who they use for testing. If you wet the sample area with a small spray bottle of water and a touch of dish detergent to prevent dust, put a small sample in a bag or small jar and take it in for testing. Should cost less than $100 to find out.

[HeyBub]

I can't imagine why asbestos would be in either carpeting or adhesive. Whatever, you DON'T want to know.

If it IS asbestos, you'll be faced with a (potential) multi-thousand dollar abatement bill plus having to disclose to future buyers.

[PipeDown]

Not unless it was stuck to asbestos containg floor material like really old tiles and that was breaking up. If it is dried out and degrading becoming dust, then wear a mask or respirator anyway.

Sounds like you have some sanding to do also, get something with a dust pickup and connect it to a vacuume while sanding.

[jdamelia]

Thanks for all the advice. I will make sure to wear a respirator when I do the work. I have read some stuff online about using a heat gun to help get the adhesive off easier, so hopefully that will not cause a lot of dust. Really, I was concerned about the white felt like material that was stuck on the adhesive. I am pretty sure that was either from the carpet or padding that was on the stairs a while ago. It almost looks like the felt like material was used to hold the adhesive in place, but I am not sure. I just wanted to check and make sure it was unlikely that either carpet or padding could have backing or something that contained asbestos if in fact that is what the white, felt like substance is.