I hope someone can answer my question. The photo below is a picture of my den wall. I believe that wall is referred to as a "firewall" because the other side of that wall is my garage. I'm wondering if there is a possibility that the boards in that firewall could be made of asbestos? And if so does anyone know of any websites that show what asbestos wall board planks look like? This house was built in 1959 or 1960.
Thanks, Tom! That puts my mind at ease a bit.
The real issue I have is a shelf that is on the other side of that wall that was put up by he builder when the house was built. My Dad had used the shelf to store automobile type items for years. One of the items was a gallon of distilled water that had sprung a leak. Most of the gallon of water leaked out onto the shelf. I was cleaning the shelf yesterday when I noticed a 4" x 4" spot of the shelf that looked "hairy" or kind of "furry" I touched it and it felt like kind of a cloth texture to it. I took the vacuum cleaner to it and was surprised to see that the furry material was really the shelving material that had broken down due to the water bottle leaking on it. After vacuuming the hairy stuff off, I can see that the shelf is made of some type of compressed shiny fiber material that I've never seen before. I wondered if maybe the builder of this house had a plank of asbestos fiber board left over from building the firewall and decided to put it to use as a shelf on the other side.
I'm so curious as to what kind of material this shelf could be made of?? It's definitely not wood, and it's definitely not a pressed wood board like they sell at Home Depot strores. Any ideas?
I would doubt it. Usually a "firewall" between the garage and the living area has to be of a certain thickness (thicker than normal) of drywall or plaster so as to retard the spread of fire to the living area long enough to be able to evacuate the premises should your car or something else stored in the garage catch fire. Tom
Very doubtful. Firewalls are constructed of sheetrock and solid materials in most cases. Asbestos is not needed. The idea is that a fire is kept from spreading for a certain time.
Perhaps it was MDF, which I think stands for Medium Density Fiberboard. It looks like it is composed of compressed cardboard rather than wood chips and is usually brown or tan. Tom.
Odds are the wall is 2x4's no insulation and one layer of 1/2 drywall on both sides. I have never seen "boards" made from asbestos. Siding, tiles, and concrete pipes but not boards. Asbestos is not a very strong material compared with structural materials used.
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