Interesting asbestos use in 1930s house

Some of you may recall my previous posts about our very odd 1930s house (back wall subsiding, damp, internal walls made of 2" thick block laid directly on floorboards, lots of other interesting features). Well, today we came across a particularly interesting feature which I'd like to share with you.

To recap, the house is roughly square. As you come in the front door, which is in the middle of the house wall, you see the stairs. So the stairs run down the middle of the house, with rooms either side both downstairs and upstairs.

We're currently working on bedroom no.1, which is the room on the right as you go up the stairs. We've finished bedroom no.2, which is the one on the left.

Both of these rooms have walls which form the stair well. But bedroom no.1 also has the wall which forms the end of the stair well - the wall which you might bump your head on going up the stairs.

In bedroom no.2, the wall which forms part of the stair well is made of the lovely 2" black blocks mentioned earlier, laid directly onto the floor boards. Nothing unusual about that (for this house, at any rate).

But in bedroom no.1, the equivalent wall, and the wall which forms the end of the stair well are made of T&G, lined on the inside (i.e. inside the room) with 1/8" hardboard (yes, that's right).

Today's job was to remove these walls. Having removed the hardboard, we found that the wall which is part of the stair well is lined with asbestos sheets! Four sheets of 4'x2'x5mm of grey asbestos sheet, very hard amd brittle.

I thought that was a bit odd, given the age of the house, and given that it looks like an original feature. I thought asbestos was only used after the 40s.

But even more interesting - the other wall, the one forming the end of the stair well - wasn't lined with the same sheets. Instead, it's lined with 1/2" fibre board (like MDF but very low density).

Why would they do that? Why would anyone go to the trouble of lining one wall with asbestos sheet, but line the adjacent wall with fibre board (which is useless when it comes to fire resistance)?

Any thoughts/experiences/wisdom?

Reply to
Grunff
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Not really. Asbestos was used in Victorian times though, asbestos fluff was the standard incandescent stuff in gas fires before ceramic knobbly plates took over.

I guess the real question is what to do about it.

Regards, NT

Reply to
N. Thornton

damn stuff was used till 19veryrecently in Artex and as plain boards - inspector who found ours pulled out fibres of it and held it very close to his face/nose & proceeded to explain how expensive it's going to be to remove this deadly stuff.

Reply to
Chris Oates

I didn't imply enough sarcasm ;)

Insurance companies and the HSE think the stuff is worse than Ebola virus.... the inspector obviously knew the score

Reply to
Chris Oates

Not really - it's nowhere near as scary as it's made out to be. In reality, risks only result from prolonged exposure. Before anyone invokes the "one fibre" theory, find some studies which support it.

As for disposal:

(many more available, just google)

Reply to
Grunff

Because that is what they got cheap.

In those days, D-I-Y on a house of this value was domne on an absolute shoestring, usually to remodel a new room for yet another mewling puking brat.

If someone had a couple of sheets of this or that left over going cheap, you used it. The 50's were very limited times financially.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

Well, yeah, I get your meaning, but surely the fibre board was *loads* cheaper than the asbestos sheet (as well as being easier to work).

What I don't get is the juxtaposition of the two materials, when the use of fibreboard on one of the walls completely nullifies any benefit the asbestos might have provided.

Reply to
Grunff

There's no clinching evidence that WHITE asbestos is a problem - the blue and brown forms are a different matter.

Steve

Reply to
Steve

you're not kidding !

I got sent next door to watch black & white TV Our weekly bath was in something that got lowered from the ceiling. The 'wash' was done in a 'luxury' gas fired oil drum & was dried with the aid of a mangle Fridges only existed in America Milk came decanted from churns on a wagon drawn by horses Only the rich had a phone Ditto cars Sugar was still rationed

those were the days

Reply to
Chris Oates

::Cue violins:: ;)

PoP

Sending email to my published email address isn't guaranteed to reach me.

Reply to
PoP

NOT. :-)

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

Yep, the door frames in our 1950s house are metal, and all the soffits/fascias, guttering and drainage pipes are (were) asbestos.

Apparently wood wasn't cheap then. But you wouldn't think it was expensive when you see the size, thickness and number of floor joists!

Reply to
R W

I was sent next door to listen to 78rpm records.

We were posh, we went to the public baths. When we wouldn't fit into the zinc bath any more.

Mary

Reply to
Mary Fisher

Oi! If you are going to quote then please reply to the person that wrote the original article ;)

PoP

Sending email to my published email address isn't guaranteed to reach me.

Reply to
PoP

Sorry!

Mary on my knees (make the most of it, it doesn't happen often!)

Reply to
Mary Fisher

housemaids knee was a common problem then

Reply to
Chris Oates

The mind boggles ;)

PoP

Sending email to my published email address isn't guaranteed to reach me.

Reply to
PoP

# Still is for carpet fitters.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

I've had problems with my knees when installing loft flooring on a couple of occasions recently, I presume that is known as housemaids knee.

I do find that wearing a pair of knee pads helps enormously. And for that someone unknown on this forum is due thanks - I had never tried knee pads prior to someone mentioning them here a while back, a quick visit to ebay and I had a pair to try.

PoP

Sending email to my published email address isn't guaranteed to reach me.

Reply to
PoP

I'll let you know when I have the result of the whole body scan I had on Monday.

Mary

Reply to
Mary Fisher

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