Asphalt floor tile question.

[Sch84]

I have a question. Did all old asphalt and vinyl floor tiles contain asbestos]? I had old 12"x12" floor tiles in my basement installed between 1939 an the mid 50's. I believe they were asphalt do to the fact they were dark brown or red in color. They were removed in 1997. The whole basement had them except for one small room. They were removed by a contractor who claimed they were not asbestos. He had his workers remove them by spraying the tiles with water and then they began scraping and braking them up with hand tools made to take up floor tiles. I'm freaked out he may have exposed me and my family to asbestos. My furnace was off and they put down a new concrete subfloor a few days later and painted the walls. The mastic on the old subfloor was exposed for two to three days. I was in the basement during and after removal. Only for a couple of short periods of time. And we had our ducts cleaned a short time after.

 

[Incognito]

Asphalt tiles contained more asbestos than asphalt.

Asbestos was the main ingredient.

Vinyl asbestos tiles had a lessor degree of asbestos.

There were a few other types of resilient tiles----linoleum, rubber, homogeneous vinyl, cork and such that did not contain asbestos.

They hype on asbestos was greatly overstated. It's really not a risk for casual exposure. They had to outlaw it because workers who were exposed regularly suffered from various lung problems.

 

[Floorist]

t sounds like they took it up the right way. Keeping it wet kept it from getting into the air. You should be fine.

 

[Ernesto]

I agree with the above statements. Wet removal follows the industry standard. Sanding and pulverizing if not wet can release asbestos fibers.

 

[highup]

Non issue. I'd relax and never worry about it again. The government turned asbestos into something as bad as nuclear waste. It's not. It's bad, but looks like the guy took it up correctly. You said the furnace was turned off, so nothing got "spewed" all over. Since that was 20 years ago any small fragments of asbestos that remained have been covered up, vacuumed or floated out the doors and windows every time they were opened.
Sleep easy. From what you describe, you aren't in any danger whatsoever.
Sounds like you saw an ad from a law firm on TV. I'd be more concerned about them than the issue you mentioned.