Asbestos Tiles in 1966 Tradewind?

[Trady66]

Hi there,
I was ripping up the floor of my tradewind and the tiles. Reading the forum a lot of people are saying airstreams from this time had asbestos tiles. Can anyone confirm if the 1966 Tradewind had asbestos tiles, and how you had them removed. The particles even remain in the air, so a little worried, as I broke a few tearing them up.

Thanks.

[overlander63]

They definitely had asbestos tiles from the factory. If you are not sure which you have, measure them. The asbestos tiles are 9"x9", while the newer, non-asbestos tiles are 12"x12".

[Trady66]

Yep they are 9x9. Not good news then. How have other people removed them safely, or should I send to the professionals.

[RM66caravel]

Carefully lift the ones that you can and use a putty knife for the ones that you can't. open the door and windows for a cross breeze and then bag em and dispose of them.
Cliff

[FreshAir]

Mine came up easily. The danger is from any dust that's created. I wet mine down with a spray bottle of water as I carefully removed them and placed them into a trash bag. I labeled the bag and disposed of them through our waste company.

Neil

[Frank's Trailer Works]

you must make the asbestos friable to have it be an issue. Pulling them up with a putty knife will be no problem, it is when you run a circular saw across them that you are causing problems.

[Wayne&Sam]

Exactly what Frank said.

[68 TWind]

Frank is correct. Honestly if asbestos tiles were a dangerous as some people say we would all be dead. How many millions of us grew up crawling around on them?

Off the soapbox now, sorry. I would (and did) wear a good dust mask and if any of them break wet them down and bag them. Many of the tiles in my 68 just popped up, the ones that were still adhearded to the floor came up with just a little persuasion with a 6in dry wall knife or a putty knife. It only took about 15 minutes to remove all of them.

[CDMDB]

I don't know for sure, in the Airstream, but the adhesives of that era sometimes contained asbestos as well, which becomes more difficult to get rid of without creating dust. Lots of personal protection is a good idea in any case.

Anyone know for sure?

[tlsmit1]

I agree with the above comments.

We bought respirators from Home Depot and I "borrowed" a couple of disposable jumpsuits from work. We kept the floor wet while we were working, and we wiped down all of the interior surfaces thoroughly when we were through.

Mesothelioma is a lousy way to die, but the overall risk is quite low. Don't use power saws or do other stuff to generate dust.

[tlsmit1]

Whee! Third rivet!