Hello everyone!
I've quite recently moved to Stockholm and bought an apartment in a building first built around 1900s and renovated in the 1970s. Right now I'm having the floor replaced, and as part of that the builders have removed the socklar to access the whole floor. We went in to visit a few times, and we noticed that where the socklar had been removed, the wall was very crumbled at the bottom (where it meets the floor).
However, with all the dust and broken bits of wall/plasterboard, it made me think: could asbestos be in this wall? Would the floor constructors have checked for this when they took off the socklar? If not, is it something we can / should check, or is there any other way of knowing whether my building has any asbestos?
For example, before drilling a hole in a wall for something, is it normal to first check that there is no asbestos? As a new arrival to Sweden I feel very lost, concerned and confused with what to do and I'd really appreciate any help.
Thank you.
I've quite recently moved to Stockholm and bought an apartment in a building first built around 1900s and renovated in the 1970s. Right now I'm having the floor replaced, and as part of that the builders have removed the socklar to access the whole floor. We went in to visit a few times, and we noticed that where the socklar had been removed, the wall was very crumbled at the bottom (where it meets the floor).
However, with all the dust and broken bits of wall/plasterboard, it made me think: could asbestos be in this wall? Would the floor constructors have checked for this when they took off the socklar? If not, is it something we can / should check, or is there any other way of knowing whether my building has any asbestos?
For example, before drilling a hole in a wall for something, is it normal to first check that there is no asbestos? As a new arrival to Sweden I feel very lost, concerned and confused with what to do and I'd really appreciate any help.
Thank you.
Hi and welcome to sunny Sweden! Let me give you a spoiler: it won't be like this for long, another two days or so before the great darkness is upon us all, cold marching mercilessly at its side.
Asbestos is a dangerous mineral if you mess with it. Undisturbed, it's actually a very good material in many ways. As you seem to know, the danger lies in drilling in it, cutting, sanding or breaking it, as this exposes asbestos dust. The most common places you find it in buildings today are in roofing tiles, piping insulation, ventilation ducts, and to my surprise, in carpet glue. In retrospect, I think that's what I had in some of the rooms when we renovated, unprotected of course!
The workers should have reacted if there was indeed asbestos. It is in their interest to take precautions. With the short exposure you had, the risk of getting something like lung cancer perhaps increased from 6% to 6.0001% (speculation). The risks are there and should be avoided, but it's not like all workers active until 1979 (when it was banned) die like flies in people's houses they were renovating. I've heard more than one testimony from elderly workers who worked in the asbestos dust every week when demolishing houses, renovating or using a handsaw to cut ventilation ducts to the correct length that they're healthy as a ... whatever you're healthy as (nötkärna/nutshell in Swedish).
Check this out for some tips on where you might find asbestos in your house (some good training in Swedish right there, and for free!):
https://www.ocab.se/sanering-och-rengoring/asbest/
Asbestos is very hard. That's one of the things that made it attractive, along with great heat endurance. If you bump into a very hard surface when drilling, but the rest is easy to drill through, chances are you have an asbestos layer right there, or, it's just some other material.
Asbestos is a dangerous mineral if you mess with it. Undisturbed, it's actually a very good material in many ways. As you seem to know, the danger lies in drilling in it, cutting, sanding or breaking it, as this exposes asbestos dust. The most common places you find it in buildings today are in roofing tiles, piping insulation, ventilation ducts, and to my surprise, in carpet glue. In retrospect, I think that's what I had in some of the rooms when we renovated, unprotected of course!
The workers should have reacted if there was indeed asbestos. It is in their interest to take precautions. With the short exposure you had, the risk of getting something like lung cancer perhaps increased from 6% to 6.0001% (speculation). The risks are there and should be avoided, but it's not like all workers active until 1979 (when it was banned) die like flies in people's houses they were renovating. I've heard more than one testimony from elderly workers who worked in the asbestos dust every week when demolishing houses, renovating or using a handsaw to cut ventilation ducts to the correct length that they're healthy as a ... whatever you're healthy as (nötkärna/nutshell in Swedish).
Check this out for some tips on where you might find asbestos in your house (some good training in Swedish right there, and for free!):
https://www.ocab.se/sanering-och-rengoring/asbest/
Asbestos is very hard. That's one of the things that made it attractive, along with great heat endurance. If you bump into a very hard surface when drilling, but the rest is easy to drill through, chances are you have an asbestos layer right there, or, it's just some other material.
Asbestos was typically used as water pipe insulation and in some types of floor glue used to glue the plastic mat to the concrete floor. And, of course, in the infamous "Eternit" facade tiles.
The workers in the asbestos cement industry who got hurt typically mixed bags of raw asbestos mineral into cement mixers with no breathing protection whatsoever. For decades. To add insult to injury they usually smoked. And still the number of asbestosis cases count in the dozens at most.
Once baked into a product, asbestos is relatively harmless. If you break a piece of construction material or inhale dust from an old brake pad (from the early 80's or earlier), the particles are well over a micron in size which is usually something you cough up. The problem in handling the raw mineral was that particles were sub micron in size and got stuck in the lungs, leading to loss of lung function.
In short, the horror stories you read in sensationalist articles have no bearing in reality. That said, use a face mask when handling asbestos products and dispose of the material packed in plastic. And clean up using a shop vac with a HEPA filter. But do not panic. This applies to sporadic amateur handling, professionals use closed dress and full face masks.
The workers in the asbestos cement industry who got hurt typically mixed bags of raw asbestos mineral into cement mixers with no breathing protection whatsoever. For decades. To add insult to injury they usually smoked. And still the number of asbestosis cases count in the dozens at most.
Once baked into a product, asbestos is relatively harmless. If you break a piece of construction material or inhale dust from an old brake pad (from the early 80's or earlier), the particles are well over a micron in size which is usually something you cough up. The problem in handling the raw mineral was that particles were sub micron in size and got stuck in the lungs, leading to loss of lung function.
In short, the horror stories you read in sensationalist articles have no bearing in reality. That said, use a face mask when handling asbestos products and dispose of the material packed in plastic. And clean up using a shop vac with a HEPA filter. But do not panic. This applies to sporadic amateur handling, professionals use closed dress and full face masks.
I know asbestos is more common in dry wall in the US, but in Sweden this is not typical. In Sweden it was usually used in pipe insulation, window benches(?), sheet material called Eternit used as facade material, roofs and protection behind furnaces and fireplaces. Also in cement-based materials behind tiles and some floor mat glues.
So, I don't think you need to worry, the wall material is very unlikely to have asbestos in it.
So, I don't think you need to worry, the wall material is very unlikely to have asbestos in it.
Tack alla för era svar, alla mycket hjälpsamma.
Jag skulle vilja göra några relativt små saker, som att installera spotlights (vilket innebär att borra i taket) och flytta eluttag (vilket innebär att skära ett spår i väggen). Även om risken är låg, bör det ändå utföras? I Storbritannien, om det finns risk för asbest, måste en asbestinspektion utföras innan något arbete kan utföras i ett hem. Är det samma här i Sverige, och är 'asbestinspektor' rätt namn för personen/företaget som skulle göra det tack?
Mitt hem är en lägenhet i en BRF, så jag har också mejlat BRF:en idag för att se om de har någon information. Jag hoppas att de borde veta från tidigare renoveringar etc.
Jag skulle vilja göra några relativt små saker, som att installera spotlights (vilket innebär att borra i taket) och flytta eluttag (vilket innebär att skära ett spår i väggen). Även om risken är låg, bör det ändå utföras? I Storbritannien, om det finns risk för asbest, måste en asbestinspektion utföras innan något arbete kan utföras i ett hem. Är det samma här i Sverige, och är 'asbestinspektor' rätt namn för personen/företaget som skulle göra det tack?
Mitt hem är en lägenhet i en BRF, så jag har också mejlat BRF:en idag för att se om de har någon information. Jag hoppas att de borde veta från tidigare renoveringar etc.
In your own home, no inspection is needed if you do the job yourself, or with help from friends and family. It becomes mandatory only when someone does it as a worker/employee. The title could be asbestinspektör but people in that line of business often work with more generic building inspections, so their title is probably not that. Check with Ocab and Anticimex, they are two main actors.
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