Sometimes it's easy to be wise after the event...
Got advice from a friend (who is a builder) to avoid tinkering with the kitchen tiles since the house was old. However, I got a bit fiddly. Some tiles going against the kitchen wall bothered me, I want the kitchen to stand straight and nice. Tried to knock off one tile. Nothing unusual under it. Nothing under the next one, or the next, and so on.
It went well, until I accidentally lifted two adjacent tiles... Black gunk underneath them. There was some tile adhesive at the tile edge too, where the kitchen plinth had gone, it also hid dirt. Looked as per the pictures below.
Image 1) This is how it looked when you lifted the tiles.
Image 2) The tiles, more or less intact. Should minimize fiber dispersion?
Image 3) This is the "spill" behind the plinth.
Image 4) Presenting a "spill piece."
Image 5) Lifting the linoleum mat
(click on the image for a larger view)
After consulting with the builder friend, I've bought tile adhesive and put back the two tiles and also covered the "seam" (the third image from the top) with tile adhesive as well. I will vacuum the kitchen with a shop vac and then the whole apartment with a regular vacuum cleaner with a HEPA filter. Then, it should be fine according to the aforementioned builder friend.
What are your experiences with this? The two tiles were removed without major effort (so it shouldn't have dusted much [if any] from that) and in the last picture, I've just lifted a linoleum mat that also covered a mess. I was wearing a half-mask from Biltema during the work.
How worried should I be...?
Got advice from a friend (who is a builder) to avoid tinkering with the kitchen tiles since the house was old. However, I got a bit fiddly. Some tiles going against the kitchen wall bothered me, I want the kitchen to stand straight and nice. Tried to knock off one tile. Nothing unusual under it. Nothing under the next one, or the next, and so on.
It went well, until I accidentally lifted two adjacent tiles... Black gunk underneath them. There was some tile adhesive at the tile edge too, where the kitchen plinth had gone, it also hid dirt. Looked as per the pictures below.
Image 1) This is how it looked when you lifted the tiles.
Image 2) The tiles, more or less intact. Should minimize fiber dispersion?
Image 3) This is the "spill" behind the plinth.
Image 4) Presenting a "spill piece."
Image 5) Lifting the linoleum mat
(click on the image for a larger view)
After consulting with the builder friend, I've bought tile adhesive and put back the two tiles and also covered the "seam" (the third image from the top) with tile adhesive as well. I will vacuum the kitchen with a shop vac and then the whole apartment with a regular vacuum cleaner with a HEPA filter. Then, it should be fine according to the aforementioned builder friend.
What are your experiences with this? The two tiles were removed without major effort (so it shouldn't have dusted much [if any] from that) and in the last picture, I've just lifted a linoleum mat that also covered a mess. I was wearing a half-mask from Biltema during the work.
How worried should I be...?
If you have access to a search engine, you can get information like this very easily.
http://www.stockholm.se/Global/För företagare/Avfall MF/Faktablad/Blad1_Asbest.pdf
http://www.stockholm.se/Global/För företagare/Avfall MF/Faktablad/Blad1_Asbest.pdf
No more paranoid than you are about the risk of tripping on the doorstep and breaking your neck.mull said: