Since asbestos building materials cannot be easily spotted with the naked eye the best clue is to find out when the roof was actually built.
How to identify asbestos roof shingles.
Determine the age of the building.
In older homes specifically asbestos may be found in many different materials from pipe insulation to flooring adhesive to roof shingles.
Asphalt shingles yes roofing manufactures have admitted to using trace amounts of asbestos in the fiber mat from around 1964 1976.
However asbestos can be a range of colours depending on the material it is mixed with.
Asbestos hardly needs an introduction anymore as most homeowners should be schooled in the general dangers of disturbing and breathing asbestos fibers.
In the early 1920s american roofing material manufacturers johns mansville carey eternit and century were all offering at least one asbestos cement roofing shingle to their customers.
Shingles placed on a roof before the mid 1980s might contain asbestos.
It was one of the most used types of asbestos containing material for roof building mainly as an underlayment.
It is black and pretty difficult to remove.
They can last for more than 40 years and if undamaged.
The only way to accurately identify asbestos roof tiles is to have them tested by a ukas accredited laboratory.
This government guide contains a useful diagram to identify where asbestos may be present on your property.
Asbestos roof tiles are usually square shaped and their colour is generally a combination of grey and black.
However asbestos fibers can cause serious lung and respiratory problems if inhaled.
However during extensive sampling of material from re roof projects with tear offs the occurrence rate of find asbestos is less than 1.
When a building is quite old it has a good chance of having asbestos building materials.
It is virtually impossible for anyone but a trained professional with a high powered microscope to tell definitively whether a shingle contains asbestos.
The amount of regulated asbestos containing built up roofing material created during removal is calculated based upon information found in the neshap interpretative rule governing roof removal operations 40 cfr 61 subpart m appendix a this rule states that 160 square feet of regulated asbestos containing material is created for each 5580.
On roofs themselves asbestos cement can be frequently found in the form of panels gutters insulation roof shingles siding downpipes or the entire roof itself.
Asbestos cement roof tiles are usually square shaped and their color is a combination of grey and black.
