# Forum Home Renovation Asbestos  Asbestos in hessian carpet underlay in NSW?

## katut

Hi folks, a quick question. I pulled up the corner of some old carpet in an old fibro house we've just started to work on (own house, first renovation) and the underlay was made of a woven hessian/jute sort of thing. I thought I might throw it out to the general community and ask; does anyone know if asbestos has been found in hessian carpet underlay in NSW? I'm thinking along the lines of the info linked below, where it's been found (from what I can gather primarily just in WA) from re-used hessian bags that had once carried raw asbestos and then were re-used for carpet underlay. 
I'm not too concerned about the instance of having pulled up a corner of it, thanks to having lurked on this site for the last couple of months I've read up enough and purely based on it being dusty work I was wearing a respirator/cleaned up with a shop vac etc. I just don't want to go on ripping it up if there is a decent chance (more than the government "we advise you to watch out so you can't sue us" chance) it may be, but just can't find any reference for it being in use in NSW. Because it's an old fibro house we're being cautious as we go and using licensed folks to remove what we need to that might be asbestos as we get to it, but I don't want to be overly cautious and come to a complete stop for what's most likely just standard hessian underlay. 
http://www.health.qld.gov.au/asbestos/documents/carpetunderlay_fs.pdf

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## katut

Apologies for adding a new thread on this, I did find some older ones that were similar but really was just curious about the use of it in NSW exclusively so didn't want to bump them.

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## goldie1

The reason for the vague warnings is twofold 
1.The percentage of recycled material used in hair/ jute carpet under felt was small ( around 5%) This material  
was sourced from many suppliers ( potato sacks, fertiliser sacks, cotton waste etc.) So a very very small 
 percentage of  under felt could have contained asbestos. 
2. Nearly all of it has long since been taken up and sent to landfill so as this has only come to light in recent  
years very few figures are  available ( and will ever be available ) 
Raw asbestos was transported to Sydney and carpet under felt was manufactured in Sydney so it is almost 
certain some of the bags ended up being used in under felt.  The only way to be sure if it is in yours is to get 
a sample tested ( about $70 ) If the test is negative wear a good mask any way as dust and lungs don't mix.

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## Bloss

Use the safety gear and pull it up - the vast vast majority will be standard underlay in use for 50 years and more. A greater health risk is cutting yourself while using a stanley knife to pull it up or driving it to the dump or a thousand other activities you'll do around the house every day all year round.

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## intertd6

get it tested, that way it will disposed of correctly protecting everybody now & later in the community if it does contain asbestos, its just the right thing to do.
regards inter

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## katut

Hi folks, thanks for the responses- it confirmed my "who the hell knows?" thoughts on it.  :Wink:  
Out of interest (and for future reference for anyone doing some research!) I sent a section of it off to be tested, the testing company said it was unlikely and one sample was sufficient. It cost $100 and the next working day after taking the sample they tested it and called to say no asbestos was found. 
My advice to anyone in the same situation? Cheap as chips (in the grand scheme of things) to get it tested and pretty quick to find out, worth it for the piece of mind.

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## The Administration Team

This thread has been edited/ deleted by the Admin Team  who has    had  a gut full of  of the crap that's been posted and wasted hours    of our time. Any more of this behavior WILL result in banning from    the forum.

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