Asbestos Air Ducts

You may find asbestos wrapped around older hot water pipes and water boilers or used to tape together sections of heating ducts.

Asbestos air ducts.

See transite pipe air duct asbestos risks for details. For years lagging cloth and asbestos paper was used by the hvac industry to line and insulate pipes in heating and cooling systems within homes offices and other buildings. It adheres to the sheet metal and acts as a thermal insulator. Asbestos in heating ducts explained.

The white tape you see above is of the type that often contains asbestos although you don t really know without sending a sample to be tested in a lab. One of the dangers is that it degrades over time and this disturbs the material dislodging asbestos fibers into the air. However if the ducts become punctured or torn asbestos fibers can be released into the air stream. In that case repair or removal by a licensed asbestos contractor would be advisable.

Heating ducts in residential and commercial buildings may result in dangerous asbestos exposure from many different sources. Asbestos paper on the exterior of hvac supply ducts is unlikely to release asbestos into the circulating air inside the ductwork since the ducts are under positive pressure unless the ductwork has been damaged or disturbed. If used for air ducts transite pipe may be a an asbestos hazard particularly where the ducts become softened by water exposure such as air ducts located in floor slabs potentially releasing asbestos fibers into the building air. One of the places you might find asbestos in a home is the duct system.

If the air stream in these type of ducts isn t exposed to the asbestos material and there is little chance of exposure or contamination then many contractors will be comfortable. Transite duct asbestos hazards. Asbestos is no longer widely used commercially but it can still be found in many older homes and buildings. Asbestos paper wrap on supply air ducts return air ducts.

If you have an older home with rigid metal ducts as shown above it might have the white fabric tape you see in the photo. Asbestos duct wrap is a material that resembles white paper. Metal ducts wrapped with asbestos materials. The first thing to check is if the duct composed of asbestos materials or just insulated with asbestos materials.