I have a small bathroom (about 50 sq ft) that I am looking to renovate. It dates from the 1970s and both the floor and walls are tiled. As is common with many places built in the 70s, there is also asbestos under the tiles. We renovated a similar bathroom upstairs, and the work, including asbestos removal, came to about $25k. I don’t want to spend this much again.
I recently learned about microcement, which is apparently a type of thin polymer-based cement that can be applied with a trowel over many different surfaces, including ceramic tile, to create a completely new surface. Here is one video:
I am very interested in this as it seems to be something a non-pro can do and it would avoid all the costs of removing the old tiles and asbestos.
Anyone here have any experience, positive or negative, with microcement? Was it hard to do without a professional? How durable was it? Any tips or cautionary tales?
I’d be concerned that doing that might not be up to code if there’s known asbestos and you’re renovating, if you’re one to worry about that kind of thing.
Thanks, but I’m not sure what you mean about the code. My understand is that if I break the wall I am required to remove the asbestos. This will just be covering the wall. The asbestos will be left intact.
I actually had to get asbestos abatement in my house because we had some plumbing issues and had to get flood cuts on the drywall and the flooring taken up. Apparently back in the day, they did strange stuff like put asbestos in the adhesive that held on old laminate flooring, and used it in the old drywall as well. So we hired an abatement company to come out and mask it all off and set up that negative pressure business and do the flood cuts and remove the drywall before we could have other contractors come in and put up new drywall and flooring.
The city codes were pretty strict about it, so that’s why I pointed it out.
It wasn’t strange. Mechanically and physically, asbestos is a terrific product. It’s fire proof, it doesn’t rot or decay, and the fibers can reinforce all sorts of things, like vinyl tiles and adhesives. Like putting rebar in concrete, but on a smaller scale.
And the intact products aren’t dangerous. It’s only dangerous when the asbestos gets loose where you can inhale it. I have “probably asbestos” vinyl tiles in my basement, and i choose to cover them with a new floor rather than remove them, because it felt safer. Even careful removal will dislodge fibers and create a hazard that needs to be mitigated.
My general contractor was very careful about following code, and i have all sorts of annoying and expensive extras as a result of that. He had no concerns about his people putting new flooring over my existing flooring. (I have ceramic tile in some places and engineered hardwood in others, but all of the old flooring is covered, now.)
It was good for that, too. But back when no one cared about the long-term hazards for asbestos workers (the risks have been known at least since 1905) it was used in high-end versions of lots of other products because it improved their mechanical qualities.
seems that asbestos is more interesting than microcement
Actually I did a bit more snooping on the internet, and it seems that microcement is a lot more common over here in Europe than it is in the US, so perhaps there aren’t a lot of Dopers with experience on this….
No experience with microcement specifically, tho have had surfaces skim-coated, including when asbestos was an issue. Not sure if microcement is one material for use in skim-coating.
My understanding is that asbestos is only an issue when it is disturbed.
