Asbestos in Engine Room

[Snowpetrel]

I delivered am old steel boat down from Townsville to Hobart a few years back. She had engineroom soundproofing that looked very suspicious, and it was breaking down in more than a few places.

Fortunately the owner was happy to have it tested and supprisingly it was harmless. Big relief all around and it only cost about $150 or so to test and know for sure.

The guy checked out the whole boat, and was more worried about the vynal tiles but theu tested Ok. Money well spent.

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[mako]

MJA, I had those same tiles in my old Burger. Like they said are harmless. They are also quite worthless for sound absorption and they only cut down the reflection a bit, which is worthless because your engine is kicking out tremendous noise. Dust mask and goggles though if needed.

[Cheechako]

Basically asbestos is harmless unless it is disturbed creating dust etc. Long term exposure like a mechanic doing brake jobs and blowing out the old dust etc could be an issue.

[pmelo]

Originally Posted by mja

Anybody else have a concern about what appears to be asbestos tiles lining the engine room of trawlers?? Especially Taiwan boats. Obviously I will get it tested to find if it is inded asbestos but if it is it may be a costly matter with health consequences.

Mja, Did you end up testing and finding out if the tiles were asbestos? I just bought a 1978 Roughwater Trawler built in Taiwan and I have the same tiles and some of them already fell to the floor of the engine room and have been damage. Does anyone else found more info on this topic?

Thanks

[MartinR]

Originally Posted by MacG

Asbestos is generally an overrated issue caused by media and government.

Just leave it in place. There is very little scientific evidence of asbestos being harmful, unless you work with it daily. As long as it is in place, you will get very little dust from it. You can also coat it to bind it.

Removal is not hard, but make sure you do not breathe in the dust. But why remove a perfectly good insulation material.

[pmelo]

Just an updated to my previous post:

I had a company (Safe Air Fast Environmental) come in and take samples of the tiles, insulation layers and varnish/paint on the wood and fortunately no traces of asbestos or lead were found!

My boat is a 1978 41' Roughwater Pilot House built in the Taiwan shipyards.