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Working on a house now was just wondering if this is horse hair or asbestos in the photo ? The house is really old about 100 years I thinkhttps://imageshack.com/i/poNZXGLcj
From the few times I’ve seen asbestos fibers they were never that long. It looks more like house hair but it’s hard to say because I can’t identify how the actual size with anything; how large is the piece of plaster?
Hard to say. Before the 1920's, most basecoat plaster in residential use was lime and sand, and not gypsum plaster. It is doubtful that a horse and wagon plasterer would go out of his way to find manufactured asbestos fibers to put in lime plaster.
While you can see asbestos fibers with the naked eye, the testing labs check for them with a microscope. Those look way too big to be asbestos, but there's only one way to know for sure. Get it tested if you have any doubts.
Pic 1 is hemp. It was used more than any other fiber for reinforcing plaster. Pretty common in the older homes.
Pic 2 is insulation, fiberglas to be exact. The pink is Owens Corning, the yellow is either Johns Manville or Certaineed by brand.
Pic 3 Due to the large size of the fibers, more than likely this is hemp that has seen moisture. The dark color is mold on it. Asbestos fibers would be fine, like the fiberglas insulation, not course.
If you are concerned about the presence of asbestos, then it really may not matter what the visible fibers are: there could still be asbestos in the plaster itself- horse hair etc was used as a binder to strengthen the application of the material,but, asbestos was used as a filler /binder/aggregate in the plaster itself till the 1970s. Treat the material as if there is asbestos present if you don't want to get it tested.
Looks like horsehair to me. While its not likely you would find asbestos in plaster that has horse hair in it, its always possible. They went to asbestos from horsehair, so I guess there could be some overlap with both materials, but probably rare.
With any house of this age, you should always assume there is asbestos in the building materials somewhere, and test accordingly. Testing is not that expensive, and you will know for sure.
Better safe than sorry.
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