Help!!!

aRo

Member ++
Joined
Aug 8, 2005
Messages
899
Reaction score
8
right.. really need someone with real knowledge to put my mind at ease please.

been doing some DIY in a new house I bought and started to scrape the wall in the bathroom and remove wallpaper and plaster.

Found what I thought was hair and started to scrape it out but found that there was more.. Also seems to be in other areas of the wall. see pictures.

Now my reactions are:

1. That it was hair because it looked and felt like hair (brownish). Scared the sh@t out of me just in case it was remains of a dead person!
2. Might be asbestos - only heard about this stuff but no clear picture of what it looks like apart from that it's like fibre.

Now I'm really hoping it's neither and that it's something used for walls to make it stick together more easily since I've touched the stuff (if its asbestos) and don't even want to think about the other one...

Called the council but not sure if they can do anything since it's not a council house and not sure who I can get to just check it out.....

Any ideas on what it is please or who I can get to check it out and put my mind at rest?
 
hi
im not a big diy er but i know a little
cant really tell from the pics but they did use to use some sort of hair like stuff in the plaster back in the days to add strength to it
i might be wrong
but see if you can get a bit more of to see if it is only in the plaster
 
hi
im not a big diy er but i know a little
cant really tell from the pics but they did use to use some sort of hair like stuff in the plaster back in the days to add strength to it
i might be wrong
but see if you can get a bit more of to see if it is only in the plaster

hi m8,


as tango said horse hair was used in plaster or insulation of the walls along time ago, nothing to worry about m8, how old is your house m8?
 
your going to give me night mares now

if in doubt, visit your local police station trust


is it ur house?
 
i had a house years ago with horse hair, i was very surprised when i first found it. The walls were made of clay blocks with horse hair used everywhere to stick everything together and hold the old plaster to the wall. I remember the footing of the house too, they were only 12 ~ 18inches deep, yet the place had never subsided a fraction in 150 years. Todays homes have no horse hair & 2 metre footings etc yet they crack and subside and fall apart lol.
Rather than remove anymore of the old stuff you might just be best to get a new fresh skim over the top.
 
always when in doubt get someone who knows to have a look

they used to use laggin which was made from asbestos (the worst kind to), i would think its horse hair as said by everyone they used to use it to strenghen the plaster and give it more substance

but you should put your mind at rest pal and get an expert in (give building control a call even though they are useless muppets in most areas, rubbish structural engineers that cannot get fully paid work in most cases aswell!)
 
thanks for all the advice guys... am convinced or convincing myself that it is indeed horse hair (have searched net and know more about it now).

I've just bought the house and was told it was built around 1930's.

The wall itself is upstairs in the bathroom and is not an external wall.

Feel more at ease now thanks to you guys but whilst searching about horse hair I found stuff that said anthrax spores could exist on this horse hair!! aarrgghh.....

I think I will just get a big tub of filler and cover the whole lot....

cheers guys
 
Back
Top