acousticasbestosceilingtilewood
Came across this room with broken acoustic ceiling tiles, that I have to spend time working. The tiles look kinda "modern" to contain asbestos, but then again you never know. Wondered if anyone can recognize the material(s) they're made of. Many thanks.
No one can tell you if it has asbestos in it except a qualified lab. Use a spray bottle to wet down a piece of it, carefully scrape off some of the suspect material, put it in a plastic bag and take it to a lab to be tested.
I'm not sure how acceptable this is, but it should work.
Getting this all lined up is going to be a bit of a challenge. You could drill a bit larger hole through the upper ceiling, to provide a bit of wiggle room. Just do your best to contain the dust, and make sure you wear a respirator. It's only going to be a little bit of asbestos, but it's still best to avoid breathing it.
The threaded rod should provide adequate support for the fan, and the brace should prevent any side to side movement introduced by the fan. You'll want to use a metal junction box, or any box that is designed to support a ceiling fan from a brace.
You might want to use some jam nuts and/or loctite, as well as bend over the top and bottom of the all thread or install cotter pins. Just so the vibrations don't loosen anything up, or cause the all thread to unthread.
WARNING: This is a hairbrained idea that was conceived before my morning coffee. Proceed at your own risk.
Another option might be to install the junction box in the upper ceiling, then hang the fan down through the lower ceiling with a downrod. However, you'll have to find a way to mitigate any side to side motion caused by the fan. A rubber grommet in the hole in the lower ceiling might work.
Best Answer
Do you know anything about the building you have them in? Age of the building, dates of renovations? If you can pinpoint that it might rule out the asbestos for you. Asbestos building materials were made illegal in North America and if you can find someone (an older person with some years in) at that place they might be able to help give you some information. If you haven’t been working with those tiles your exposure would be minimal, for asbestos to be dangerous it must be air born and the amount of exposure determines your health risk. So if those tiles were broken a long time ago and you didn’t disturb them in your work your exposure would be minimal. If you have been working with them it does increase your risk unfortunately.