If your building in Montréal, Laval or Longueuil went up before the 1990s, confirm whether the floor tile, its adhesive and any overhead insulation contain asbestos before a cleaning crew strips floors or high-dusts the structure. Quebec requires employers to locate certain asbestos materials and keep a register of them, and that information has to reach whoever plans or does work that could release dust. Routine damp mopping of sound flooring is a different matter from aggressive machine work, and the contract should treat them differently.
Why this lands on a cleaning contract
Most people link asbestos to demolition and renovation. Cleaning crews can run into it too, because a few ordinary jobs act directly on older materials:
- Floor stripping and burnishing. Vinyl floor tile and the black adhesive under it were often made with asbestos in older buildings. Sound tile holds its fibres well, but abrasive pads, high-speed machines and over-stripping wear the surface down.
- High dusting. Crews on lifts clean beams, ducts and pipe runs. Those are the same places where sprayed fireproofing (flocking) and pipe insulation are found.
- Mechanical rooms and service corridors. Damaged pipe wrap can shed debris. A broom or a standard vacuum spreads that debris instead of containing it.
Asbestos fibres cause lung cancer, mesothelioma and asbestosis. The risk builds with exposure and the disease can take decades to appear, which is why the crew and your occupants both have a stake in the check.
What Quebec's rules require
The rules sit mainly in Division IX.1 of the Regulation respecting occupational health and safety (RSST), in force since June 6, 2013. For a building manager, four points matter most:
- Locating materials. Flocking must be located in buildings constructed before February 15, 1990, and heat insulation (calorifuge) in buildings constructed before May 20, 1999. Both are presumed to contain asbestos unless testing shows otherwise.
- Condition checks. The materials are inspected for condition at the start, then at least every two years.
- A register. The employer keeps an up-to-date asbestos management register. The CNESST publishes a model.
- Passing the information on. Before work likely to release asbestos dust, the relevant register entries go to the person planning or doing the job.
When work crosses into construction, renovation or removal, the Safety Code for the construction industry adds its own asbestos requirements, with risk levels that dictate protection and containment. The CNESST can stop work that breaks these rules, and penal proceedings can follow.
This article is a plain-language overview, not legal advice. For a specific building, confirm your obligations with the CNESST or a qualified asbestos consultant.
The gap in many registers
The mandatory locating duty names flocking and heat insulation. Floor tile and mastic are not in that list, so a register can be fully up to date and still say nothing useful about the floor your crew is about to strip.
Do not read a silent register as a clean result. Ask directly whether the flooring has been sampled. If it hasn't, and the building or that floor layer dates from the period when these products were in common use (they appeared in Canadian buildings into the 1980s), treat the material as suspect until a lab says otherwise. The age of the building alone can mislead you, because newer tile often sits on top of an older layer, and renovations may have replaced one floor and left the next one alone.
Nobody can identify asbestos by eye. A qualified firm takes samples of the tile and the adhesive, and an accredited lab analyzes them.
A pre-job check for facility managers
Run through this list before you approve floor work or high dusting:
- Pull the register. Share the entries for the affected areas with the contractor, in writing, before the scope is final.
- Date each floor. Note the tile type, the adhesive and whether older layers exist underneath, floor by floor.
- Test what is unknown. Sample suspect flooring before the first machine goes on it. Results also help with future renovation planning.
- Walk the overhead areas. Look for damaged fireproofing and torn pipe wrap above the work zone, and report it before lifts go up.
- Write it into the scope. State who confirmed the material status, what the crew will and won't do, and what happens if suspect debris shows up.
- Set a stop-work rule. If a crew finds broken tile, loose fireproofing or unfamiliar debris, it stops, keeps people out of the area and calls your building contact. Nobody sweeps it up.
- Keep the paperwork. File the lab reports and notes on the job with the register.
How floor care changes when tile is confirmed
Confirmed asbestos tile in good condition doesn't automatically have to come out. Managing it in place is often an option, but it changes the maintenance program, and the method needs review by someone qualified in asbestos work before any crew starts.
Guidance from US agencies gives a useful direction. A US EPA study found higher airborne fibre levels from spray buffing with high-speed machines than with low-speed ones. Agencies also advise stripping as rarely as possible, keeping the floor wet throughout and avoiding over-stripping. Those are US sources, so they don't replace Quebec requirements, but they do explain why a program built around frequent burnishing is a poor match for these floors.
Expect the scope to move toward gentler routine care with fewer restorative cycles, and more walk-off matting at entrances during salt season so less grit reaches the tile. If the floor is damaged or scheduled for replacement, removal is abatement work for a specialist firm under the Safety Code. It should sit outside the cleaning contract entirely.
What to ask a cleaning company
A short exchange tells you a lot about how a contractor handles older buildings:
- Do you ask for the asbestos register before pricing stripping or high dusting in an older building?
- What pads, machine speeds and methods would you use on this floor, and who approved them?
- What does your crew do when it finds suspect debris?
- How are workers trained to recognize suspect materials?
- What does your liability policy say about asbestos? Read the exclusions, even on a strong general liability policy.
Vague answers on the first and third questions are a warning sign, however good the price looks. For more on planning the work itself, see our guide to stripping and waxing floors before winter and the rundown of our specialized cleaning services.
Frequently asked questions
Do cleaning companies need asbestos certification in Quebec?
Routine cleaning that doesn't disturb asbestos materials isn't treated like removal work. Once a job can release asbestos dust, though, the rules on information, training, protection and methods come into play, and removal belongs with a specialist firm. Ask the CNESST or an asbestos consultant how your particular job is classified.
Is it safe to wax or mop old vinyl floor tile?
Damp mopping sound tile causes little abrasion, so it is generally treated as low concern. Aggressive stripping, dry sanding and high-speed burnishing are the operations to examine, because they wear the surface. If the tile hasn't been tested, get it sampled before you approve a restorative program.
Who pays for asbestos testing before floor stripping?
The contract decides this, and in most cases the building owner or manager arranges the testing because the results stay with the building. Sort this out before work starts, since a surprise test can delay the job. Have the responsibility and any resulting schedule change written into the scope.
What should staff do if a crew disturbs suspect material?
Stop the work, keep people out of the area, and avoid sweeping or vacuuming the debris. Contact the building manager, who can bring in a qualified firm to sample and assess it. Record what happened and when, and keep that note with the register.
Planning floor work in an older building
Tell us the age of your building, the flooring you have and whether you keep an asbestos register, and we will scope the job around it. See how we work across the region on our Montréal commercial cleaning page, or request a quote.