Hazardous Materials Like Mercury in My Gym or Fieldhouse Floor?

We typically don’t worry too much about environmental hazards in new buildings, or in new products/materials we install during a renovation project. Most building owners, contractors, architects, and engineers are pretty knowledgeable about the hidden environmental hazards that may lurk in our old buildings, especially asbestos and lead based paint. But what about mercury? And I’m not talking about thermostats or other building components – I’m talking about gym and field house floors.
Building owners have selected polymer floors for a wide variety of uses, including play areas, gym and field house floor areas, running tracks, tennis courts – you name it.  And since no one’s reported widespread environmental problems as a result of using these materials, there’s no problem, right?
new surfaces like this probably aren't hazardous - but you'd better make sure

new surfaces like this probably aren’t hazardous – but you’d better make sure

As it turns out, many of these older polymer floors contain mercury. When owners decide to hire contractors to remove these materials, workers, building occupants, and even the environment can be at risk, depending on how the project team executes the work. So what should the project team do?
  1. Collect representative samples of the flooring to check for mercury content. Seems obvious, but maybe you’ll get lucky and not have a mercury problem at all. But unless someone checks, the only other alternative may be to assume the flooring contains mercury. While we all know about assuming and what it makes out of you and me, if we’re going to make a mistake, we need to err on the side that protects workers, occupants, and the environment.
  2. Determine if mercury vapor exposure is a job site hazard. If you’ve determined (or assumed) mercury is present in the flooring. Assess the worker and building occupant exposure potential.
  3. Develop a plan for either managing the material in place or for proper removal and disposal. Discovering mercury in the flooring may stop or delay the flooring removal/replacement. So it may be a good idea to determine how to live with it and protect those who are at risk in the interim. If proceeding with the removal/replacement project, determine how to protect workers and occupants. Determine waste disposal requirements to ensure proper waste handling and disposal.
  4. Check with the manufacturer of the new flooring to make sure the replacement floors contain no hazardous materials! The next time you repair or replace the flooring, hopefully you’ll avoid risky, time consuming, difficult, and expensive headaches.
Stay non-hazardous, my friends. Contact me for a free 30 minute consultation if you have any questions about your buildings.

Chris White, P.E., LEED AP, CBCP has been helping clients solve problems for 20 years. He is the most interesting engineer in the world, and is a LEED Accredited Professional and Certified Building Commissioning Professional (CBCP). You can follow him on Twitter @ChrisWhitePE.

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