replacing old cornice

[thomo767]

G'day,

As this is my first post, could I just start off by saying how valuable the woodwork forums have been, I have read so much valuable information here as I continue the long road renovating my old weatherboard home.

I have a couple of question regarding replacing some old style cornice in a part of my home that use to be a bathroom (now forms part of a hallway).

The cornice I want to replace is the old style cornice that was used in bathrooms it has a large ventilation gap between it and the plasterboard ceiling. I have gone up in the ceiling and the cornice thatt I want to replace looks like it is constructed of fine straw like material. Needless to say it looks pretty crappy in a hallway.

The plasteroard ceiling that covers it is stamped 'gyprock' in blue.

My question is, would the old cornice have likely to have been constructed out of asbestos and would the plasterboard also be likely to contain asbestos?

I realise the only way to find out for sure is to have it tested but I was just wondering what peoples thoughts are!

regards,

thomo.

[Barry_White]

I doubt that it would be made out of asbestos. Usually just made from plaster and some sort of stringy type fibre and they usually make them in a mould.

I had one in my bathroom when I lived in Sydney and it certainly didn't have asbestos in it. Also if the plaster board is marked Gyprock it wont have asbestos in it. Gyprock is made from Gypsum plaster compressed between two layers of cardboard.

[tameriska]

The cornice would have been made in a mould out of plaster and horsehair