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Builders vermiculite

Womble54Womble54 Posts: 348
in Tools and techniques
I recently removed an old fire place. It was insulated with vermiculite so I’ve got a few bags of it. It was below the flue so it’s not covered in soot.

Do you think it’s safe to use in the garden for veg in pots etc?

Thanks in advance

Posts

  • Pete.8Pete.8 Posts: 9,985
    About 50 years ago our bungalow had vast amounts of vermiculite as insulation in the loft.
    I used it every year as a child when sowing seeds - it worked fine.
    The insulation was pretty depleted by the time I left home aged 30 😁
    Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
    Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Posts: 11,391
    When I insulated the loft about 20 years back, there was a couple of inches of it between the rafters which had been used as basic insulation when the house was built in the 1920s.  I've been using it in the potting shed ever since. :)
    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  • Nanny BeachNanny Beach Posts: 8,351
    If you look it up I posted on another site here,the old insulation stuff often contains asbestos
  • Womble54Womble54 Posts: 348
    Nanny Beach said:
    If you look it up I posted on another site here,the old insulation stuff often contains asbestos
    The house was built in 2003 so I hope the building regs then meant there should be no asbestos.
  • barry islandbarry island Posts: 1,617
    I think that the asbestos thing was an isolated case in Canada that spooked the public and put them off of using it.
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