Covering Asbestos Tile With Hardwood

Vinyl tile is an excellent option for sealing in asbestos tiles.

Covering asbestos tile with hardwood.

You have lot of options when it comes to covering asbestos tiles and it only is a health risk when the floors asbestos particles come airborne. Intact asbestos tiles are not a major risk and can in fact be left in place and covered with other materials such as carpet vinyl linoleum or concrete. Tiles that are disintegrating should be. Thin luan wood or cement board.

Hey deltaskye thanks for your great question and welcome to the community. Common in homes built in the 20th century black mastic was used as an adhesive for ceramic tile linoleum and other flooring materials. Asbestos is safe and legal to remain in homes or public buildings as long as the asbestos materials are in good condition and not tampered with. The asbestos floor tile identification articles in this series illustrate that with the combination of design appearance and an idea of floor tile age many asbestos containing floor tiles or sheet flooring products can be reliably identified even before confirmation by a test by a certified asbestos testing laboratory.

Asbestos floor tiles were manufactured in three sizes. One of the best ways to deal with asbestos tile is to leave it in place and cover it with new flooring. Examine the condition of the tiles. However as a favor to future owners of your house make some note of the fact that asbestos tiles are under the new flooring.

The old tiles are relatively thin around 1 8 inch thick so installing new flooring on top. If your tiles are in perfect condition it s true that they could be removed but doing. If the tiles are not solid you can insert an intervening sheet of underlayment. That way no one will be endangered years from now when they start to rip up the new flooring and find asbestos tiles beneath.

As long as the asbestos tiles are solid you can cover them with sheet vinyl luxury vinyl plank laminate engineered wood solid hardwood or just about any other type of flooring. You could also cover the tiles with new vinyl flooring linoleum or even ceramic tiles. When you remove that floor covering to make way for new flooring you may encounter the mastic and wonder whether it is safe to remove the main concern surrounding this question is that black mastic often contains asbestos. If you aren t removing the old floor you may be creating a new floor that is too thick for doors to open and shut or for thresholds to have clearance.

Asbestos minerals are microscopic durable fibers that were added to vinyl tile flooring for its great durability and heat resistant qualities. 9 x9 12 x12 and 18 x18.