Floor With Old Asbestos Tiles Not In Great Shape

[HugeWesty]

Bought a house (1950-70), ex LA and my mate who has a similar house and similar floor tiles got told they would prob have asbestos in them.

I intend to vinyl lino over the tiles. (this is the kitchen). The floor is relatively level overall. I'm not massively concerned about a couple of mm out here and there.

As you can see some of the tiles have obviously been in previously bad shape. (Ignore the current dust, this is from other projects been happening). I was just going to mop the whole floor down to remove current debris and dust resting on floor and then leave the tiles, not disturb them and then get vinyl laid over the top.

But should I play it safe and use self leveller instead or epoxy paint etc? I know I have other options too like plywood the floor.

I have no idea why some of the floor is tiles and some concrete and why a big square outlined with worn in tape is in the middle etc.

Thoughts welcomed, thanks.

 

[bobasd]

all discrepancies in the background will telegraph through - all bumps, dips and lines of unevenness will show on the sheet vinyl surface, & be first points of wear.
there are various ways of laying sheet material - which method are you going to use?

fwiw: linoleum and vinyl are not the same.

 

[HugeWesty]

all discrepancies in the background will telegraph through - all bumps, dips and lines of unevenness will show on the sheet vinyl surface, & be first points of wear.
there are various ways of laying sheet material - which method are you going to use?

fwiw: linoleum and vinyl are not the same.

Which method would you recommend? I asked the floor layer about bumps etc but this was before taking the carpet up - and he just said minor imperfections were ok.

They had carpet laid in the kitchen before (no underlay). I'll see what the thickness was, but even if say 10mm - the unevenness wasn't noticeable - so if I went for a thick vinyl, then would that cover bumps etc?

Also can use floor leveller or put down plywood boards - but obviously don't want to have to do this, unless absolutely needed. Also I know sometimes with floor leveller, you have to end up using a lot more bags than expected

 

[oldbutnotdead]

Carpet will mask bumps and dips of a few millimetres- vinyl flooring will make the dips very obvious and will fail quickly on any sharp edged holes. Given your concerns about possible asbestos tiles, your cheapest option is to flood the job with self levelling (set your level to get at least 3mm on the highest tiled point)- this will give you a good flat floor and encapsulate the old tiles. You might want to find a test lab and send a sample of your tile for analysis (follow their instructions for how to take a sample)- if that comes back negative then you can look at other options

 

[Keithmac]

They will have asbestos in them, in living room I just filled in the dents with plaster and QuickStep laminate on top.

In kitchen I carefully picked any loose ones off (not many!) and tiled over the remainder.

Levelling is a good idea if you can seal them in.

Our kitchen has a lot of trafict through it, tiles took longer to lay BUT they are very hard wearing (especially if you have to move washers/ fridges etc).

I believe the asbestos tiles act as damp proofing as well?, yours will be same as ours concrete slab floors.

Seen the Asbestos Removal van around our area when they do re-fits, they removed next doors tiles..

They are classed as "low risk" apparently.