Covering Asbestos Tile With Carpet

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

Covering asbestos tile with carpet. 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. Often the tiles are in good condition but begin to crumble when tack strips are pulled up from the carpet installation. However as a favor to future owners of your house make some note of the fact that asbestos tiles are under the new flooring. This is why we often find vinyl asbestos tile underneath other kinds of floor coverings like carpet or even sheet vinyl.

One of the biggest factors of installing a new floor over the old is thickness. The old tiles are relatively thin around 1 8 inch thick so installing new flooring on top. Plan and budget for an asbestos abatement to remove the carpet and asbestos flooring materials. You could also cover the tiles with new vinyl flooring linoleum or even ceramic tiles.

If the carpet glue is negative for asbestos but floor tile and or mastic are positive conduct a test pull to determine the likelihood of the floor tile remaining intact or. Carpeting we don t recommend wall to wall carpets in basements nor in bathrooms a new layer of resilient flooring sheet or tiles installed directly over the existing floor covering typically using mastic provided the current floor surface is smooth and sound. While the old tiles can be removed and replaced with tile and even safely removed by the homeowner with proper precautions and equipment it s usually not worth the risk especially. When you are dealing with asbestos you can either remove it with an abatement or manage it in place.

In a basement i d suggest a rubber based carpet pad rather than a fiber pad. Examples of asbestos floor tile or sheet flooring cover ups that can work. One of the best ways to deal with asbestos tile is to leave it in place and cover it with new flooring. First things first in many cases homeowners choose to install carpet on top of asbestos tile instead of replacing it with newer ceramic or porcelain tile.

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. The floor tiles are only harmful when the asbestos particles are made into airborne dust. Carpeting and a suitable pad will do the trick.