Removing those asbestos floor tiles--recos?

[Anonymous]

Has anyone had asbestos containing floor tiles removed properly? If so, can you recommend the asbestos abatement company you used? The house we bought has these tiles in the upstairs master bedroom under a carpet. We want to have hard wood floors put in but the floor guy isn't sure he can install directly over the tiles, so we may need to have the tiles removed. The wood floor guy who gave us a quote is not certified to remove asbestos containing tiles. We are in MD.

[Anonymous]

Prior owners of our home had started to remove asbestos floor tiles from the basement HVAC room in our house. The tiles wouldn't have been an issue for us, if they hadn't started breaking them and removing them.

We are in VA, but it cost us under $1000 for removal and air control monitoring in an 8x10 room. It took less than one day to do. When I called around for quotes, most companies had minimum charges and my room was well under the minimum area. It sounds as if your area would also fall under those minimums.

As an FYI, you'll probably want to have the mastic that attaches the floor tiles to the subfloor removed also, because that probably has asbestos in it also. If you are removing the tiles, there is no reason not to remove the mastic also.

[Anonymous]

We had them - instead of removal, we covered them with backer board and tiled right over it.

[Anonymous]

I removed them myself, underwater with detergent in the water. The floor has a drain in it, so not a problem.

[Anonymous]

Call David Rymers at LVI. (I'm beginning to feel like a broken record, as I have recommended him a few times.) But he is good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I removed them myself, underwater with detergent in the water. The floor has a drain in it, so not a problem.

I also removed them myself. Heated them with a heat gun (you could use a blow dryer) so they were soft and pliable and the lifted them up one by one. Time consuming, but doable. But keep in mind that the glue on the hardwood floor under the tiles may also contain asbestos. That would be a big problem if you need to refinish the floors. You can send a sample of tile (with glue on the back) to have it tested for asbestos. . . I did this a while back, and just found a testing place online.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I removed them myself, underwater with detergent in the water. The floor has a drain in it, so not a problem.

I also removed them myself. Heated them with a heat gun (you could use a blow dryer) so they were soft and pliable and the lifted them up one by one. Time consuming, but doable. But keep in mind that the glue on the hardwood floor under the tiles may also contain asbestos. That would be a big problem if you need to refinish the floors. You can send a sample of tile (with glue on the back) to have it tested for asbestos. . . I did this a while back, and just found a testing place online.

Terrible idea. Dot do DIY asbestos removal.

The key is, you have one company do the removal and another the monitoring. Pay them both yourself separately. The EPA has a web page on questions you need to ask to make sure they are following procedures.

[Anonymous]

http://www.emsl.com/index.cfm?nav=Services&action=list&ServiceCategoryId=3

[Anonymous]

PP, it's not a terrible idea to remove them yourself. The tiles are a really low risk. You pretty much have to sand or pulverize them to release harmful amounts. keep them wet during removal and you'll be fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Call David Rymers at LVI. (I'm beginning to feel like a broken record, as I have recommended him a few times.) But he is good.

We used him too (I got his name actually from this forum) and he was very reasonable and professional.

You can just leave the tiles - we opted to remove ours b/c we were doing some significant renovations and it limited our flooring options, but don't discount just covering them up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP, it's not a terrible idea to remove them yourself. The tiles are a really low risk. You pretty much have to sand or pulverize them to release harmful amounts. keep them wet during removal and you'll be fine.

+1