Asbestos is a very durable and inexpensive material. Up until the mid 80s, pretty much all of the floor tiles manufactured contained certain amounts of this material. These asbestos floor tiles were made of vinyl and asbestos, therefore, they are also often referred to as vinyl asbestos floor tile. They were very easy to produce and to install. The material was highly resistant to any kind of influence, yet, very flexible, which is one of the reasons why it was so popular for a long time. But as we all had to learn later on working with asbestos or living in an environment that contains asbestos was bearing a huge risk of potentially developing diseases such as mesothelioma or asbestosis.
Experts say that only if asbestos floor tiles are broken one might be exposed to a potential hazard.

And therefore, especially if you considering removing the asbestos floor tile, you need to take extra precaution measures. The goal is not only to remove the tiles, but also the glue that sits underneath. A common mistake of a "do it yourself person" is to use power tools on this task in order to speed up the process. But this is extremely dangerous as the tiles may break and therefore release asbestos into the air.

An alternative is to leave the vinyl asbestos floor tile installed and just put a layer of non asbestos flooring on top of it. But many homeowners prefer to have the tiles removed either way. It is strongly advisable to hire a company that is specialized in removing asbestos floor tile, rather than doing it yourself. The experts have the knowledge and the gear to remove the asbestos floor tiles safely.

This is something were you shouldn't be trying to safe money on. I like to do as much as I can myself in and around my house, but I also know my limits. And removing asbestos floor tiles is something I would definitely stay away from and leave it up to the experts.

As a matter of fact, we had asbestos testing done a few years ago because we were afraid that the walls of our house, or respectively, the insulation inside the walls, might have contained asbestos. It turned out that it was not the case. Two years later my wife got diagnosed with breast cancer and a few months after that, I got diagnosed with kidney cancer. We very glad that we had the asbestos and radon testing done, because that assured us that our cancers were not due to exposure to asbestos, since our two daughters are still living with us.