Tile under my carpet

Christoph006

I'm preparing to remove the indoor/outdoor carpet that is throughout my house. It is a ranch style house on a slab and it was built in 1971. The carpet is glued to what looks like tiles. I pulled up a small portion to see what was underneath and to see how easily the carpet came up. Attached is what I found underneath. They are 9x9 tiles that look like they are made of cement or concrete or ceramic. I'm not certain that it is my slab because I can see and feel the grooves of the square tiles. My slab wouldn't have grooves in it would it? I'm also not certain if they are asbestos tiles. I'm going to Lowe's tomorrow to get the tools I need to rip the carpet up and ask them questions about it.

I'm just curious for more input from anyone on what they see in the picture. I couldn't scrape all the glue off at the time because I just had a small flathead screwdriver so it is difficult to really see in that picture.

Attached Thumbnails

 

joecaption

I'm not seeing anything that looks like tile in that picture.
All I see is the impression of the back of the carpet left in the glue or the tooling marks from a toothed trowl when the glue was spread.
What's the plans for flooring one this is removed?
Going to need one of these to get most of the stuff off the floor.
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=...electedIndex=0

brockmiera

Correct me if I'm wrong but when we were looking at houses last summer our realtor told us that most 9x9 tiles contain asbestos.

Christoph006

That's what I've been reading online as well. After looking at the tiles again, I'm afraid they are asbestos tiles. Apparently you can't buy asbestos testers to do yourself so I will have to figure something out. In the meantime, would it be fine for us to scrap the glue off the top of the tiles if they do turn out to be asbestos? I have all the protective equipment and tools we need to remove the carpet/glue. I just don't want to put me or my girlfriend at risk of asbestos scraping the top of the tile.

My plans are to rip the carpet and glue up and leave the tile for now. Future plans were to lay down wood laminate, engineered wood flooring, or stain the concrete slab. I hadn't come to a decision yet because of the tile being there.

brockmiera

Id put whatever right over the tiles. Underlayment for laminate/engineered, plywood for hardwood or backer for tile. Just dont disturb the tiles and you'll be fine.

Christoph006

Here is a closer shot of the tiles. They're a brown/reddish color. You can see where the cracks of the tiles come together in a + shape.

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joecaption

You can forget about staining that floor.
If it's below grade use engineered floor, if it's above grade then laminite will work.
Most important read all the directions from the manufacture about what vaper barrer to use before the flooring goes in. Both need special precautions when laid over a slab.
Both floors will go right down over the old tile. Just opening up a whole unnessay can of worms trying to remove it.

Gerry Hendry

I agree.They need to be tested before you remove them.

smyers

I wouldn't bother scraping up the carpet glue. I would skim over it with floor prep. I use ardex feather finish but can't get it at Home Depot. U have to get it from a flooring store. It will encapsulate the Capet adhesive. As far as the 9x9's most likely there r asbestos. Most 9x9's are. If they pop off the slab in whole tiles u can take them up yourself. If u have to scrap them up and they r breaking into a bunch of little pieces don't mess with um. It's when they break up when the asbestos can get air born.

sam floor

The adhesive would have more asbestos than the tile.

sam floor

You can't put backerboard over a concrete floor.