I think my bathroom floor tile contains asbestos. Can I tile over it without causing a danger to my health? – Jackie
Hi Jackie,
As long as you’re okay with the increased height of the finished floor, and you don’t disturb the existing asbestos contaminated floor tile, you’re perfectly safe covering over the tile with new flooring. In fact the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) has made it quite clear that encapsulating old asbestos tile is both safe and acceptable.
If you do disturb or remove the existing asbestos floor tile, however, you need to have a certified asbestos removal company conduct the work to keep from causing a health hazard and spreading asbestos fibers throughout your home.
Good luck with your project,
Further Information
- Asbestos in Your Home (EPA)
- Tiling Over a Tile Floor (article)
- How to Tile Over Vinyl Flooring (article)
- How to Lay a Tile Floor (article)
Oh goodness. People please be careful when messing with asbestos. The stuff is very dangerous.
I have a house built in the 60s with asbestos tile. On top of that, the previous owner placed laminate. I’m wanting to replace the laminate with ceramic tile. Will we be able to remove the laminate without disturbing the asbestos? Or can we put the ceramic on top of the laminate, resulting in 3 layers?
I have a house built in 1958. I would like to lay ceramic tile over the 9×9 asbestos tiles in the basement. The tiles are in good shape and not loose. Do I need to cover the asbestos tiles before I lay ceramic tiles? Will the ceramic tile cement stick to the asbestos tiles? Thanks!
Our house was built in 1965, and early this month my dad change the bath tub, and so I cut the tiles lining with a diamond cutter about 1 feet above the tub, and later he cut the tub and break the tiles to remove them. Therefore, he created a tons of dust in the bathroom and most of them got out throughout the house.
My dad wore mask, I work mask when I helped him a little, my mom wore mask.
Is there a risk of abestos exposure for us that we need to worry about in this case?
Thank you.
We will be putting a new carpet and pad down in the bedroom. The carpet had been installed in early 80’s, over hardwood floors. We pulled a little of the carpet & pad back that revealed black paper. We didn’t know what it was until I googled this article. We had scraped a minute Amt to see what it was, & to see our hardwood floors,but we didn’t handle it. When carpet is removed, is it safe to sweep the floor, or will this scatter into my house? Should I close off and cover the CH& Air vent in that room? Just scrapping a little bit,did this expose us to something?