Floor Tile & Mastic Removal in Charlotte, NC

The Most Common Find in a Remodel

Vinyl-asbestos floor tile was a standard floor for kitchens, basements, hallways and classrooms for decades. The 9-inch square is the size most associated with it, but 12-inch tiles and sheet vinyl backing can contain asbestos too. Under the tile there is often a black, tar-like cutback adhesive, which can contain asbestos on its own account. Both usually come to light when someone pulls up the carpet or laminate laid over them years later.

Intact Tile Versus Broken Tile

In good condition, floor tile is non-friable: the fibres are locked into vinyl and asphalt, and walking on it does not release much. The risk comes from breaking it, grinding it or sanding it. That is why nobody should run a floor sander or grinder over old tile or mastic, and why a crew taking it up works to keep each tile as whole as possible.

How It Comes Up

The area is closed off and the floor is kept wet. Tiles are lifted with hand tools, sometimes with gentle heat to soften the adhesive, and placed straight into bags rather than piled. Black mastic left on the slab or subfloor is taken off with a low-odour remover made for the job, not by grinding. The floor is cleaned and checked before new flooring goes down.

Testing Floors Properly

Tile and adhesive are separate samples. Floor tile is also one of the materials where the standard microscope method can miss asbestos, so a negative result on tile may warrant a more sensitive lab test before the floor is treated as clean.

Covering Instead of Removing

If the tile is intact and well bonded, new flooring can often go over it without disturbing it. That leaves the tile in place for the next owner, but it avoids removal altogether, which is the right call for many floors.

How long does it take? A kitchen or basement floor is usually a day or two, depending on area, how well the tile is bonded and how much mastic has to come off the slab or subfloor.

Questions About Asbestos Work