Hello All,

I need some help on determining a good sealant for the asbestos flooring in my basement. I just bought my house this past October and have finally had some time and money to redo the flooring in my basement. I have about 890 sq ft to work with and just bought some Acquarius Waterproof Vinyl Plank flooring to do the job.

I'm worried because I have the typical 9 x 9 inch tile in the basement which I am led to believe is made of asbestos. About 98% of the total tile amount is still very well adhered to the floor. Yet there are a few tiles, here and there, which are chipped on the edges. Also about two tiles are starting to come up. I'm assuming the chipping in coming from age of material and general wear and tear of the previous owners. Now I know that breaking up these tiles is deadly so i do not want to touch them and because they are in relatively good condition i'd like to seal them and move on with my flooring.

I have read a lot but have been getting a general impression of confusion among a lot of people. My question is what type of sealant should I use for my floor? The floor is very level throughout the entire room and has a gradual grade to the drains in the basement. I've read a lot about self leveling compound, specifically Tru self and level quik. My floors are already level so wouldn't this compound just sit there with me needing to spread it? I've also read that self leveling compounds need a very clean, degreased floor for usage and generally crumble when the subfloor below bellows. Now as for epoxy's I've seen kits that can work but they run extremely expensive. I've also seen that epoxy's require that you remove wax and on top of that 'beat up' the floor which would require possibly breaking the tiles which is bad.

Also I've run into coatings for garage/shop floors, floor wax, cement based floor patches, embossing leveler compounds, vinyl flooring sealants, etc. So to say the least there have been a lot of suggestions.

All in all i'm not sure what to use. I'd like to safely cover the asbestos tile and protect it from future usage. Is there anyone out there who has successfully bonded any of these substrates to VAT? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks