Who's doing the demo?
Below a link with some information.

Here is a link that might be useful: asbestos in floor tiles and sheets

What size are the tiles? Are they 9 x 9"?

Are you tearing it out? We had a 1940s bungalow with what they called a "vinyl asbestos matrix" tile. We were told that as long as we did not disturb it, I.e. sand it, or otherwise cause any of it to become airborne, it could stay and just live in our basement as is, or covered with carpet, etc.

It is not a tile - it's a whole piece covering the floor so maybe I shouldn't worry about it? We need to replace it with hardwood floors so we need to remove it.The demo will be done by my contractor. I have a small child so I am very concerned...
Thank you!

The stuff that I heard having asbestos was the floor tiles, generally 9" x 9" in size.

If your flooring does happen to have asbestos, don't freak out. From what I have read, It is a low level risk and may not even require special (and expensive) removal efforts.

The stuff that is much more of a concern is asbestos insulation around piping and ventilation ducts.

Take samples of various materials in the kitchen (wall paint, trim paint, flooring, adhesive, mud, plaster, etc) and send them to a lab. It's not that expensive and worth knowing what you're dealing with. I did this and the lab even spent time talking with me about risks for various things, including the silica in kitty litter! lol (that might not be the norm, lol).

You can get lead tests at the big box stores which I think are certified (although there may be no guarantee with home testing). BM has a box of 20 lead test sticks which is much more economical.

I moved my fridge and took a sample out using a hole saw. I took the sample to a local testing lab, and they confirmed I had asbestos.

Again, who is doing the demo? If it is not you, but rather your GC, I would do the test and then let him or her deal wit it.

I did the demolition myself, so I had to deal with it. I was able to take it and the underlayment up at the same time, minimizing my exposure. I then bagged and double-boxed it. Disposing of the boxes was the biggest challenge.

Our house is a 1951 ranch. When we bought it we pulled up the flooring in two bedrooms and found the original asbestos 9x9 tiles underneath. We went over them. When we pulled up the kitchen floor we had linoleum. We went over that anyways.

If you don't have the dreaded 9x9s, you are likely in the clear.

It's not only tiles that may contain asbestos.

Sheet flooring from that time period also contained asbestos - we had two layers that were hot for it - the 50's sheet stuff. And
The 9x9's. The sheet stuff had the most in it. An abatement company took it all up and we got the all clear before we proceeded with further demo

If you are realy concerned and the methods for removing it with minimal exposure bother you call an abatment company. We had some abspestose duct work removed from the basement, it was under $500. I was surprised it cost so little.

They put asbestos in "everything". You can never be sure unless it's tested. I believe I was told the pink fiberglass in the attic is worse, especially because people don't worry about it much.

My house got the clear on all samples except the joint compound. Early 1970's build.

This post was edited by snookums2 on Fri, May 10, 13 at 12:04

OMG, I took some pics in the attic I couldn't see any asbestos but a lot of pink fiberglass - arhhh.... maybe there is asbestos below the fiber glass and we were planning to put a new furnace there to free more space...great! Demo starts in a month...
Thank you all for the input!

What's the issue with pink fiberglass insulation? I don't think that asbestos was used for general insulation. More for wrapping around pipes and vent ducts.

They are tiny little shards of glass that stay in your body, that is, lungs. The geologist said guys toss that stuff around like it's cotton candy, without any protection.

Are there different kinds of pink stuff? I'm not sure. They encase sheets of it in plastic wrap these days. The stuff in my attic was blown in. 1972.

I thought asbestos was used as insulation in attics too.

I have read most of our house dust comes from the attic. Wouldn't surprise me if a lot of it does.

This house had old synthetic tiles and a black mastic, but both cleared testing at the lab. Good thing because nobody but me seems to worry about this stuff, lol.

This post was edited by snookums2 on Fri, May 10, 13 at 15:51

If the attic is not sealed well, you can certainly get a lot of dust coming from the attic. You can help reduce that problem by sealing around any ceiling penetrations (light fixtures, smoke detectors, ceiling fans, bath fans, etc.) with caulking or Great Stuff (minimal expansion stuff). That is usually easier to do from the ceiling side than from the attic side. Some of those things you would have remove from the ceiling, do the caulking and then remount.

Sealing around ceiling penetrations is a way to help cut your utilities a bit too. Keep the conditioned air in the living space instead of leaking into your attic.

If working around fiberglass insulation, you should definitely use a dust mask. Some use tyvek suits to not get all itchy. I just try to use a long sleeve shirt.

Was looking around and asbestos was used a lot in attics. The fiberglass type comes in different colors, too.