I would be concerned that the floor was raised to make room for plumbing. asbestos is not a problem if left in place or removed without crumbling it, my city allows intact asbestos to be bagged by homeowners, just ask. you can send off a piece of it to be tested, it is under $30.

Thanks, Detroit. It's not raised that much, only about half an inch currently. This flooring is from the 60s and I wonder if the layer underneath would be original? I'm just wondering why they put the plywood sub floor down between the 2 layers rather than removing the first layer or just laying over it? Too difficult to remove? Would the wood floor underneath (if indeed that's what it is) be salvageable? We did that in the kitchen, but it was just the one layer of linoleum over hardwood. There are a few rows of nail holes and such, but that doesn't bother me. Much better than the linoleum that was there the hardwood floors are one of the things I love about the house. I'm just afraid this is going to turn into a huge can of worms. I don't want to rip the sub floor up only to find that the first layer is glued so badly it can't be gotten up and I have to redo what I just destroyed...

In our 1914 house, the bathroom floor was tile over concrete (2nd floor). The concrete cracked. If the same thing happened with yours, it is possible that the first layer of linoleum was glued over the original tile to "repair" the crack, then later someone put down subfloor and more linoleium to level it all out. Just a thought.

I doubt there is wood under all those layers, or at least not good wood. Most bathrooms of that era were tiled.

The only way to find out is to start excavating ... and in a bathroom of that age, I'd want to get it down to the joists so I could check for water damage and rot.

If you have a floor vent, remove the register and you may be able to see the layers. If not, you'll just have to start excavating. Assume the worst and hope for the best. There was a reason previous owners laid down new flooring and bathrooms get the worst of it.

Diane

In our old house bathroom, the original floor is tongue and groove fir and was meant to be the exposed floor. (In fact we pulled up all the subsequent layers and refinished the fir.) If this is the case with yours, they may have added another layer to stabilize it for a new floor. As Diane said, you just have to excavate!
other Diane

Thanks all. I guess I'll need to find the time and courage to start excavating... :)

We have a 1920 house and when we "excavated" we found the original finished floor was the same heart pine as the rest of the house. It was mostly rotted due to a long-standing toilet leak, and the only salvageable stuff was under the tub. We did pull it out carefully and used it to fill in/repair some sections of flooring in other parts of the house.

we just sold a 1916 house that had tile over the original hardwood in the bathroom. we only know that because the house next door is identical and at some point someone had put peel & stick tile over their wood, and it was popping up (surprise).

From what our neighbors said, they came through the house during the reconstruction (done by the flippers who sold us the house) and said that there was a hole in the floor of the bathroom straight through to the kitchen that you could pass toast through... so that's why they put the tile floor in the bathroom.

Long story short, it's possible, but they only way to know is to do some surgery on the floors.

In our last house we remodeled both bathrooms and I put radiant heat in the floors. Having gone down to the joists I had almost a 1 1/2" set up into the bathroom. I cut an oak threshold to fit and it worked out fine.

Be careful here. This is like unravelling a sweater. Once you start....well, you too may end up with a completely new bathroom;)

Yes, it's the sweater effect I'm concerned about...If I put the tile I want over the already existing floor (which seems really solid, even by the tub) the step up would be almost an inch. My thought was to do as Jackfre did and have a wood threshold to match the woodwork in the rest of the house to ease the transition. Is an inch going to be a tripping hazard? I figure we'd get used to it, but for guests? And is that better than opening the can of worms of excavating the floor?

OK, so I got brave tonight and started excavating. Underneath of the ugly linoleum and plywood layer there is another layer of truly hideous linoleum, which is the same stuff that was in our kitchen. And under that is what was a finished hardwood floor. So... Unfortunately, there must have been some water damage by the tub because there's a 1 x 2 foot section of just cheap replacement board. The original plan was to install hex tile.Should I still do that, or try to save the wood? It is full of that horrible black stuff from the linoleum being glued down and tons of staples. Suggestions how to get either off/out? I have tried a pliers on the staples, but they are old and brittle and just break off. With the kitchen we had hired a company to deal with that floor since we needed to get moved in. I have no idea how he got the gunk off. There are some visible nail holes in that floor as it is very light in color and he told me that the wood would not accept stain so I could not make it any darker, but I just consider the boo boos to be character. So, what do y'all think? Continue with the tile plan or try to save the hardwood?

Could you add a picture?

We have a 1916 house that had hex tile set into to 2" of concrete. That was damaged, and we replaced it with more of the hex which i think really is period appropriate. Also, think which material you'd prefer to have on the floor to keep clean in a bathroom. I know what my vote would be.

I got linoleum glue off with a wallpaper steamer and lots of elbow grease.

The kitchen floor was the hardest, and unfortunately had some incurable water stains, so we had to cover it back up with vinyl. The other floors turned out nice and character-filled. We had a couple cut-out sections of plywood that we filled in with decorative inlays.

Or you can opt with the more bathroom-friendly tile. But make sure you've got a good underlayment. Don't go directly over the hardwood.

Kiagrace-
Before you get much further with tearing into this, you need to have some asbestos testing done. I can pretty much guarantee, based on the age of the house, the multiple layers, and the fact that asbestos was often a component of the black mastic, you have asbestos present. However, test to confirm whether that is true, or you got lucky.

I also have enough experience with this to know that people say: "I'll take it out in big pieces so there won't be much dust,"... and then find that the flooring won't come out like they want and they get to tearing and shredding/sanding off stubborn pieces of the flooring and the mastic, and end up with an asbestos-contaminated mess. Take a look at the link to see what's involved if you have asbestos-containing flooring and you don't want to create a hazard for yourself and your family.

Here is a link that might be useful: Asbestos flooring removal