Weird floor : tiles over cement..ideas?

21 years ago

We have a little basement bathroom. It's TINY and was installed in the 70's sometime by the previous owners. Everything about it is rather weird, especially the flooring. Right now there is rolled lineoleum over a suspicious and most likely asbestos tile. The tile is breaking up in places, and is attached to cement.

The most unique thing is that the floor is not completely level. To add pluming, they raised the floor level slightly, but it slopes down to the grade near the door.

I can remove some of the old tile simply by wetting it down well and removing it without creating dust, but the rest is stuck on hard (the linolium is not glued down, just tacked under 1/4 round so it's easy to take out). I'm thinking of just using something like floor leveler to make a flat surface and to encapsulate the tiles, then just sealing the floor in. I kind of like the idea of a "cement" floor in there...nobody much uses that bathroom except for me (the tub is in there). I prefer unconventional uses of materials and decorating ideas.

Fixing is temporary, in future years the entire thing will need to be yanked outta there, but for now, it stays, but needs a cosmetic improvement....thanks to Ikea for making tiny sinks and cabinets - doing the rest of the renovation should be easier!

Can you tell me what you think about doing a floor this way?

I can't encapsulate with wood, no wood on the floors here except upstairs - the air is moist in the basement and I can't have wood because of possible termites (the house is treated, but it's still like giving candy to a baby :)

Thanks for your ideas!!

GGG

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Comments (4)

scryn
21 years ago
I would think that it is most likely not asbestos floor tiling if it was installed in the 70's.
It could be, however it less likely isn't.
Can you describe and/or show us a pic of the tile?
does it look like they were "self stick" or was there glue placed on the cement? What does the glue look like?
-renee
cuddlepoo
21 years ago
Whatever the old flooring is I think your idea of leveling it sounds like the quickest and easiest. I'm doing a complete basement floor and I'll be using a ceramic tile or stone. I've never use cement for a floor but I've seen some cool cement floors on tv.
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girlgroupgirl
Original Author
21 years ago
I can't add anything more than something thin on these floors. I did forget to mention that. The cement dug-out basement isn't very deep (thank goodness, or we'd get even more water in the main part, lol) - but I am very tall, so I can't even lay tile over this stuff!!
The tiles seem to have something stamped on the backs. I find pieces of stuff outside in the ground that look almost like old shoe bottoms, and have some sort of printing on them (it's small pieces, never enough to actually find out what it is!).
That said, the flooring was probably installed in the 70's but the tiles from an earlier date. This place was VERY STRANGELY DECORATED when we moved in - I mean stranger than I like :)
{{!gwi}}

thanks for your help,
GGG
kudzu9
21 years ago
scryn-
Just for your info, the Federal Asbestos Ban did not go into effect until 1989, and, unfortunately, when the Ban was challenged by manufacturer's two years later, most of the Ban was vacated by the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. While it is true that savvy manufacturers of consumer products have quit using this stuff because they're worried about liability, it is not safe to assume that flooring from the 1970's would be asbestos free. In fact, I would be willing to bet that the majority of vinyl tile and seamless flooring installed in the 1970's did contain asbestos.