I'm in the middle of remodeling my finished basement/studio. I managed to pull up the existing carpet, as well as the padding, and even removed the stick-down, individual vinyl tiles underneath that--which is not a job I ever want to do again.

I'm trying to determine the age of the tiles. The house was built in 1982 and the basement was finished at some stage after that. I'm not concerned with asbestos or anything, but I can't determine how old the tiles are beyond the original house construction. One half of the floor came up fairly easily. I think it was due to the HVAC system blowing air mostly on that end of the room. The tiles were dry and already bowing up as soon as the carpet was lifted off.

The other side of the room is a bit below grade. The tiles had to be scraped up little by little. I also noticed what looked like very very fresh glue in that area. So fresh that it was still sticky and runny; I was practically stuck to the floor trying to walk around on it.

I can guess that, because the room was originally split in half by a load-bearing wall, that sticky part wasn't exposed to much natural light, so the moisture content was higher. But I can't quite grasp the age of the original finishing (assuming that was the first).

Any ideas how long vinyl glue like that would hold and remain useable?