Some kind of adhesive remover before you wreck the finish on the tile with scraping.

Here is an article from Bob Vila that should help you out!

http://www.bobvila.com/articles/how-to-remove-vinyl-flooring/#.V5VCXBKwkbM

I'm sort of pulling this out of my hat, but I wonder if a clothes iron on a cool setting would warm the adhesive and soften it enough that a plastic scraper would be effective. Anyone?

Gail, if the tile is flat and the grout is even with the surface of the tile and the tile appears to be unglazed, you might be able to very carefully scrape up the vinyl with a sharp flat razor available in some home improvement stores. They are about 4" wide and 18" long or so. Just be careful to keep the blade flat on the tile and at a rather low angle to keep from gouging the tile. Small mosaics like that with vinyl placed over them without a leveled coat were common 50 years ago. If your tiles are that old, they may be porcelin and the color goes all the way through the tile. If the tiles are glazed (shiny), there is more of a danger in scratching the glazing. The color does not go through. You may be able to use heat to soften the adhesive but then you will need a solvent to remove the residue.

It is very unlikely to find asbestos in in sheet vinyl. That was more common in 12 × 12 Linoleum square tiles. I'm not sure how accurate it is but when I was remodeling, I was told you could scrape the edge of a suspected tile and put a magnet to the shavings or dust. If it picked any up, you had asbestos.

Use a hand held hair dryer and a plastic putty knife set ($3 @ Home Depot). Run the exhaust fan (it will get hot in there).

You could try an industrial heat gun to heat up the vinyl causing the glue to melt. Then use the adhesive remover after you have pealed the vinyl up.

Heat should reanimate the glue to make it workable. Once the tile has been revealed you can then go ahead and use an adhesive remover as Cinar suggests. The remover will be a lot of trial and error. Be prepared to try SEVERAL formulas and multiple applications...but it should work.

I would expect 3-5 visits to the home improvement store with $100 - $200 worth of products, rags, scrapers, etc as part of the budget. Good luck. This is boring, mind numbing work but you will get there.

And yes...it is supposed to be slow and tedious. It means the vinyl was well adhered in the first place.

I have vinyl glued to an unglazed tile floor over a layer of self leveling plaster. How do you remove the plaster?

@firewife1974 Use your search engine "how to remove self-leveling compound from...." then add your flooring type (concrete or wood). Many times the self-leveler can be chipped / scraped off, followed by using a drum sander. IF the unglazed tile was set in concrete (as opposed to a self-leveling compound) you will need to use a concrete grinder. Both types of sanders produce huge amounts of dust - don't run your HVAC system while using the sanders and wear an appropriate face mask (not a cheap one). Find guidance from the Pro shop where you are purchasing your new flooring. Start your own thread - you'll get lots of advice.