Pros and cons of removing asbestos tiles

Most 9"X9" floor tiles have a fairly low (3%-15%) asbestos content.
If you are not going to be living in the home during the process, I'd suggest doing it.
The floor tiles are very easy to remove, and by lightly wetting them down,
you can eliminate the dust.
Of course, a respirator must be worn. Good luck.

Hi,

Hope I'm not stating the obvious, but there is a Search function on the Chatterbox Lounge that is very useful for looking up past postings on a subject. Look in the box at the top of the page (the one that holds the Eichler Network logo and various advertisements). You'll see links to the Log in and Search.

If you click on Search and then type the word asbestos in to the first search space, you should get a dozen or so topics that contained that word. Since the topic of asbestos has come up so many times in the past and some are tired of repeating themselves in a new post, using the Search function will probably yield useful info you might otherwise miss.

Good luck.
Jake

Of course, if the tiles are not removed, there is absolutely no risk to your air quality. The only risk that occurs (and it isn't much risk at that) is if the tile are being broken up in removal. If you would prefer to tile over them, that would be completely safe. The asbestos is not going to jump out of the tile and fly up into the air on it's own. It's a particle, not a gas.

Those tiles have a wonderful way of absorbing odor--specifically animal urine, then affecting your "air quality." I would suggest that if you have animals that are not the most perfect pets and you are going to carpet, I would suggest removing the tiles. In our personal experience the previous owner had a very naughty puppy....when I was removing the tiles I wore a respirator for more than just the asbestos factor!