How to Install Engineered Flooring Over Asbestos Tile

If you have old asbestos tile in your home and you're not ready for the expense of having it professionally removed, your best option is to just cover it up. Asbestos tile isn't harmful if it's kept intact, so the less disruptive your floor-covering process, the better. One good choice is an engineered "floating'' floor system. This is flooring that's designed to clip together and sit on a foam underlayment, but isn't attached to the floor in any way. This way, you're completely covering the asbestos without nailing into it.

Things You'll Need

• Pry bar
• Hammer
• Foam underlayment
• Utility knife
• Duct tape
• Engineered floating floorboards
• 1/4-inch shims
• Miter saw
• Trim nailer

Instructions

1. Remove the floor trim without breaking it, using your hammer and pry bar. Extract the nails and set the trim aside. Get the asbestos floor tiles clean and dry.

2. Lay foam underlayment along your starting wall, rolling it out directly over the tiles. Cut it to fit with your utility knife. Lay another row of underlayment next to the first and tape them together at the sides with duct tape. Continue laying and taping rows until the whole floor is covered. Don't tape the underlayment to the tiles, but just to each other.

3. Set your first course of floor planks along the starting wall, snapping them end-to-end. Put wood shims between the boards and the wall, creating a gap there to give the floor room to expand. Floor trim will cover the gap. Cut the last piece on your miter saw to fit against the perpendicular wall.

4. Lay additional courses side-by-side, clipping the long edges of the boards together and staggering the ends from course to course. Cut as needed on your miter saw. Work your way across the whole floor.

5. Cut the last course of boards lengthwise on a table saw to fit against the opposite wall. Leave the same 1/4-inch gap there as at the beginning.

6. Pull out all the shims. Reinstall your floor trim with a trim nailer, shooting the nails through the wall, not the floor.

Tips & Warnings

• Wear eye protection when cutting on your miter saw.

References

• Floor Facts: Glueless Floating Hardwood Flooring