how to tell what kind of floor you have

Guide to All Types of Building Flooring Materials & Flooring Defects

• Post a QUESTION or COMMENT near identifying types of flooring materials & floor problem troubleshooting

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Flooring types & properties:

This article provides information about all types of flooring and flooring coverings used in buildings. This article serial provides the properties of dissimilar flooring types, floor defects, inspection, troubleshooting, installation or flooring repairs. Asbestos, mold or other flooring hazards are described as well as how to place types of flooring or to guess building historic period or flooring age.

Here we provide a list of edifice flooring manufactures that guide in identifying different kinds of flooring materials in buildings and nosotros include articles on private flooring type inspection, diagnosis, & repair. At the stop of this article you volition find the principal index to articles near floors and floor. Also try searching for specific flooring data at InspectApedia by using the folio top or page bottom search boxes.

We also provide an Commodity Index for this topic, or you tin can try the page top or bottom SEARCH BOX as a quick fashion to find information you demand.

Articles on types, ages, characteristics, ingredients, & inspection of different types of floor coverings

Commodity Serial Contents

• Flooring TYPES & DEFECTS
  • ASBESTOS ASBESTOS FLOOR TILES
  • ASPHALT TILE FLOORING
  • Rug & RUGS
  • CERAMIC TILE Flooring (or WALLS)
  • CONCRETE FLOORING
  • CORK Floor
  • FLOOR TILE HISTORY & INGREDIENTS
  • HARDWOOD FLOORING
  • KITCHEN & BATH Flooring
  • LAMINATE FLOORING - Engineered Forest Floors
  • LINOLEUM SHEET FLOORING
  • MOLD CONTAMNIATION IN / ON FLOORING
  • NON-RESILIENT FLOOR COVERINGS
  • Backdrop of FLOORING, TABLE-OF
  • Pare & STICK Flooring TILES
  • RESILIENT Floor COVERINGS
  • SHEET FLOORING TYPES
  • STONE Floor
  • TILE Floor, CERAMIC
  • TILE Floor, RESILIENT
  • VINYL ASBESTOS FLOOR TILES
  • WOOD Floor, SOLID STRIP or ENGINEERED Woods
• ASBESTOS FLOOR TILE IDENTIFICATION PHOTOS 1949-1959 - separate commodity
• FLOOR TILE HISTORY & INGREDIENTS - split up article
• FLOORING MATERIALS, Age, Types - carve up article
• Floor TILE / SHEET Flooring Photograph GUIDES - list of photo guides

Asbestos Containing Floor Materials

Details begin at these articles useful to identify asbestos-containing floor tiles or sheet flooring

• FLOOR TILE ASBESTOS IDENTIFICATION
• ASBESTOS FLOOR TILE IDENTIFICATION PHOTOS 1949-1959
• FLOOR TILE HISTORY & INGREDIENTS
• ASBESTOS FLOOR TILE LAB PROCEDURES

Asphalt Tile Flooring - 1920 - 1960 (est)

Asphalt floor tiles are most frequently ix" foursquare tiles which used asphalt as the main binding material. Asphalt and cobblestone asbestos flooring was produced and sold in a range of sizes including 6x6", 9x9", 12x12" and also in strips or decorative insets.

The original asphalt tiles were produced only in dark colors because cobblestone was a main ingredient. Asphalt based flooring tiles commonly contain asbestos as both a powder filler (very small asbestos particles) and as a cobweb for forcefulness and are often referred to as asphalt-asbestos floor tiles. However later lighter-colored vinyl-based floor tiles may as well comprise asbestos.

The black tiles shown at left were not dated and could be a newer product, but in full general, if y'all observe dark colored or very old black floor tiles or flooring tiles that are black in their core materials they are probably an asphalt-asbestos product.

Rosato indicates that the beginning publicized asphalt tile installation was in 1920 in New York City'due south Western Union office. The product was very successful and by 1936 over four million square yards of asphalt flooring tiles were existence sold annually.

In 1920 asphalt roofing manufacturers, who had been using cobblestone and cobweb binders to make asphalt covering shingles for some time, tried to develop a rigid product that could exist a substitute for (more than costly) slate roofing. The material did not perform acceptably every bit a roof covering, simply it led to the development of asphalt floor tiles.

Past 1940, 5% of flooring coverings sold in the U.S. were asphalt tile. - - Rosato Through the 1950's and 1960'southward most floor tiles sold in North America and parts of the U.K., Europe, Australia, New Zealand, parts of India and other countries were cobblestone asbestos floor, shifting to vinyl based tiles and vinyl-asbestos floor tiles and canvass flooring that were widely sold into the early 1980's in most locales.

At Age of a BUILDING, HOW to DETERMINE in our department titled Flooring Materials we discuss the eras during which diverse flooring materials were commencement used in modern buildings and how to use these to help identify the age of a building.

Asphalt Floor Tiles Pose an Asbestos Risk

Asphalt-asbestos flooring tiles were produced at first in dark colors using a heavy asphalt binder combined with a very loftier percentage of asbestos filler fibers.

It would exist uncommon to detect these floors even so in utilise today, just if you encounter black or very night asphalt floor tiles they are probably very loftier in asbestos fibers. We discuss floor tiles equally an asbestos fiber source in buildings in more detail
- by (modernistic) -

at ASBESTOS FLOORING IDENTIFICATION

where we elaborate the concerns about asbestos used in the manufacture of asphalt-based floor tiles.

That does not mean we should panic nor undertake an expensive and unsafe asbestos removal projection.

Asbestos is safe and legal to remain in homes or public buildings as long as the asbestos materials are in good status and the asbestos can not be released into the air.

Generally the safest approach is to leave such flooring lone and to cover information technology over with a coating or with another layer of flooring.

• On any of our asbestos-related InspectApedia pages you lot will find a

  complete Article INDEX to ASBESTOS HAZARDS

• Encounter ASBESTOS Flooring Hazard REDUCTION for strategies to leave or encompass-over asbestos-suspect flooring.
• If you are faced with a requirement for sabotage and if you are uncertain almost the floor'due south asbestos content and cannot identify it through our guides, and then you have a sample tested.

  See ASBESTOS TESTING LAB List

• If conditions require you to demolish or remove asbestos-containing floor

  come across ASBESTOS Floor REMOVAL GUIDE

Colors & Composition of Asphalt Asbestos Floor Tiles

Cobblestone -asbestos tiles manufactured early on in their life (1920'south) were either blackness, near black, chocolate-brown, or a greyness-brown tone. Chocolate-brown cobblestone-asbestos tiles were made by substituting gilsonite as a folder. In both cases the tiles were hardened past evaporating a solvent used in the fabrication procedure, or by cooling of hot asphalt used in the mixture.

Gilsonite could exist used to produce a wider range of mixtures, merely required some asphalt as a softener. Dark vinyl-asbestos tiles used, for example, a mixture of 40 parts asphalt or gilsonite, 60 parts asbestos floats, thirty parts powdered limestone, and pigments (parts past weight). Another typical mixture cited by Rosato contained seventy% asbestos fiber.

See these articles on cobblestone and vinyl-asbestos floor tile identification:

• ASBESTOS Flooring IDENTIFICATION - How to Identify Floor Tiles That May Incorporate Asbestos
• ASBESTOS FLOOR TILE IDENTIFICATION PHOTOS 1949-1959 - detailed photo guide to cobblestone asbestos and vinyl asbestos floor tiles, 1900 -1986
• FLOOR TILE HISTORY & INGREDIENTS - history, dates, and description of the product process and ingredients in cobblestone floor tiles, asphalt-asbestos floor tiles, & vinyl-asbestos floor tiles 1900 to present.
• Floor MATERIALS, Historic period, Types - Age of Building Flooring Materials - A Guide to Estimating Edifice Historic period, This article describes types and ingredients in flooring materials: Cobblestone floor tile, Cork floor tile or planks, Laminate flooring (modern), Linoleum & older sheet flooring (painted canvas), Vinyl-asbestos flooring tiles, Wood flooring.
• FLOOR TYPES & DEFECTS - Asphalt floor tiles, asphalt-saturated asbestos felt, carpet, cork flooring tiles & planks, laminate flooring (modern), linoleum (sheet flooring) & earlier painted material floor coverings, vinyl-asbestos tile floors, wood flooring.
• ASBESTOS FLOOR TILE LAB PROCEDURES - photos of how vinyl asbestos flooring is analyzed in the lab.

Carpeting - wall to wall carpets

Carpet may be synthetic or natural fibers like wool. Constructed carpeting is the most common and is a good choice in areas where the carpeting may go wet.

Common wall to wall carpeting materials include polypropylene, nylon and acrylic. Where the backing material is non wet resistant, synthetic carpet will exist rapidly damaged if wet. Jute-backed carpets, for example, should be kept dry.

Many types of synthetic carpet can be cleaned more hands than wool carpets.

Synthetic carpeting is available in a wide variety of colors, weights and weaves.

Wool is an expensive material favored for its expect, feel and durability. As synthetic products accept improved and remain less expensive, wool is becoming rare.

It is sometimes composite with a synthetic textile. Wool is a natural product and is less resistant to h2o damage than synthetics. It also has less resistance to stains than some synthetics.

The quality of a carpeted floor depends upon the type, weight and construction of carpeting, the type of underpad, and the installation work. - Citation: Carson Dunlop Associates, Home Reference Book, quoted with permission.

Run across these detailed articles near carpet:

• Carpet Dust IDENTIFICATION
• Carpeting MOLD / Aroma TESTS
• CARPET PADDING ASBESTOS, MOLD, ODORS
• Carpet STAIN DIAGNOSIS
• CARPET STAIN ID TESTS
• Carpeting AIR LEAK STAINS at WALLS
• Carpeting Contagion TEST Process
• Carpet & INDOOR AIR QUALITY
• Rug, SELECTION & INSTALLATION

Wall-to-wall Floor Carpeting Inspection, Diagnosis, Repair

See these articles about diagnosing stains, mold, and allergens in carpet

• CARPET DUST IDENTIFICATION
• Carpet MOLD / ODOR TESTS
• Carpet PADDING ASBESTOS, MOLD, ODORS
• CARPET STAIN DIAGNOSIS
• CARPET STAIN ID TESTS
• Carpet AIR LEAK STAINS at WALLS
• CARPET CONTAMINATION TEST Process
• CABINETS & COUNTERTOPS
• Carpeting & INDOOR AIR QUALITY
• CARPETING, SELECTION & INSTALLATION
• Thermal Tracking: How to Diagnose Indoor Carpeting Stains Due To Building Air Leaks
• How to Discover and Exam for Moldy Carpeting in buildings
• Carpet Test for Mold: How to Collect Test Samples from Carpets & Soft Surfaces

Ceramic Tile Floor Articles

• CEMENT BACKERBOARD INSTALLATION
• Floor, CERAMIC TILE
  • CERAMIC TILE, ASBESTOS / LEAD?
  • CERAMIC TILE Impairment REPAIR
  • Flooring FRAMING & SUBFLOOR for TILE
  • FLOOR TILE INSTALL on Concrete
  • FLOOR TILE SEALERS, CERAMIC, STONE
  • Flooring TILE SETTING COMPOUNDS
  • GROUT INSTALLATION, TILE
• Floor DESIGNS: KITCHEN & BATH

Concrete Floor & floor finishes

Concrete floor finishes are typically only used in basements and garages. The floor should slope down to a flooring bleed in basements and other areas where h2o may accumulate.

In modern construction, a 4 to six inch gravel base below the 3-inch thick flooring slab allows water below the slab to drain away. Moisture barriers (plastic sheets) may also be provided nether the slab, and in energy efficient structure or slab-on-grade structure, rigid insulation may be used below the floor. In older structure, concrete flooring slabs were as thin every bit 1/2 inch. These are decumbent to impact damage, heaving and interruption-upward.

This is a cosmetic event and may be a trip gamble. Virtually physical floors are not office of the construction. Basement floors are typically installed after the home is completed, and their main role is to proceed our anxiety out of the mud.

Concrete basement floors can be overlaid with finished flooring. Since almost every house with a basement has water on the basement floor at some indicate, h2o-resistant floors make sense. In slab-on-grade construction, the concrete floors provide a substrate for floor finishes. - Citation: Carson Dunlop Assembly, Home Reference Book , quoted with permission.

Physical Floor details are in these manufactures

• CONCRETE SLAB Crack EVALUATION

• FLOOR, CONCRETE SLAB CHOICES

• FLOOR DAMAGE DIAGNOSIS

• Flooring, Physical POURED Cease

Cork Floor & Cork Tiles

Details about cork flooring are at these manufactures

• CORK FLOORING - home
• CORK FLOORING & FLOOR TILES - age of flooring
• Floor COMPANIES - companies producing flooring

Flooring Tile History & Inredients

• Flooring TILE HISTORY & INGREDIENTS - history, dates, and description of the production procedure and ingredients in asphalt floor tiles, asphalt-asbestos floor tiles, & vinyl-asbestos floor tiles 1900 to nowadays.
• Floor MATERIALS, Age, TYPES - Age of Building Flooring Materials - A Guide to Estimating Building Age, This commodity describes types and ingredients in flooring materials: Asphalt flooring tile, Cork floor tile or planks, Laminate flooring (mod), Linoleum & older canvass floor (painted canvas), Vinyl-asbestos flooring tiles, Wood flooring.

Asphalt floor tiles, asphalt-saturated asbestos felt, carpeting, cork floor tiles & planks, laminate floor (modern), linoleum (canvas flooring) & before painted textile flooring coverings, vinyl-asbestos tile floors, wood flooring.

Kitchen & Bathroom Flooring Options - Table comparing backdrop of dissimilar flooring materials

Run into
Flooring, KITCHEN & BATH OPTIONS

Laminate Floor, Plastic Laminate Floors and Engineered Forest floors

In recent years, laminate flooring has become very pop, especially among do-it-yourselfers. Laminate floor planks (or tiles) accept several layers. The top layer is by and large a clear laminate that is bonded to a decorative layer beneath, oftentimes creating the look of a wood floor.

These layers are bonded to a woods- or fiber-based cadre.

The bottom layer may exist a paper or melamine backing. The production is similar to resilient countertops.

A complete floor is created by either snapping planks together with specially-designed fasteners forth the edges, or by gluing planks together along traditional tongue and groove edges.

Laminate flooring is not secured to the subfloor below it. Instead, it is installed every bit a floating floor, allowing information technology to expand and contract. A sail of cushioning foam is installed between the laminate flooring and the subfloor. There may likewise exist a canvass of plastic below the foam to act every bit a moisture barrier and to permit the floor to slide as it expands. A gap is required between the flooring and the walls to allow for expansion. This gap is covered by trim. Laminate flooring cannot be sanded, stained, or otherwise refinished, although damaged planks can be replaced.

Laminate flooring is resistant to small amounts of water, such every bit quickly wiped-up spills, but precautions should be taken in kitchens or bathrooms including applying a sealant around the perimeter. This is not visible during a dwelling house inspection. Laminate flooring should not be installed in damp basement areas. - Commendation: Carson Dunlop Associates, Home Reference Book , quoted with permission.

The laminate wood flooring shown at above left was buckled and destroyed by flooding acquired by a leaky heating pipe. As we discussed with traditional woods flooring to a higher place, severe flooding or installation errors can lead to total loss of the terminate floor organization.

Contemporary snap-together flooring products that resemble forest or other surfaces, simply are made of plastic, and other pre-finished and ready-to-assemble wood floor products are a much more modern product.

Pergo ™ laminate flooring, for case, was adult by Pergo AB, a Swedish company founded around 1890 as a vinegar manufacturer. Production development for Pergo laminate flooring began in 1977 and was first brought to the market place in 1984. Pergo laminate flooring was first sold in the U.S. in 1994.

It's safe to say that if you lot see a Pergo production in edifice in U.S. the flooring was installed no longer ago than 1994. Merely because this product is has been widely used as a renovation material installed atop older pre-existing finish flooring surfaces, one should not assume that the production age is the same every bit the building age unless the flooring was installed as original material - that is, unless it was not installed over an older floor covering.

Merely seeing Pergo™ laminate flooring over a plywood subfloor is not sufficient data to conclude the historic period of a home. Older carpet may have been removed to betrayal a plywood subfloor over which the laminate flooring was then installed.

See these detailed articles on laminate flooring materials:

• FLOOR, ENGINEERED Wood, LAMINATES INSTALL

• FLOOR FRAMING & SUBFLOOR for TILE

• Flooring, KITCHEN & BATH OPTIONS

• FLOOR, LAMINATE PLASTIC

• FORMALDEHYDE in LAMINATE Floor
• LAMINATE PLASTIC FLOORING
• LAMINATE WOOD & Other Laminate Floors
• Woods FLOORING & Engineered Wood Floors

Linoleum Flooring articles

Shown at below, Congoleum sheet floor

• CONGOLEUM-NAIRN FLOORING
• Also see Congoleum Flooring History
• LINOLEUM & OTHER Canvass FLOORING
• RESILIENT SHEET Floor ID GUIDE
• Sheet FLOORING Audit / Exam
• WHITE SHIELD® Backing ASBESTOS in FLOORING

Mold on or subconscious in flooring

• Car MOLD CONTAMINATION - mold contamination of carpeting, headliners, wall panels and other components in cars, boats, trucks, RVs
• FLOOR & SUBFLOOR MOLD, Subconscious

Non-Resilient Floor Coverings

Non-resilient floor coverings used in buildings that tin assist in determining the age of a structure include bamboo, brick, concrete, stone, and a broad diverseness of wood products.

• Non-RESILIENT FLOOR COVERINGS - dwelling
• LAMINATE FLOORING PRODUCTS & engineered wood flooring
• Wood FLOORING
• TILE FLOORS
• Carpet
• PROPERTIES OF Flooring TYPES, TABLE OF

Resilient Floor

Resilient floor coverings include vinyl-asbestos, solid vinyl, vinyl faced, rubber, cork, asphalt and linoleum. It is installed in sheets or tiles. More than expensive products include a cushioned backing material and a no-wax surface.

Above left: vinyl asbestos flooring in a cork pattern - this is considered a resilient floor material.

To a higher place right: cork floor tiles (actual cork) - this is considered a resilient flooring material as well.

In modernistic structure, resilient flooring covering materials are typically applied over a ane/4 inch plywood underlayment. These sparse, flexible materials will evidence through any irregularities in the floor surface. - Commendation: Carson Dunlop Associates, Home Reference Book
Run into:

• ASPHALT TILE
• CORK Floor - home
• CONGOLEUM-NAIRN Floor TILES & LINOLEUM - resilient sheet flooring and flooring tiles
• Floor, RESILIENT VINYL or CORK - home - best installation practices for modern canvas or resilient flooring
• LINOLEUM & Sheet Floor - how to place antique or older sheet floor focused on linoleum and linoleum-look-akin products
• MASTIC, CUTBACK ADHESIVE - some flooring adhesives contained asbestos
• VINYL ASBESTOS Floor TILES
• Skin & STICK / Self-Adhesive Floor Tiles - types of self-agglutinative floor tiles and peel and stick tiles intended for consumer installation
• RESLILEINT Floor TYPES
• RESILIENT SHEET FLOORING ID GUIDE - how to identify types of resilient canvas flooring that incorporate asbestos, might contain asbestos, or don't contain asbestos
• Canvass & TILE Floor BRICK Blueprint ID - some of these contain asbestos, some not.
• Sheet Flooring MATERIALS

Sheet Flooring Materials & Building Age

Sheet flooring is a term refering to floor coverings (other than carpeting) that are installed in big sheets rather than as individual tiles or strips; sheet flooring may exist either adhered or non-adhered. Canvas floor products can aid determine the historic period of a edifice, and vice versa: if we know when a building was constructed we can estimate at the earliest probable historic period of its floor coverings, excepting that some antique materials such as solid wood planks may be re-used in newer buildings.

Just higher up is a photograph of an early (pre-vinyl) continuous floor covering, ca 1900, in an 1840 historic Vermont house.

Note the textile backing of the flooring material. This article explains various common flooring materials (rough wood, finished wood, parquet, rug, linocrusta, sheet vinyl, and other items as they assist in determining the age of a business firm or other building.

Details about canvas flooring are at

• CONGOLEUM-NAIRN Floor and as well see
• CONGOLEUM Floor HISTORY
• RESILIENT SHEET Floor ID GUIDE
• SHEET FLOORING Audit / Test
• SHEET Floor MATERIALS

Linoleum Sheet Flooring As an Indicator of Building Age - 1890 - 1960 (est)

At LINOLEUM & SHEET Flooring we describe the history and properties of linoleum sheet floor using the Congoleum-Nairn corporation history to obtain some useful dates on when different sheet flooring products were produced.

The resilient flooring product shown at left was made in the late 1990's and is non an asbestos business organization, though in this instance the flooring was damaged by water and movement of a chiffonier.

Co-ordinate to Rosato, "The original resilient flooring coverings were developed during the latter part of the Nineteenth Century by Frederick Walton.

The original roofing was linoleum for employ as a floor decking on British naval ships." The composition of the original products included asphaltic binders to which an asbestos filler was added by mixing on a rubber manufacturing plant.

Details are at

• CONGOLEUM-NAIRN FLOORINGand Congoleum Floor History
• LINOLEUM & OTHER SHEET FLOORING
• RESILIENT SHEET FLOORING ID GUIDE
• Sail Flooring Inspect / TEST

Stone Floors - Slate, Granite, Limestone, Marble

These are natural materials cutting into floor tiles. Terrazzo is made of marble chips set in concrete, usually laid in squares defined by lead beading. The surface is polished to give a polish flooring. Terrazzo is more mutual in commercial buildings, hospitals and schools than in homes.

Rock and terrazzo are skillful flooring materials because of their strength, appearance and immovability. Installation considerations are like to ceramic and quarry tile, in that the weight of the material itself may deflect conventional flooring systems. Joints on stone floors are grouted. - Citation: Carson Dunlop Associates, Dwelling house Reference Volume

Tile Flooring - ceramic

By and large considered high quality, ceramic or quarry tiles are hard, fired-clay products that may be glazed or unglazed. These materials stand well to heat, h2o and normal vesture and tear, and have expert resistance to stains and cuts. These brittle flooring systems volition crack if not well supported.

A conventional wood flooring system oft has too much flex to support ceramic or quarry tile. Better installations include a concrete base for the tile, typically one to 5 inches thick.

Ceramic tiles may be pressed into the concrete while it is setting. Joints are then grouted. Tiles are typically i/sixteen-inch to 1-inch thick and are commonly from ane inch by one inch to 24 inches by 24 inches. Many shapes, colors, patterns and finishes are available.

In modern construction, a thin mortar base or adhesive is used over a thick subfloor. If well installed, this tin can be satisfactory. Once more, joints take to exist appropriately grouted. It is common for ceramic or quarry tile floors to be cracked where floor joists deflect, or in heavy traffic patterns. Tiles can be damaged past dropping tools, pots, pans or other heavy objects.

Traditionally, ceramic tile floors were used in bathrooms and vestibules, because of their natural resistance to moisture. Ceramic or quarry tile floors are used in kitchens, for the aforementioned reason, although they are unforgiving if i drops glass on them, and they are as well more tiring to stand on because of their difficult surface. Wet floors tin exist slippery. - Citation: Carson Dunlop Associates, Domicile Reference Book

See details about ceramic tiles at

• Flooring, CERAMIC TILE
• CERAMIC TILE, ASBESTOS / Lead?

  Also see tile flooring discussed at
  
  Floor RADIANT HEAT Mistakes to Avoid|

Tile Flooring - resilient, vinyl, vinyl-asbestos

• Flooring TILE HISTORY & INGREDIENTS


• Vinyl Asbestos Flooring Data: Tiles & Canvas Floor
• VINYL ASBESTOS Floor TILE Historic period
• VINYL-ASBESTOS FLOOR TILE HISTORY
• VINYL ASBESTOS FLOOR TILE PACKAGING
• VINYL ASBESTOS FLOOR THICKNESS & DIMENSIONS
• VINYL ASBESTOS Sail FLOORING

Tile Floor Inspection, Diagnosis, Repair

Croaky floor tiles like this can exist diagnosed in order to decide if the cracking shows a serious structural problem, inadequate floor support, mechanical impairment, or every bit in this case, damage from a loose, rocky toilet.

More PLACES TO Look for Hidden Mold in buildingsincludes a discussion of how fifty-fifty a slight slope in a tile bathroom flooring leads to bathroom leaks under and behind bathroom vanity cabinets and flooring trim, and we discuss how to prevent this trouble

Vinyl Asbestos Floor Tiles - 1930 - 1976 (est)

Vinyl floor tiles, including vinyl-asbestos floor tiles and homogenous vinyl floor tiles (not-asbestos product) are almost equally old every bit asphalt floor tiles. By the early 1950's in the U.S. vinyl tile floor products were more than pop than cobblestone-based flooring. The reason is pretty obvious.

Asphalt-based flooring equally information technology was originally produced used heavy cobblestone products which meant that the flooring tiles could exist made in nighttime colors simply. Soon after cobblestone-asbestos flooring tiles were marketed manufacturers heard from their buyers that consumers wanted lighter floor tiles and tiles of varying color and pattern.

Organic resin vinyl increased in popularity for this reason, but slowly. Past 1952, the production of vinyl plastic flooring tile sales in the U.S. was nigh half the volume of asphalt floor tiles, selling 35 million foursquare yards.

We hash out vinyl-asbestos floor tiles as an asbestos fiber source in buildings in more item

at ASBESTOS FLOORING IDENTIFICATION

where nosotros elaborate the concerns near asbestos used in the manufacture of vinyl based flooring tiles that used loftier levels of asbestos fibers as a filler material and to provide other properties to that product. More photos of vinyl asbestos floor tiles, including microphotographs of vinyl-asbestos floor tiles can be seen at that commodity.

Meet these articles on asphalt and vinyl-asbestos flooring tile identification:

• ASBESTOS FLOORING IDENTIFICATION - How to Place Floor Tiles That May Contain Asbestos
• ASBESTOS Floor TILE IDENTIFICATION PHOTOS 1949-1959 - detailed photo guide to asphalt asbestos and vinyl asbestos flooring tiles, 1900 -1986
• FLOOR TILE HISTORY & INGREDIENTS - history, dates, and description of the product process and ingredients in asphalt floor tiles, asphalt-asbestos floor tiles, & vinyl-asbestos floor tiles 1900 to nowadays.
• Floor MATERIALS, Age, Types - Age of Building Floor Materials - A Guide to Estimating Edifice Age, This article describes types and ingredients in flooring materials: Asphalt floor tile, Cork floor tile or planks, Laminate floor (mod), Linoleum & older sheet flooring (painted canvass), Vinyl-asbestos floor tiles, Wood flooring.
• Flooring TILE / Canvas FLOORING PHOTO GUIDES - listing of photo guides
• FLOOR TYPES & DEFECTS - Asphalt floor tiles, asphalt-saturated asbestos felt, carpeting, cork floor tiles & planks, laminate flooring (modern), linoleum (sail flooring) & earlier painted textile floor coverings, vinyl-asbestos tile floors, wood flooring.
• ASBESTOS FLOOR TILE LAB PROCEDURES - photos of how vinyl asbestos flooring is analyzed in the lab.

Wood Floor & Engineered Wood Floors

Hardwood Floor, the Basics

Hardwood floors are traditionally oak, although other wood such as reddish, walnut, birch, beech, mahogany, elm and maple, are also used. Bamboo is not technically wood, but is also used as flooring. Hardwood floor may be in the grade of strips or parquet, which often consist of six inch squares with each foursquare fabricated up of half-dozen one-inch strips.

The squares are laid with the grain in adjoining squares at right angles, giving a checkerboard event. Parquet floor may be nailed or glued down. There are several different types and installation techniques. Parquet flooring can besides be made upwardly of a combination of rectangles, triangles and lozenges and can be very decorative and very expensive.

Strip flooring is typically tongue and groove, secured with nails driven diagonally through the tongues into the subfloor. Hardwood flooring in modernistic construction is typically 3/8 inch to 3/four inch thick and may be pre-finished or finished on site. Hardwood flooring is a high quality and durable floor system. It can be mechanically damaged, attacked by termites, rot and fire, or damaged past water.

Wood flooring is not ideally suited to kitchen and bath areas, since it is susceptible to water damage. Nonetheless, hardwood flooring is regularly found in kitchens. Individual boards can be replaced, just matching can be catchy.

Worn iii/8 inch thick hardwood flooring tin can be sanded once to provide a new woods surface. 3/4 inch hardwood flooring tin be sanded several times before the tongues are exposed. Wood flooring can exist covered with rug or other floor materials. - Citation: Carson Dunlop Associates, Abode Reference Volume , quoted with permission.

Forest Flooring Inspection, Diagnosis, Repair

Wood flooring, one of the most warm and beautiful materials that can be placed in a home (OPINION-DF) needs to be installed following proper practices.

The gaps that appeared in the wood floor shown at above left were caused by installation of the flooring in a new home, over radiant rut tubing, and without allowing the floor to reach a proper moisture level before information technology was nailed in place.

Extreme buckling can crusade an up explosion of a wood flooring when flooring is exposed to flooding or prolonged leaks.

This severe buckling woods floor impairment tin can occur even at much smaller increases in interior moist sure if a tongue and groove wood flooring is improperly installed - leaving inadequate gratuitous space margin around the flooring perimeter.

See Forest FLOOR TYPES for a catalog of types and ages of wood flooring.

Meet Woods FLOOR Impairment REPAIR for details of types of damage to wood floor and for a description of wood flooring repair approaches.

• Engineered wood flooring (shown above) is like to laminate floor, except the thin top layer is really hardwood that is bonded to a base that may be hardwood, plywood, or high-density fiberboard. The hardwood layer is usually pre-finished. The flooring may exist sanded and refinished, depending on the thickness of the hardwood layer.

  Engineered woods flooring may exist installed as a floating floor, or it may be glued, stapled, or nailed in identify. - Citation: Carson Dunlop Associates, Home Reference Book , quoted with permission.

  See details at LAMINATE Floor - Engineered Wood Floors

• Softwood Wood Floor: Pine is the virtually common softwood flooring. Fir and cedar are also used.

  Pine floors were typically used equally a subfloor or every bit cease flooring in a 1x4 tongue-and-groove configuration. When used equally a subfloor beneath hardwood, the softwood was typically laid in 1x4 or 1x6 planks, perpendicular or diagonal to the flooring joists. The boards were typically separated slightly to allow for expansion.

• Softwood subflooring used under linoleum or other thin kitchen floor coverings was usually natural language-and-groove and tightly fit to provide a smooth, continuous surface to support the flexible flooring arrangement.

  Modern structure often includes i/4 inch plywood underlayment between the subfloor and finish flooring to provide a smoothen surface for the finishing material. - Citation: Carson Dunlop Associates, Home Reference Volume ,

• LAMINATE Wood & Other Laminate Floors
• As well come across LAMINATE Floor where nosotros draw plastic laminate floors in this article
• Floor WOOD Historic period TYPES HISTORY
• FLOOR Wood, DAMAGE DIAGNOSIS
• FLOOR, Wood ENGINEERED, LAMINATE, INSTALL
• Flooring, WOOD FINISHES
• FLOOR, Forest INSTALLATION GUIDE
• FLOOR, Wood Moisture
• Floor, Forest RADIANT HEAT
• FLOOR, Forest SOLID STRIP, PLANK
• Flooring, WOOD TYPES
• Too see Flooring TILE HISTORY & INGREDIENTS and
• see Flooring, CONCRETE SLAB CHOICES,
• and SLAB INSULATION, RADIANT / PASSIVE SOLAR for examples of discussion of energy-efficient floor designs and passive solar floor systems.

Guide to Inspection & Diagnosis of Floor Materials in buildings

List of Non-Resilient & Resilient Floor Coverings Used in buildings

Definitions of Non-resilient Flooring & Resilient Flooring

Non-resilient floor coverings used in buildings that can assistance in determining the historic period of a structure include bamboo, brick, concrete, stone, slate, and a broad diverseness of wood products.

Definition of non-resilient floor:

"Non-resilient" flooring is divers every bit hard surfaced flooring material such as stone, brick, slate, or ceramic tile.

Definition of resilient flooring

"Resilient flooring" is defined as materials softer than the non-resilient materials we just listed (stone, slate, brick, ceramic tile), and includes organic types of flooring: asphalt based floor tiles, cork floor tiles, cork floor planks, linoleum sheet flooring (antique & modern), plastic floor tiles, rubber floor tiles, vinyl-asbestos floor tiles.

So what'southward "wood flooring" ? Later on all, it is organic too. Is a wood floor non-resilient, resilient, or just "wood"?

See Cobblestone & Vinyl Floor Tile History - history, dates, and description of the production process and ingredients in cobblestone floor tiles, asphalt-asbestos floor tiles, & vinyl-asbestos floor tiles.

Cork floor tiles were considered a warm, placidity, just less durable resilient floor covering than some of its competitors. It was sold often for utilise in residential dens, family rooms, or other warm, low-traffic areas, and it may have been popular (enquiry needed) for use in areas where workers had to spend long periods continuing - where it would have competed with condom flooring coverings. In 1952 cork flooring sales made up 2% of full floor tile sales. -- Rosato p88.

Details nigh cork flooring are at CORK Flooring & Floor TILES

and as well at Flooring COMPANIES (run into Armstrong Corporation).

Tables Comparing the Properties of Kitchen & Bathroom Flooring Options: Cost, Radiant Heat Utilize, Pros, Cons, Recommendations

[Click to enlarge any paradigm or table]

Reader Comments & Q&A

@Joanne Hanson,

That looks like an insulating fiberboard used as an underlayment. Check out the fiberboard identification examples found at

https://inspectapedia.com/structure/Fiberboard-Capsule-Identification-Cardinal.php FIBERBOARD SHEATHING IDENTIFICATION

They are you will encounter fiberboard products that are gray in colour such as Homasote

Does anyone know what this material is?

[Photo above]

Information technology was under the carpet of a 1980's condo we just bought. It's badly warped and feels almost like a porous cardboard type textile.

For context the condo is in a higher place an indoor swimming puddle, then non certain if it's a special type of flooring considering of that? Not even sure if it's a subfloor or underpayment? Any assist would be appreciate. Thank you

Looks a bit like a reddish-forest floor, Karen. Merely I'd never look to run across cherry wood boards on an exterior porch exposed to the weather.

Your later photo shows what looks like a remember laminate floor (cherry-red?) applied over an older T&Thou or shiplap joined flooring.

Nonetheless thinking.

It would be helpful to know the country and city where the building is located

Some other image with details from the downdraft in the floor where you can see the thickness over some other forest

I'yard trying to detect what type of wood flooring we have? House was built in the 1930s I've no idea when the floor was put in except pre 1960 when my parents bought the house, unless it was original. I desire to put in matching flooring in the dining room which is next only was originally a porch.

Philip:

That looks like wood, but from just the surface photo I can't say if information technology'due south a wood veneer or laminate or if instead it's a pre-finished solid woods floor.

If you see in an area of damage that the color or woods pattern of the flooring is very thin, perhaps even just a membrane of plastic like material, then it'due south certainly a laminate blazon floor, perhaps built over chipboard.

If you checked the little box constitute to the right of the add image button and labeled "email me replies" and then y'all'd be notified of whatsoever replies to your question/mail, and that notice would include the web page URL where y'all posted.

Run across LAMINATE FLOOR DAMAGE REPAIR

Hello,

I was wondering if anyone might be able to identify the type of flooring in the attached photo. As y'all can guess, I'd like to repair the ding.

This is my first visit to this site, and I am therefore unfamiliar with the question-posting etiquette and apologize in advance for any mistep. I include my email below since I am not sure how to get back here.

Thank you very much for your patience and for any help.

All-time regards,

Philip di Domenico
ptd18b@gmail.com

Alex

I'k non sure, and I call back nobody tin be sure, what flooring is installed in your photo without more information.

That's considering there are several flooring materials that, from a altitude, may look the same.

That said, your photo looks like a pre-finished woods or forest-veneer floor - in a blueprint called "mitt-scraped wood flooring".

Y'all tin see flooring that looks like the moving-picture show you posted in a nearly-identical photograph at
https://newfloorsinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/eleven/hand-scraped-hardwood-flooring.png
provided past

New Floors, Inc.,
182 Old Boondocks Business firm Rd, Yarmouth, MA, 02673 United states of america
855-844-2779
newfloorscapecod@gmail.com

and shown beneath.

But it could of course be a manmade material.

A forest flooring is more suitable for a living room than a kitchen where spills, h2o, food, and concentrated traffic areas such equally in front of a sink or stove can create local clothing areas that are better handled by a resilient type floor covering.

Really?: The floor in your photo may not be solid woods.

It could be an engineered forest floor such as sold through Habitation Depot stores as "Manus Scraped Hickory Cocoa 3/8 in. Thick 10 4-1/4 in. x Random Length Engineered Click Hardwood Flooring(20 sq. ft./example)" that I will show beneath.

Abode Depot describes this engineered wood floor (that means it's a laminate product non solid wood) as

Fabricated from real Hickory, this Engineered Click Hardwood Flooring comes from naturally occurring sources that add a unique beauty to your home decor.

Each plank features a three/8 in. thickness and a Janka hardness rating of 1820. The floor is made from 5 layers of solid wood that is bonded together for added durability.

But it could of course be a manmade material.

For case, shown here is Lamton Laminate - 12mm Wide Lath Collection flooring style Hickory Ebony / 12 / AC3 [prototype file] sold by "BuildDirect" is like though those long shallow gouges are not apparent in this latter floor.

A woods floor is more than suitable for a living room than a kitchen where spills, water, food, and full-bodied traffic areas such as in front end of a sink or stove tin can create local wear areas that are improve handled by a resilient type floor covering.

Please identify the flooring material and your feedback on this blazon used in living room/kitchen. Pic is fastened.
Thnx

Tom

I doubtable you are seeing black asphalt-type floor tile adhesive mastic or "cutback" adhesive.

Y'all can confirm that by dissolving a minor corporeality of the ooze in odorless pigment thinner.

Watch out: for floors installed up to the mid 1980s it'due south quite possible that that agglutinative contains asbestos. That's non a reason to panic but it is a reason to investigate further. If the mastic contains asbestos the flooring tile may too.

See details at FLOORING Agglutinative MASTIC SEALANTS

I have a quick question. I have black stuff coming up in the seams of my floor tiles in certain areas of the classroom where I work.

We had testing done for mold and the testing didn't show mold but to be on the safe side we had the surface area cleaned.

Everything looked good for about a month and now I'm seeing the aforementioned stuff start to pop up. The testing people thought nosotros were probably dealing with mastic that was coming up due to a temperature imbalance betwixt the flooring and the room.

I'one thousand in Phoenix where our temperatures outside can go up to 115 and my classroom is a chemical science room so I effort to keep the temps in the seventy'south. Since it has cooled down I am once once more noticing this.

Whatever thoughts. I'k concerned virtually mold as this is an sometime building and this is the 2nd time I am seeing this.

What is in the picture show occurred within ii months of a big cleaning. Whatsoever advice would be appreciated.

Question:

(Nov 28, 2012) Ann said:
my parents house was built in 1962. (Single dwelling concrete cake)We recently pulled up the carpet after 25 years and there is a tile of some sort that I am trying to identify.

It doesnt look similar its grouted and its doesn't feel similar vinyl. Tin you aid me place it?

Respond:

Ann you tin can ship us a photo for annotate using the page bottom CONTACT link to find my email, or y'all can yourself see ASBESTOS Flooring IDENTIFICATION - abode

...

Continue reading at FLOOR Impairment DIAGNOSIS or select a topic from the closely-related articles below, or run across the complete ARTICLE INDEX.

Or see these

Recommended Articles

• ASBESTOS FLOORING IDENTIFICATION - dwelling house

• CERAMIC TILE DAMAGE REPAIR
• CORK Floor & Flooring TILES

• FLOOR, Concrete SLAB CHOICES

• Flooring Damage DIAGNOSIS
• FLOOR, Rock, GRANITE, MARBLE, AGGLOMERATE
• FLOOR TILE HISTORY & INGREDIENTS

• FLOOR TILE / Canvass Flooring PHOTO GUIDES

• LAMINATE Flooring Damage REPAIR
• LAMINATE PLASTIC FLOOR
• LINOLEUM Sail FLOORING
• Woods Flooring Historic period TYPES HISTORY
• Wood Floor ENGINEERED & SOLID

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