Laundry Room Tiling

[spacelord75]

So I did remove the vinyl sheet flooring myself and, in hind sight, I would never do this again. Although the sheeting came up really easily at first, I hit a bad stretch where the vinyl and paper backing (aka, the asbestos laced part) separated. I literally drenched the entire floor as I went and at this point there was no turning back, so I continued. I have never been more stressed and/or panicked than I was that night, trying to lay in bed and physically reacting to the panic sweeping over me that I had risked my family's future to save some money from using an abatement company. I basically spent all night Googling to see if we were doomed! Fortunately I had sealed off the only door accessible to the rest of the house and had covered the paper backing left stuck to the slab all with thick plastic (there is no air return vent, so safe there). The next day I wiped the whole room down with soapy water, including the floors and hired an asbestos testing company to come test the material and the air....thank God the results came back, and although the material tested for 20% asbestos content, the TEM aggressive air sampling procedure came back as "None Detected" for asbestos or similar fibers. I probably did inhale some fibers, but probably minimal...wetting everything down and going slow seemed to be the key. I probably took more days off my life stressing about it than actually being exposed!

[Squirl]

Well......its over! Now what is the rest of the plan?

[spacelord75]

Originally Posted by Squirl

Well......its over! Now what is the rest of the plan?

Ha ha - now I have the tile guys coming tomorrow to lay the tile that's been waiting for the vinyl to go! Although this whole thing was really stressful, I am happy that I got that vinyl sheeting out of there, versus tiling over it and worrying about it popping up or cracking in a couple years.

[Grumpyolman]

Great info but I'm still trying to avert a potential embarrassment. My laundry room is 48 sf with a washer, dryer and vanity/sink. It is over a crawl space adjacent to an outside wall. Currently there is vinyl over plywood subflooring. The washer and dryer are Bosch 27" units on pedestals. Despite my best leveling efforts, the washer does get violent in an out-of-nance spin to the point where I am considering reinforcing the subfloor from the crawl space.
I've had good success with using the Tavy 0007 over vinyl that is on concrete to prep the vinyl for thinset. My concern is that the washer will crack or break the tiles/grout in normal use. Also would 6" tiles resist cracking better than 12"?
I really want tile in the laundry room but I smell a nightmare? Can anyone help me sleep at night?

[Rpritchard641]

Originally Posted by spacelord75

Hey all - just a couple quick questions. I have a laundry room that still has the early 70's vinyl flooring and I want to put down tile. I plan on just tiling over it because of the chance it may be the old asbestos tiling and figure it's better to encapsulate it than rip it up and set any fibers into the air. It is adheared pretty stoutly to concrete slab. I had my contractor guy look at it and he said there is a new thinset that works really well on vinyl, which I found odd b/c I figured it would require self-leveling concrete, then thinset. Does this sound legit?

Also, I was curious if there were any types of tile to avoid, given that it's a laundry/mud room and the washer may bounce around or rattle on the floor with uneven loads, etc. Any recommendations? I am leaning towards a darker slate tile (due to room color scheme).

Thanks!

Our floors is plywood what would the best way to prepare floor to install tile it's a laundry room what would be the best reasonable price tile to use

[chet everett]

Beef up the floor with cementatious backer board and use appropriate anti-crack underlayment / isolation membrane. Also get anti-vibration "pads" for the wash machine itself. Washing Machine Vibration Solutions | Anti-Vibration Pads | Front Loading Washer & Dryer Accessories