Retro flooring: Anita finds a stash of vintage aqua tile…but what about the asbestos?
50sPam on Jul 23 2008 at 7:59 am | Filed under: flooring
Anita has been sucked right into the retro renovation vortex — to our benefit (evil laugh!) — and writes:
Hi Pam - I’m visiting my daughter for the week. Today while she was at work I went to a few antiques stores looking for nothing in particular. I stumbled across an entire unused case of vintage 9″ floor tiles in aqua, the look like the ones on the post you have of the sample boards you got on ebay. I don’t know if you ever do this but if you are interested in letting your readers know about them … Just let me know before I leave here! Thanks, Anita
Of course, I wrote back excitedly: “Heck yeah, Anita - get on over there and take us some pictures!” So she does…
Hi Pam - The first 6 pics are of the aqua floor tiles. The last 2 pics are of the box of assorted plastic 1/2 size wall tiles. I snapped the photo of all the colors in the box, I don’t know how many of each are there.Thanks, Anita
Anita, thank YOU! You rock bigtime for getting all these photos!
Readers - To be sure, Kentile was a big name in the 50s, right up there with Armstrong. However:
Legal disclaimer: I see it mentions asbestos on the box. I have no expertise in how to handle this stuff and therefore cannot advise its use! Advisable to check with your State or Federal authorities on this issue.
Nonetheless, aren’t these pretty?
Update - evening - What about this as an alternative? Hold you cursor over the image for the name/series, it’s a Congoleum commercial tile I spotted a bit ago:
10 Responses to “Retro flooring: Anita finds a stash of vintage aqua tile…but what about the asbestos?”
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Judi's Lexington ranch
Amy's San Diego bungalow
Holy Cancer Batman!
Those tiles really are cute. HOWEVER, I have to discourage anyone from laying asbestos tiles in their homes. There are excessive health, legal, environmental, legal, and other legal hazards involved. Many people will not buy your house knowing they’re there because they are expensive to remove (did I mention the legal issues?).
If the tiles were already there, I might concede on this issue - we attempted to save our kentile too. But in order to maintain asbestos laden tiles, you have to wax constantly & try to avoid even a particle of dust being produced from the floor.
Now, to offer a solution: Congoleum makes fabulous, fancy, colorful, commercial composite vinyl tile that could fool any retro-renovator (barring the 12″ size of the tiles) and some of it sells for less than those old asbestos beauties. I highly recommend it.
Have that television mesothelioma attorney’s number handy if you buy the aqua tiles! I’d snap them up in a heartbeat at any price if it were not for the asbestos. But in California, any real estate seller must sign documents disclosing to potential buyers whether or not any of a long list of toxic or banned substances, including asbestos, are known to be present in or on the property. And if they are present, the buyer can (and should) require the seller to have them properly removed at the seller’s expense. In fact, I think it is illegal in California for residential property to be sold if asbestos is known to be present. I do not know about other states, though. And as LoveOfThornhurst says, asbestos abatement is hugely expensive.
How funny! I just spent the last hour running around after work investigating the available Congoleum and Armstrong colors for a VCT install. For anyone thinking of installing a new floor, Armstrong’s turquoise is now DISCONTINUED so get it while you can. The alternatives are just not correct enough for a period look.
I’ve also been playing with a box of NOS VAT Kentiles, half are brown striated, half sage/aqua but not enough to do anything more than pattern accents. Make no mistake, the asbestos is a concern, especially if you’re bound by legal restrictions or re-sale limitations, but intact tiles with modern adhesives given a good waxing put the stuff lower on my concern list than those years in jr. high traversing the halls of friable insulation and questionable ceiling panels….
This whole string is raining on my don’t-worry-be-happy parade. Therefore, I have removed the contact information and location. Does not sound like a good idea for anyone to even consider a tile with asbestos in it, unless they have professional advice.
Cadman, I just posted an image of an aqua-colored Congoleum 12″ tile. Did you see this one live?
Asbestos is icky but I actually bought some similar plastic half-tiles from this guy:
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=11321730
Just for crafting, i hoped they might match our bathroom but i had no specific project in mind. Maybe it’ll help somebody else!
oooh that blue flooring! It looks exactly what the top of my desk in my office is made of except mine is red not blue.
Pam, I’ve laid eyes on the sample square of the Congoleum turq and really, it’s about as good as we can get now…though it seems a little more aqua-blue than a 50’s “appliance” turquoise or the Armstrong that was discontinued. The sage green looks cool though : )
Something else I discovered….the neat “streaky” tiles that you posted a while back (like the CX-14) are thinner than all the complementing colors offered, and I just know I’d catch my shoes on the edges, BUT, I want to use those styles AND want to inlay a pattern. The solution? Flip over a CH-14 plain-jane tile and you’ll discover the CX-14 striations! No, it’s not pre-waxed like the other side, but it is a real 1/8″ thick!
Cadman, you must send me some photos of this project - along with your retro renovation story! You are the berries!
You may think I’m crazy, but I’ve actually been thinking about cutting down the 12-inch VCTs into 8- or 9-inch tiles before laying them in my kitchen. The only thing stopping me is that my practical commercial construction supervisor husband would probably have me committed.
Hi Femme 1. I don’t think that you are crazy. However, I think the concern is getting a straight, clean cut so that your floor would really link together smoothly. I read once in a magazine about a couple taking sheet linoleum, and having it “water cut” into 9″ squares. That sounds like it might be the right answer. Also, I wonder if VCT has different qualities than linoleum, even cutting it with laser-water. Based on my handling of the material, VCT is much stiffer….