This floor is about 20 years old. It's some kind of fake plasticky tile (no seams between the tiles, looks like all one sheet) on top of a lighter gray papery material on top of a darker gray concrete-like material (but not as hard). I drilled a little hole for inspection, and I didn't go all the way down, but ultimately there is a wood subfloor at the bottom.
I'm looking to replace this floor with vinyl planks. Can I just peel off this plastic stuff, apply floor primer, and lay the planks over that?
Best Answer
Clearly sheet vinyl (often misnomered linoleum, i.e. polmerized linseed oil and cloth, the original sheet plastic floor, rarely seen in the wild these days.)
At 20 years old (2001) unless you are in some crazy country that did not stop using asbestos when it became clear what a hazard it was, it is not at all likely to be asbestos backed, but you could have a sample checked if the age is questionable or you want to be paranoid about it.
Asbestos can only be identified in a lab test. A picture of one fibrous material and another fibrous material will look pretty much identical regardless of asbestos content or lack thereof. The backing is much more likely to be plain old paper at that age.