Do these look like asbestos tiles ?

[Justmeeeindie]

Lifting kitchen lino after washing machine leak , before I moved in I was told there was asbestos tiles in the kitchen which had been removed (council property) the lino was down when I moved in so I never questioned it until now .

From googling these look very similar to asbestos ones I have seen , should I be concerned? Scared to continue with the flooring will call council first thing tomorrow .
It looks like they have been covered with plaster type materials that is lifting up with the lino 😬.

Tia

Is that actual grouting between them or an effect on the tile? Looks like grouting as I think the thickness looks a little different on different tiles.

Tiles with asbestos I have encountered in the past are not normally laid with grouting as they are very thin and just butted up against each other. Thicker tiles wouldn't normally have any asbestos as far as I know as it was used to provide flexibility in the material which isn't needed in a stone effect tile.

There are a lot of asbestos tiles still in homes where I live (not uk!), and they do often look like this, you're right. I wouldn't know for certain though - but wise to stop any work that may disturb the tiles until you've had confirmation one way or the other. Hopefully you get your answer soon. Nuisance!

The tiles do look like asbestos but the grout lines don't fit with that.

Changed my mind looking at the right of the photo as it looks really thin there - if it's plastic in nature there's a good chance if it is old enough that there could be asbestos in them.

They do look like the old marley tiles but in the images here there is no grouting. It’s not to say yours aren’t though, can your local council offer any help with this?

https://asbestos-testing.org.uk/floor-tiles-textiles-and-composites/

My kitchen has those old Marley tiles. I believe asbestos was in the adhesive backing, not that the actual tiles are made of asbestos. Unfortunately mine isn’t a council house so nobody will be removing them for me.

I’m not planning on pulling them up, but if I ever felt inclined to have new flooring it would just need a wet concrete screed laid over the Marley tiles before the new flooring went down.

The tiles do look like the type associated with asbestos but i think the asbestos is usually contained in the bitumen rather than the tile itself. The reassuring thing is that the bitumen is sticky and means that the asbestos is captured pretty well rather than flying around like dust. The only way to know for sure is to get an asbestos test though.