Said It Here

Should I test old flooring for asbestos if I'm just covering it up?

Testing may not be strictly necessary if you plan to completely avoid sanding or major disturbances and simply cover the material. However, if a water leak or future repairs force you to eventually pull up the flooring, the disturbance becomes unavoidable. Deciding whether to test depends on whether you can safely encapsulate it long-term or if you will eventually have to tear it out.

What people tried

Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.

  1. 1
    Having the material tested to confirm its composition
  2. 2
    Encapsulating or covering the old material with a new subfloor without disturbing it
  3. 3
    Buying an asbestos test kit online, taking a sample, and mailing it off to a lab
  4. 4
    Checking the age of the house
  5. 5
    Assuming it is safe as long as it is not disturbed

In their words

Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.

r/Flooring2 people · September 2026

“This is our first home so I’m a little overly cautious about these things.”source ↗

KatieCat420Lulz · r/Flooring · 1 upvotes

“Do you feel testing it matters if we’re covering it anyway; so long as we plan to avoid any sanding/other major disturbances to the floor?”source ↗

KatieCat420Lulz · r/Flooring · 1 upvotes

“We had a water leak and homeowners took a sample out to get us an estimate to redo entire flooring, this is what we saw after he pulled it up. So yes we are going to have to eventually pull up the flooring”source ↗

llttll11 · r/Flooring · 1 upvotes

“something about how this looks made me worry it could be asbestos. Does this look like anything to anyone here? It’s a 1900s house.”source ↗

KatieCat420Lulz · r/Flooring

Where this came up

r/Flooringflooringhome improvementhome maintenancehome renovationsafety

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