You're not gonna like my post, but it's my experience living with the same floor for a long time. I have to agree with Brutuses post. When we moved into our house 16 years ago, there was the black and white vinyl stick tiles - we just got rid of that floor a year ago. I HATED THAT FLOOR!! It was a bear to keep clean and showed everything on it, especially dust on the black tiles and every imagineable dirt spec on the white. And once you wax it, you're in for a real treat. The wax wears off unevenly in no time, and then you have to strip it to rewax it the next time you clean the floor. If you continue to wax over wax, it will look nasty. The floor looks gorgeous for only a short time after a good cleaning and fresh wax though. While we received compliments all the time, those people didn't have to live with it. Sorry to be so negitative but I would never recommend this floor to anyone - not even if it was ceramic tile. Good luck with it though.

you have nothing to worry about.

it is a small family room (living space for furniture is about 15x 13), so don't want to add shelves I think... The niche is centered but previous owners have the TV way off. re: covering the hole, my husband and I are on two different pages! I'd like to cover it and my husband doesnt, because he worries about placement of furniture. my question would be, how would you cover the fireplace to suit the style of the house? easier fix, the better.

OK...here we go. If you are thinking of adding plywood to what you have (which is entirely acceptable) I'm going to assume you have a WOODEN subfloor sitting on wood joists? Is that correct? Now here's the fun part. A FLOATING vinyl or laminate floor MUST HAVE transition strips through door ways. I'll say that again: Must. Have. So now things get a little easier. It is entirely possible you can install over top of the existing tile without doing ANYTHING. Yep...so long as the asbestos tile is smooth and flat (ahhhh....there's the rub!) you can lay down rigid flooring. But...and this is a big one...if the tiles look all bumpy and rough (like there are little stones underneath) or the subfloor sags towards a corner or the middle of a room, you have to do something to level it. And that's where the plywood comes in. If you can manage an install WITHOUT laying new plywood, simply use the t-mouldings in the doorways and keep going. The small height variance (1/16") isn't going to make a difference through a doorway. That's what the T-moulding is for. If you do NOT want the transition strips through doorways then you MUST glue down the vinyl. Laminate always needs T-mouldings whether you use plywood or not. It is the nature of a floating floor.