My dad was a floor layer for years. When I was 5-6 my dad drew a line on a floor with chalk & told me to take a few asbestos tile & not cross the line or I would fall out the opening but toss the tiles into a truck parked down below. Our house had asbestos tiles in the basement, all 5 of us played on the floor all the time. About 10 yrs ago dad & I removed all the asbestos tiles from basement of church. None of us have had cancer. Dad is 95 & often pried up old tiles, if I did it again I would use a face mask & open windows. People used to have an asbestos mat right next to their stove to put hot items on, I saw people rub the pan across those things, all schools had asbestos tile floors when i was growing up, lot of them remain, park I go to every week has it on gym floor. It's been on since my kids went there for cub scout events 38 yrs ago. I wouldn't sand the stuff that remains, that probably would give you some in your lungs. Leaving it is going to cause lumps under carpet & especially if you move furniture around. Most of my house has asbestos tile under the carpet pad as my house is over 40 yrs old,required to have flooring on floors even tho you were going to carpet it or house couldn't be sold, all new tracts of houses were like that. So my dad put in bathrooms & kitchen before we moved in. So there are hundreds of thousands of houses with asbestos tile in them. It's kind of like lead paint, won't harm you unless you eat it or sand it like crazy, then you can ingest it. What kind of floor is it, wood or cement? You can paint the Kilz on & then put a carpet pad down & carpet over it. The pad helps keep heat in as the back of it is kind of like a plastic stuff & top is dense foam. Makes the carpet more comfortable & seem more plush also.It's well worth the money.

Thank you all so much for your wonderful, thoughtful input. Everything posted helped me clarify my thoughts to make a decision and not second-guess myself. We have decided to keep it, and called the contractor to adjust his estimate. Redbazel: Thank you for your kind comments. You're right. It doesn't take long to clean; I keep a mop thing in the closet. I can just see the marks when I sit on the couch, which then propels me to clean it over and over. bronwynsmom: Though I didn't comment on your "I'm back" thread, I'm very happy to see you back. It's always nice to have a pro! We do usually have a Karastan English Manor rug there, but during the spring, I remove it since it needs cleaned more often, and it's less hassle. enduring, sis2two, pricklypearcactus, oakleyok and daisychain01: Thank you for your sweet postings. I took every one into consideration making up our mind (Well, my mind since DH just does whatever I want:)) arapaho: I couldn't do it in the kitchen, unless I had full-time in-house help, so I realllly understand you. juliekcmo and sochi: I posted to hear everybody's thoughts, so I appreciate yours. My style isn't sleek, so I guess I can give up on the sweeping look to keep what love. sujafr: Our dogs are Australian Shepherds, who have to be with us at all times, following us wherever we go. Keeping them out of the entry would be keeping them out of other rooms we use, and I can't do that to them. TheFoxespad: One of the problems I've had is finding a cleaning product which doesn't streak. About 18 months ago, I found what I thought was a wonderful cleaner, J & J all-surface - no streaks, cleans like a dream. But I recently started thinking maybe IT was causing so much of the dogs' paw prints sticking. Two weeks ago, I changed to white vinegar/water/castille soap, and have already noticed fewer marks. I think it was adding some kind of coating. If you go with the floor, keep that in mind. lynxe: I love you! What a beautiful comment! You made my day. Dog hair is a whole 'nother issue....... Thank you all so very, very, very, very much! Dee

"I don't understand what you want to do. Currently you have a carpet bar covering the carpet/tile transition. The bar is on top of the ceramic tile and covering the carpet. Do you want to remove this brass item and replace it with something else? Why would you need to remove the tile?" Hi, ron6519 -- sorry - I must not have explained very clearly. We don't have any ceramic tile. We pulled up linoleum and put slate tile down to replace it. But the metal piece is not on top of any ceramic tile at all. It's not on top of anything other than the subfloor. It butts up against the tile, with a slight gap. I don't think I have to pull the tile up (it is something that someone at Lowe's recommended we do... I was more looking for confirmation that we DON'T need to). Thanks, Sierraeast, I will try to find the flooring forum. There are so many forums here, that I think I have the right one but I guess I don't. Thanks though. :)

As Cinar already stated, you simply need to go to a carpet store and speak with them. There is nothing you can pour over the tiles to make it ready for more flooring (there are but the COST is astronomical if this is asbestos). Simply leave the voids as they are and put down the lower grade pad and the carpet. This happens ALL THE TIME. So often we see basement carpets removed only to find out there are DOZENS of voids where old vinyl tiles had popped out years ago. With carpet + pad you won't even notice. And if you leave, have a professional come in a tear it up for you. If you must have a removable floor, you can pay a bit more money to have the carpet company cut and then custom bind the edges to the PERFECTLY FIT rug that is exactly the dimensions of the room. As for pads under that form of install, I'm a little out of my depth. You are welcome to walk into any carpeting retailer and discuss your project with them. They will be happy to help.