IIf you do not want to float over everything nor do you do the asbestos abatement then you have no other option than to lay down sheet vinyl. Sheet vinyl will sit just 3mm higher than the current vinyl floors.

If you can 'stand' a small transition of 1/4" then look at vinyl floating tiles. The best look is stone or tile looking. Do NOT add anything in that looks like wood.

Are you refreshing the kitchen (new colour cab doors, new paint, new backsplash???) or are you renovating the kitchen (remove everything and start again)? What's your budget?

Thanks, @SJ McCarthy!

It's not that we don't want to float engineered over everything, we were advised against floating it over the hardwood/it wouldn't be warrantied.

I'm thinking our only option might be to switch to a peninsula kitchen to hide the transition, but it's not my top choice...

We are doing a complete gut, down to the studs on the walls.

Traditionally the asbestos tiles will be removed by cutting out the subfloor from underneath then at the same time. The fastest way is to cut the kitchen floor into 3ft x 3ft squares (or whatever size squares the remediation company likes to work with) and then the vinyl is left ATTACHED to the subfloor....the whole thing comes up.

What that does is DROP the 'level' of the subfloor so that it sits LOWER than the hardwood. Right....now we have 'space' to get a newer, thicker floor in so that we can MAINTAIN the floor height level.

This is a COMPLETE gut! It would be VERY sad to leave the asbestos in place which then SERIOUSLY limits your flooring choices. As in...your down to some very unwanted options...

How much did the remediation quote come out to be? What is the TOTAL PROJECTED cost of the remodel?

I would HATE for you to think, in 5 years time, "I WISH we had just done the floors at the time! Why didn't we do it??? It was only $5K more!" (I'm assuming $5,000...it's just for arguments sake).

All fair points... appreciate the perspective, sometimes it's hard to see the "big picture" when you're in the thick of a reno with money flying out of your wallet!

You're quite on point with the $5K guess, btw!

I will say I do not like kitchens open to LRs. Drs yes not LRs As for the rest covering asbestos flooring is the way to go and honestly the remediation companies are a huge rip off. You can remove it by yourself with the proper saftey precautions and water sprayed often . I need to see your space to really help abour floor choice but in my head I would do hardwood to match and have a transition strip but I need to see what you are planning when you open this space up.

Patricia my husbands father and grandfather both died from mesothelioma, it was not pleasant. This cancer doesn’t appear until many years after exposure and no one knows how much is too much or if there even is an “OK” amount. Your advising someone to DIY this very real and potentially life threatening abatement surprises me. If I had it in my house I wouldn’t leave it and although we DIY a lot of things in our house this is something I’d leave to someone with the proper equipment and training.

Unfortunately it's a small house, so its liner and currently only has LR | Kitchen. Both are quite large, so by taking the wall down we can do LR DR Kitchen. I know it's not ideal with noises, smells, etc. but it's all we've got and why we want to minimize an awkward flooring transition.

I'm actually now thinking a herringbone pattern on the kitchen (if we don't end up abating) might help lengthen the room to the eye and also feel more purposeful.

Also, very sorry for your losses, @mojavemaria. You can be assured we will definitely not being DIYing any asbestos abatement ourselves!