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PHOTO of interior floor covering, pre-vinyl, probably linocrusta with burlap fabric backing, Justin Morrill House, Vermont, ca 1845 - 1900 Age of Building Flooring Materials

  • POST a QUESTION or COMMENT about how to determine the age of building flooring materials & how to infer the age of a building & its components

Determine the age & composition of building flooring materials & floor coverings:

This article provides a guide to estimating the age of all types of flooring materials in buildings as a guide to determining building age. The age of a building can be determined quite accurately by documentation, but when documents are not readily available, visual clues such as those available during a professional home inspection can still determine when a house was built.

In this flooring age determination article we list some helpful clues using an inspection of interior flooring materials to help answer the question "how old is the house?" and we provide photographs of key visual clues useful for determining the age of a building.

InspectAPedia tolerates no conflicts of interest. We have no relationship with advertisers, products, or services discussed at this website.

Flooring Materials as Indicators of Building Age

List & History Resilient Floor Coverings Used in buildings

Antique wideboard flooring © Daniel Friedman

Resilient floor coverings include organic flooring materials such as asphalt tile, cork tile, linoleum, rubber flooring, vinyl tile, vinyl sheet flooring.

[Click to enlarge any image]

Article Contents

Asphalt Tile Flooring as an Indicator of Building Age - 1920 - 1974 (est)

Black tile flooring, maybe not asphalt based

In 1920 asphalt roofing manufacturers, who had been using asphalt and fiber binders to make asphalt roofing shingles for some time, tried to develop a rigid product that could be a substitute for (more costly) slate roofing.

The material did not perform acceptably as a roof covering, but it led to the development of asphalt floor tiles.

Asphalt floor tiles are 9" square (or other sized) tiles which used asphalt as the main binding material. the original asphalt tiles were produced only in dark colors because asphalt was a main ingredient.

Rosato indicates that the first publicized asphalt tile installation was in 1920 in New York City's Western Union office.

The product was very successful and by 1936 over four million square yards of asphalt floor tiles were being sold annually. By 1940, 5% of floor coverings sold in the U.S. were asphalt tile. -- Rosato

In the U.S. the 1940's saw a tremendous expansion in the sales of this flooring material, largely because other materials were more difficult to obtain. At the end of World War II and combined with the reduction in military consumption of the product, asphalt floor tile sales increased to about 12% of the flooring market (1946), selling 41 million square yards. By 1949 the post-war construction boom led to asphalt floor tile sales of 61 million square yards.

By 1952 "asphalt-asbestos" floor tiles contained much less asphalt or gilsonite. Those binders produced only dark tiles. IN the 1950's manufacturers changed to use of synthetic organic resins and solvents made of vegetable or petroleum pitches. These new synthetic binders permitted manufacture of lighter colored, brighter floor tiles in a wider range of colors. But asbestos continued to be the main filler ingredient in these tiles.

Vinyl asbestos floor tiles were produced from approximately 1954 to 1980. Early vinyl asbestos flooring was made in 9" x9" floor tiles, and also sold as decorative or accent solid color strips, typically 1" wide by 24" long. By 1960 12" x 12" vinyl asbestos floor tiles were produced by Armstrong™, particularly their Excelon™ line. Asbestos was also used in sheet flooring.

By 1973 only a small portion of flooring was produced as asphalt-based floor tiles (9"x9") as vinyl asbestos flooring was dominating production. The size, thickness, color, and patterns of floor tiles can distinguish between asphalt-asbestos and vinyl-asbestos flooring.

While asbestos-containing floor tiles were made in a wide variety of colors and patterns, if you encounter black or very dark asphalt floor tiles they are probably particularly high in asbestos fibers.

See ASBESTOS FLOOR TILE PHOTO ID GUIDE

We discuss floor tiles as an asbestos fiber source in buildings in more detail
at ASBESTOS FLOORING IDENTIFICATION.

Colors and Patterns of Resilient Floor Tiles Can Indicate When They Were Produced

Asphalt -asbestos tiles manufactured early in their life (1920's) were either black, near black, brown, or a gray-brown tone. Brown asphalt-asbestos tiles were made by substituting gilsonite as a binder. In both cases the tiles were hardened by evaporating a solvent used in the fabrication process, or by cooling of hot asphalt used in the mixture.

Gilsonite could be used to produce a wider range of mixtures, but required some asphalt as a softener. Dark vinyl-asbestos tiles used, for example, a mixture of 40 parts asphalt or gilsonite, 60 parts asbestos floats, 30 parts powdered limestone, and pigments (parts by weight). Another typical mixture cited by Rosato contained 70% asbestos fiber.

See these articles on asphalt and vinyl-asbestos floor tile identification:

Cork Floor Tiles or Cork Planks as an Indicator of Building Age

Cork floors, real cork flooring, were and are a wood product made out of cork from the cork oak tree (Quercus suber) native to Mediterranean countries, primarily Spain and Portugal. The bark of the cork oak is or was harvested once every nine or ten years, without injuring the tree. The epitome of a resilient floor, cork flooring can compress up to 40% and still return to its original shape.

Armstrong Cork Floor Tiles

In the U.S. Thomas Armstrong, a Scotch-Irish immigrant, began his business as a cork cutter in 1860, delivering hand-carved bottle corks by wheelbarrow. The use of cork expanded to the construction of corkboards (bulletin boards) and cork-insulated brick. By 1909 Armstrong had begun producing linoleum. "Corkboard led to fiberboard, fiberboard led to ceiling board, cork floor tile led to linoleum that ultimately led to vinyl floor coverings, in both tile and sheet vinyl forms.

Armstrong's familiarity with cork grew into today's Armstrong Corporation worldwide as one of the largest flooring producers. See Armstrong flooring history.

Dodge Cork Floor Tiles

The Dodge Cork Company, a second Lancaster PA flooring company, also has a long history in floor covering production, dating from its founding in 1926. Dodge Cork notes that their cork floors were used by Frank lloyd Wright at Falling Waters and of course in many other buildings and that the company was producing a million square feet of cork floor tiles a month by 1962, probably a peak in the cork floor market.

Details about cork flooring are at CORK FLOORING.

Laminate Flooring: Determining the Age of buildings Using Laminate Flooring Products

Buckled laminate flooring after flooding

Contemporary snap-together flooring products that resemble wood or other surfaces, but are made of plastic, and other pre-finished and ready-to-assemble wood flooring products are a much more modern product.

Sadly the laminate floor shown at left was ruined by a building flood.

Pergo™ laminate flooring, for example, was developed by Pergo AB, a Swedish company founded around 1890 as a vinegar manufacturer. Product development for Pergo laminate flooring began in 1977 and was first brought to the market in 1984. Pergo laminate flooring was first sold in the U.S. in 1994.

It's safe to say that if you see a Pergo™ product in building in U.S. the flooring was installed no longer ago than 1994. But because this product is has been widely used as a renovation material installed atop older pre-existing finish floor surfaces, one should not presume that the product age is the same as the building age unless the floor was installed as original material - that is, unless it was not installed over an older floor covering.

Just seeing Pergo™ laminate flooring over a plywood subfloor is not sufficient data to conclude the age of a home. Older carpeting may have been removed to expose a plywood subfloor over which the laminate flooring was then installed.

Keep in mind that even when we can identify specific types of building materials and building methods, precise dating of the time of construction of a building remains difficult: old building materials were often re-used, so beams, siding, and other components may appear in a building built later than when the materials were first made.

Also, in the U.S. various states had machines for making cut nails, screws, and sawmills at different times. For example, New York State was industrialized earlier than some western or southern states, so machine-made nails appear earlier in New York than elsewhere.

Details about laminate flooring and wood laminate floors are at

Age of Linoleum Flooring & Older Sheet Flooring Materials Indicate Age of a Building (1890 - 1960 est)

Congoleum Gold Seal linoleum flooring, Life Magazine 14 Feb 1955

Prior to the development of linoleum sheet flooring, floor coverings were made of painted canvas. According to Rosato, "The original resilient floor coverings were developed during the latter part of the Nineteenth Century by Frederick Walton.

The original covering was linoleum for use as a floor decking on British naval ships." The composition of the original products included asphaltic binders to which an asbestos filler was added by mixing on a rubber mill.

As discussed at ASBESTOS FLOOR TILE IDENTIFICATION PHOTOS 1949-1959 that Linoleum may be used as a generic term for older sheet floorings (sometimes incorrectly). Linoleum was invented as a ship deck, later floor covering in 1860 by Frederick Walton to describe sheet flooring.

[Click to enlarge any image]

This article explains various common flooring materials (rough wood, finished wood, parquet, carpeting, linocrusta, sheet vinyl, and other items as they assist in determining The age of a building or other building.

Details about linoleum flooring products and the history and ingredients of linoleum are found

at LINOLEUM & SHEET FLOORING

Also see CONGOLEUM FLOORING HISTORY

and RESILIENT SHEET FLOORING ID GUIDE

Details about the history of Sheet and Tile Resilient flooring are also discussed

at FLOOR TILE HISTORY & INGREDIENTS.

Congoleum Gold Seal linoleum flooring, Life Magazine 14 Feb 1955

Above is Congoleum Gold Seal Jackstraw pattern, below, Congoleum "Square Dance" sheet linoleum sold in a 9" x 9" tile pattern.

Congoleum Gold Seal linoleum flooring, Life Magazine 14 Feb 1955

Vinyl Asbestos Floor Tiles as an Indicator of Building Age - 1954 - 1983 (est)

Asbestos containing vinyl asbestos floor tilesVinyl floor tiles, including vinyl-asbestos floor tiles and homogenous vinyl floor tiles (non-asbestos product) are almost as old as asphalt floor tiles. By the early 1950's in the U.S. vinyl tile floor products were more popular than asphalt-based flooring. The reason is pretty obvious.

Asphalt-based flooring as it was originally produced used heavy asphalt products which meant that the floor tiles could be made in dark colors only.

Soon after asphalt-asbestos floor tiles were marketed manufacturers heard from their buyers that consumers wanted lighter floor tiles and tiles of varying color and pattern.

Organic resin vinyl increased in popularity for this reason, but slowly. By 1952, the production of vinyl plastic floor tile sales in the U.S. was about half the volume of asphalt floor tiles, selling 35 million square yards.

Microphotographs of vinyl-asbestos floor tiles can be seen at our article
at ASBESTOS FLOORING IDENTIFICATION. -- Rosato

See these articles on asphalt and vinyl-asbestos floor tile identification:

Also see

Non-Resilient Floors Used in buildings

Examples of non-resilient flooring used in buildings include

Wood Floors Used in buildings - Indicators of Building Age

Wideboard wood floor ca 1860 © Daniel Friedman

The list of flooring types by wood species, widths, thickness, edge types (square, shiplap, tongue & groove), and the history and age of the use of these products in buildings is enormous.

Here we collect and provide photographs of a collection of wood flooring types as an aid to flooring restorers, preservationists, and inspectors wishing to determine the age of a building and its materials.

Please see WOOD FLOOR TYPES for a detailed inventory of types and eras of use of various types of wood flooring such as wideboard wood floors, solid strip flooring, solid short-strip flooring, and pre-finished wood floor materials.

We also distinguish between square-edged solid floor boards, shiplap edged flooring, and tongue-and groove flooring among older types of solid wood floors and subfloors.

The shiplap-edged solid wideboard floor floor shown in our photo (left) was in an 1860's frame home restored by the author.

Also See WOOD FLOOR CAMAGE

Age of Flooring Materials Based on Eras of Common Usage

Below we include (for now) flooring materials that have come into popular use in the last 250 years. Some basic flooring materials and floor coverings such as stone, slate, brick, carpets and tapestry have a much older history.

This table is incomplete as there were thousands of flooring designs and models; contributions or comments welcomed (CONTACT) - Ed.

Table of Manufactured Building Flooring Materials
Dates of Installation & Use, Sizes, Properties, Asbestos Content

Flooring Product Name or Type
Years of Common Usage Sizes Thick-ness Comments & References
Asphalt-Asbestos sheet flooring
1910 - 19751,2    

ASBESTOS FLOOR TILE IDENTIFICATION PHOTOS 1949-1959

ASBESTOS FLOOR TILE IDENTIFICATION PHOTOS 1949-1959

ASBESTOS FLOORING HAZARD REDUCTION

FLOOR TILE HISTORY & INGREDIENTS

RESILIENT SHEET FLOORING ID GUIDE

Asphalt-asbestos floor tiles
1920 - 19751,2 6x6"
9x9"
12x12"
1/8-1/2"

1930 began replacing linoleum
1950 most common flooring
6x6" is rare (Elastite, Accotile1)

ASBESTOS FLOORING HAZARD REDUCTION

ASBESTOS FLOORING REMOVAL GUIDE

FLOOR TILE / SHEET FLOORING PHOTO GUIDES

MASTIC, CUTBACK ADHESIVE

Carpeting
      CARPETING, SELECTION & INSTALLATION
Ceramic Tile
     

CERAMIC TILE FLOOR, WALL

FRAMING & SUBFLOOR for TILE

NON-RESILIENT FLOORING

TILE FLOOR INSTALL on CONCRETE

Concrete floor surfaces, finished, stained
      CONCRETE FLOOR FINISH
Cork floor tiles & sheet flooring
1900 - 19201 6x6"
9x9"
12x12"
 

CORK FLOORING

CONGOLEUM-NAIRN Floor Tile, Linoleum

Cork floor, pre-finished
19201 - present 6x6"
9x9"
12x12"
  CONGOLEUM-NAIRN Floor Tile, Linoleum
         
Felt-based sheet flooring
1910 - 19501    

Congoleum et als.

CONGOLEUM-NAIRN Floor Tile, Linoleum

Laminate Flooring, Plastic
     

LAMINATE PLASTIC FLOOR

Laminate wood flooring
1994 - present    

First to market in 1985, first sold in U.S. 1994

FLOOR ENGINEERED WOOD & LAMINATES

         
Linoleum
1863 - 1950   1/8-1/2"

CONGOLEUM-NAIRN Floor Tile, Linoleum

LINOLEUM & SHEET FLOORING

Linofloor
19371 - 1950     Armstrong
Oilcloth flooring
17001- 1880      
Resilient Flooring, general
     

RESILIENT SHEET FLOORING ID GUIDE

RESILIENT VINYL or CORK FLOOR

SHEET FLOORING, VINYL ASBESTOS

SHEET FLOORING INSPECT / TEST

Rubber sheet flooring, natural
19241 - 1942     Raised disc sheet rubber, 1950
Rubber tiles flooring, natural
1850 - 1942     Interlocking 2" rubber tiles patented by Frank Furness, Phila. Architect, 18941
Rubber flooring, synthetic
19421- present    

Mixed with asbestos &/or wood fibers. Some forms resemble vinyl & asphalt flooring.1

SHEET FLOORING INSPECT / TEST

Stone Flooring
      STONE, GRANITE, MARBLE, AGGLOMERATE
Vinyl-Asbestos Floor Tiles
19331,2 - 1983 9x9"
12X12"
 

Wide use after 19451,2

ASBESTOS FLOOR TILE IDENTIFICATION PHOTOS 1949-1959

ASBESTOS FLOOR TILE IDENTIFICATION PHOTOS 1949-1959

FLOOR TILE / SHEET FLOORING PHOTO GUIDES

(Flintcote below ground use)

MASTIC, CUTBACK ADHESIVE

SELF-STICK TILES, ASBESTOS

VINYL-ASBESTOS FLOOR TILE HISTORY

Vinly-Asbestos sheet flooring
19331,2 - 1983     RESILIENT SHEET FLOORING ID GUIDE
Vinyl asbestos sheet cushioned flooring
19601 - 1983     1960s: Vinyl laminte adhered to asphalt-saturated felt or cork backing (cushioned vinyl)
Vinyl asbestos sheet no-wax flooring
19621 - 1983      
         
Wood Flooring
     

WOOD FLOOR AGE TYPES HISTORY

WOOD FLOOR DAMAGE REPAIR

WOOD FLOOR ENGINEERED & SOLID


Notes to the table above

Also see

[1] Wilson & Snodgrass (2007).
The MTDC “Facilities Toolbox” (http://www.fs.fed.us/ eng/toolbox/haz/haz02.htm) provides information about ACM in Forest Service facilities.
“Recommended Work Procedures for Resilient Floor Covering,” at http://www.rfci.com/int_ARF-TechInfo. htm.

[2] Rosato (1959)

[3] McAlester (1984) offers a nano history of bitumenous materials used in roofing, sheathing, flooring in North America. Natural tar was used to produce waterproof coverings since colonial times (ca 1760) by impregnating cloth, felt, or paper with bitumen, semi-solid residues of tar and asphalt.

By the late 1800's techniques were developed to convert tar or asphalt into cold roofing by impregnating sheets or shingles of felt, paper, or cloth with bituminous preparations used in turn for roofing, sheathing, and felt underlayment including in flooring products. Roof shingles of asbestos fibers bound with concrete were widely used in the early 1900's.

 




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Reader Comments, Questions & Answers About The Article Above

Below you will find questions and answers previously posted on this page at its page bottom reader comment box.

Reader Q&A - also see RECOMMENDED ARTICLES & FAQs

On 2019-01-30 - by (mod) -

Just to be clear, there was never pure asbestos floor tile nor sheet flooring, though asbestos was used as both a fiber and filler in both forms of floor covering; the "when" answer to its discontinuance depends on where you live: at least the country.

In the U.S. asbestos containing flooring was more or less out of production by the mid 1980's, earlier for some companies.

Please see details at FLOOR TILE HISTORY & INGREDIENTS https://inspectapedia.com/interiors/Floor_Tile_History.php

On 2019-01-30 by steve paige

when was asbestos tile flooring disconinued in office buildings and replaced with VCT

On 2019-01-11 by Robert W. Tyson

My mobile was built in 1968. Kit hen floor is coming up on the edges. Want to know if it's asbestos and how much to lab check it

On 2018-04-08 - by (mod) -

Lillie there were many different types of flooring installed in homes around the world in 1975 ranging from dirt or stone through ceramic tile, marble, wood, carpeting, vinyl sheet flooring, vinyl tile flooring. If we could narrow down the question a bit that might be more useful.

If you are asking whether or not asbestos-containing vinyl floor tile or sheet flooring were in common use in North America in 1975 then yes.

On 2018-04-08 by Lillie

What type of flooring was put in houses on 1975?

On 2016-03-19 - by (mod) -

Sorry, Alice, no I don't . From just naming the colors of flooring I can't guess what material was used.

On 2016-03-18 by alice hess

My parents had a special floor placed in their den in 1957. The person who did the tile evidently mixed the colors which are pink and purple! individually for each tile as the laid each one. None are exactly the same. Its very tough and has lasted all these years except for the fact that it is very dirty now and can't seem to be cleaned. Do you have any idea what it might be?

On 2016-02-29 - by (mod) -

If you like, Anthony, use our page bottom CONTACT link to send us some photos for comment.

On 2016-02-29 y Anthony

My home was built in 1950 and i have been trying to identify the material under my current flooring in my kitchen and spare bedroom and hallway. The flooring in my kitchen is a deep red color pretty hard but I am also able to cut into it very easily with a box cutter.

The other flooring has the same characteristics but is more of an olive green color. And both of them have what looks like a black tar paper type backing. I don't believe they are tile because the seams are pretty far apart. Looking for any helpful answers.


...

Continue reading at FLOOR TILE HISTORY & INGREDIENTS - history, dates, and description of the production process and ingredients in asphalt floor tiles, asphalt-asbestos floor tiles, & vinyl-asbestos floor tiles, or select a topic from the closely-related articles below, or see the complete ARTICLE INDEX.

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