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Sears Vinyl-Asbestos Floor Tiles Identification Photo Guide
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Sears Vinyl-Asbestos Floor Tiles Identification Photo Guide: here we provide a photo guide to Sears Roebuck asphalt-asbestos flooring &Sears Roebuck vinyl asbestos floor tile identification photographs, a list of product names, styles, colors, and vinyl-asbestos floor patterns, and colors for asbestos-containing floor tile products - flooring materials that are reported to or have been confirmed to contain asbestos in asbestos fiber or asbestos powder-filler form.
Green links show where you are. © Copyright 2013 InspectAPedia.com, All Rights Reserved. Author Daniel Friedman.
Sears & Roebuck Vinyl-Asbestos Floor Tiles
For a detailed photo guide to individual vinyl-asbestos floor tile patterns, brands, sizes, and years of manufacture, see ASBESTOS FLOOR TILE PHOTO ID GUIDE.
The following photographs of Sears™ VAT vinyl-asbestos-tile floor tiles, including the original box, were provided by reader Aaron Cramer. Mr. Cramer is an attorney with expertise in asbestos and U.S. patent litigation and services.
The "VAT" visible on the original Sears packaging almost certainly indicates "Vinyl Asbestos Tiles", and we have a lot and pattern number Sears VAT vinyl asbestos floor tile #2119-3, 126715-25VF. See our ASBESTOS FLOOR TILE PHOTO ID GUIDE for our full list and set of photographs.
Below our photographs show the embossed pattern on these Sears vinyl asbestos floor tiles. The tiles are solid through in color and material and are about 1/16" thick and 9" x 9" in size. Below right shows these Sears floor tiles installed.
Our photographs below show a Sears Vinyl Asbestos Tile floor that is in poor condition. This floor needs to be professionally cleaned and replaced, or covered-over.
Asbestos is safe and legal to remain in homes or public buildings as long as the asbestos
materials are in good condition and the asbestos can not be released into the air.
For a detailed photo guide to individual vinyl-asbestos floor tile patterns, brands, sizes, and years of manufacture, see ASBESTOS FLOOR TILE PHOTO ID GUIDE.
(Additional Sears Roebuck vinyl asbestos floor covering photos wanted - CONTACT US)
How to Find Your Floor Tile or Sheet Flooring in this Flooring Reference Photo Guide

Asphalt asbestos and vinyl-asbestos floor tiles were produced in 9" x 9", 12" x 12", and even 18" x 18" as well as in decorative strips, and in thicknesses of 1/16", 3/32", and 1/8", also in 0.08 gauge. Some sheet flooring or resilient flooring also contained asbestos, as did floor tile mastics.
This photo guide to asphalt asbestos & vinyl asbestos floor tiles for each year shows at least one color photo of each floor tile style or pattern in an example color. A list below each group of photos includes the names of and links to additional photos for other colors of these styles.
Asbestos is safe and legal to remain in homes or public buildings as long as the asbestos
materials are in good condition and the asbestos can not be released into the air.
To identify a particular asphalt-asbestos or vinyl-asbestos floor tile pattern & color, start in the image group most likely to be the same age as your building.
If you don't find your floor tile or sheet flooring by looking forward from that that year, you should also look backwards in the earlier years as your specific flooring pattern & color may have first appeared in an earlier year. For other tile brands than Armstrong, see the brand name floor tile links included in this list.
If you can identify your floor tile collection name or model number, or if you recognize it in the extensive library of flooring color and pattern photographs provided in these pages, laboratory testing of the sample to screen the flooring for asbestos may be unnecessary. Our home page for asbestos-containing floor tiles is at ASBESTOS FLOOR TILE PHOTO ID GUIDE To send us photographs of possible asbestos-containing flooring that you are trying to identify, use the email address found at CONTACT. |
We have split this guide to Armstrong Asphalt Asbestos or Vinyl Asbestos Floor Tiles into the individual year range pages (dates of production) below in order to cut web page load time. If you prefer to see all of the reference photos in a single scrollable file, contact us and we can provide the full list in a single big and slow-loading file.
Many of the colors and patterns of asphalt-asbestos or vinyl-asbestos floor tiles were manufactured over many years and may appear in more than one of the floor tile photo collections listed by date range here.
For each year we list the names of the tile patterns sold during that year, we include representative color images of the floor tiles, and throughout the entire floor tile pattern & color history series we include each floor tile color & pattern of the floor tile in the first year that it appeared , and we include representative colors and patterns in other years.
Examples of floor tile packaging, labeling, and other information can be found throughout the flooring photo collections listed here.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About Sears Vinyl Asbestos Floor Tiles & Other Flooring Products
Question: identifying SEARS brand HOMART 64-716 Floor Tiles & various other brands and product numbers of floor tiles
do you know if the SEARS brand HOMART 64-7169 asphalt floor tile contained asbestos? - Paul Wright 9/22/11
Reply:
Naturally by email alone no one can say with certainty whether or not a floor tile contains asbestos, but if your flooring matches one of the ACM floor tiles we illustrate here, AND if you are confident about the age (as you suggest) most likely it is an asbestos-containing product. And yes, for sure there were some peel-and-stick floor tiles that contained asbestos in the tile baking.
That does not necessarily mean that you need a costly asbestos remediation job - it depends on the condition of the surface, use made of the area, etc. If the floor is sound you may have the option of simply covering it with a new material.
While we have published product and lot numbers for some floor tile products, there are just too many of them, thousands. Unlike mechanical equipment like water heaters or furnaces, I have not found a standard of correlation between product numbers and date of manufacture, though it probably was included in widely varying ways by individual manufacturers.
You can narrow down the asbestos question by:
- noting the age of the building itself as that sets the earliest plausible date for its floor materials +/- a year or so to allow for flooring sold from stock
- noting the date of any renovations of the building
- noting whether or not there are multiple layers of flooring or other similar changes that give a renovation history
- noting information on any packaging used for the floor tiles - sometimes an extra box of floor tiles is left and stored in a building, intended to supply future repairs or changes to the floor
- comparing the appearance of your flooring to the photographs we provide in these tile identification articles
- sending a small sample of flooring to a certified asbestos testing lab
For a tile floor of unknown constituents, do not do something foolish such as grinding, sanding, power sawing, or a dusty messy demolition.
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Questions & answers or comments about how to identify Sears Roebuck floor tiles that contain asbestos.
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Technical Reviewers & References
Related Topics, found near the top of this page suggest articles closely related to this one.
- Thanks to reader Aaron Cramer for contributing photographs of Sears Roebuck vinyl asbestos floor tiles, August 2010. Mr. Cramer has worked in asbestos litigation defense work in Pittsburgh - related to hot-tops and generally steel mills and presently works with U.S. Patent Office procedures and litigation. He can be contacted at 34 Lodge Street,
Pittsburgh, PA 15227,
Tel: 412-207-7237 and email: arcramer@comcast.net
- Armstrong ® Residential Flooring - Website 05/15/2010 http://www.armstrong.com/ lists current flooring products provided by the Armstrong Corporation, including Armstrong's current vinyl floor tile products at http://www.armstrong.com/flooring/products/vinyl-floors
- Armstrong Corporation, Corporate History - http://www.armstrong.com/corporate/corporate-history.html - Web Search 05/19/2010
- Armstrong vinyl asbestos floor tiles: photos of asbestos-vinyl floor tiles as catalog pages (PDF form) are at www.asbestosresource.com/asbestos/tile.html
- "Asbestos in your home or at work," Forsyth County Environmental Affairs Department, Winston-Salem NC
12/08
- "Asbestos Floor Tile Removal", the University of Minnesota's advice on removing VAT (vinyl asbestos or asphalt asbestos floor tile) can be read in detail at www.health.state.mn.us/divs/eh/asbestos/floortile/index.html
- Copy on file as - /hazmat/Asbestos_in_Your_Home_US_EPA.pdf - Asbestos in Your Home - U.S. EPA, Exposure Evaluation Division, Office of Toxic Substances, Office of Pesticides and Toxic Substances, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington,D.C. 20460
- Resilient Floor Covering Institute, 1030 15th St. NW, suite 350, Washington D.C.
- Book Recommendations for Asphalt & Vinyl-Asbestos Floor Tile Identification:
- Asbestos products and their history and use in various building materials such as asphalt and vinyl flooring includes discussion which draws on Asbestos, Its Industrial Applications, D.V. Rosato, engineering consultant, Newton, MA, Reinhold Publishing, 1959 Library of Congress Catalog Card No.: 59-12535 (out of print).
- David Grudzinski,
Advantage Home Inspections,
is a professional home inspector in Cranston, RI. 02910. He can be reached at 401-935-6547,
fax- 401-490-0607 or by email to contact/us@advantagehomeinspections.us 04/26/2009
- EPA Guidance for Controlling Asbestos-Containing Materials in Buildings, NIAST, National Institute on Abatement Sciences & Technology, [republishing EPA public documents] 1985 ed., Exposure Evaluation Division, Office of Toxic Substances, Office of Pesticides and Toxic Substances, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington,D.C. 20460
- EVER WEAR TILE CO is currently (2009) in the Terrazzo, Tile, Marble, and Mosaic Work industry in Fallon, NV. 775) 423-6221. [We do not know the company history nor whether there is an association with EverWear vinyl asbestos floor tiles discussed in this article.]
- Kentile KenFlex flooring photographs: Flickr web search 5/15/2010 - see original material and other asbestos product photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/asbestos_pix/tags/floortile/
- "Plastic Flooring Spreads Through the House", Jackson Hand, Guide to Home-Improvement Materials, Popular Science, April 1969, p. 154-158
- Thomas Hauswirth, Managing Member of Beacon Fine Home Inspections, LLC and (in 2007) Vice President, Connecticut Association of Home Inspectors
Ph. 860-526-3355 Fax 860-526-2942 beaconinspections@sbcglobal.net 06/07: thanks for photographs of transite asbestos heating ducts
- Gary Randolph, Ounce of Prevention Home Inspection, LLC Buffalo, NY, for attentive reading and editing suggestions. Mr. Randolph can be reached in Buffalo, NY, at (716) 636-3865
or email: gary@ouncehome.com
3/07
- Thanks to reader Matt Abel
Design Services Department, Strongwood Log Home Company,
711 Shadow Road,
Waupaca WI 54981,
Office (715) 258-4818,
Toll Free (866) 258-4818,
www.gostrongwood.com
"Begin your journey home.." for vinyl asbestos floor photos, October 2010.
- Thanks to reader Meryl Silvers for hexagonal floor tile photos showing a possilbe Kentile product that contained asbestos. October 2010.
- June 1997 - Window Putty - OSHA case cites contractor for asbestos exposure during removal of window putty http://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_table=NEWS_RELEASES&p_id=1091
- Asbestos Identification and Testing References
- Asbestos Identification, Walter C.McCrone, McCrone Research Institute, Chicago, IL.1987 ISBN 0-904962-11-3. Dr. McCrone literally "wrote the book" on asbestos identification procedures which formed
the basis for current work by asbestos identification laboratories.
- Stanton, .F., et al., National Bureau of Standards Special Publication 506: 143-151
- Pott, F., Staub-Reinhalf Luft 38, 486-490 (1978) cited by McCrone
- Asbestos in Your Home U.S. EPA, Exposure Evaluation Division, Office of Toxic Substances, Office of Pesticides and Toxic Substances, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington,D.C. 20460
- Asbestos products and their history and use in various building materials such as asphalt and vinyl flooring includes discussion which draws on Asbestos, Its Industrial Applications, D.V. Rosato, engineering consultant, Newton, MA, Reinhold Publishing, 1959 Library of Congress Catalog Card No.: 59-12535 (out of print, text and images available at InspectAPedia.com).
- "Handling Asbestos-Containing roofing material - an update", Carl Good, NRCA Associate Executive Director, Professional Roofing, February 1992, p. 38-43
- EPA Guidance for Controlling Asbestos-Containing Materials in buildings, NIAST, National Institute on Abatement Sciences & Technology, [republishing EPA public documents] 1985 ed., Exposure Evaluation Division, Office of Toxic Substances, Office of Pesticides and Toxic Substances, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington,D.C. 20460
- ...
Books & Articles on Building & Environmental Inspection, Testing, Diagnosis, & Repair
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