This page provides a guide to identifying

Page top photo: jute or burlap-backed Linocrusta, an early form of sheet flooring widely used in Europe and North America.

Floor Coverings & Floor Tiles 1900-1949

Prior to the development of linoleum sheet flooring, floor coverings were made of painted canvas.

Canvas floor coverings were succeeded by more-durable linocrusta, linoleum, and cork flooring in tile form.

The first use of linoleum as a floor decking was on British naval ships.

The composition of that surface combined asphaltic bindersand an asbestos filler, mixted togehter and rolled out in sheets a rubber milling machine.

Photo above: By the 1940s an alternative to linoleum and Congoleum were asphalt based floor tile like those in our photo, though the first publicized asphalt tile installation was decades earlier in 1920 in New York City's Western Union office.

By 1940, 5% of floor coverings sold in the U.S. were asphalt tile. -- Rosato

Catalogs & Guides to Older Floor Coverings

Above: an antique cork floor tile installation in the U.S. Here we list sourced of infomation about older building floor coverings that can usually be traced to the turn of the last century, between 1900 and 1949.

In our CORK FLOORING article give this micro-history of the evolution of floor covering materials that were used over older wood board floors as well as over concrete.

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.

Here are more sources of older floor coverings in popular use before 1949:

• Armstrong Cork & Tile Co., HOW TO LAY & CARE FOR LINOLEUM 1914 [PDF] 2nd Ed., Armstrong Cork & Tile Co, Linoleum Department, Lancaster PA
• Armstrong Cork Products Co., Hazel Dell Brown, The Story of Five Dream Kitchens [PDF] - retrieved 2024/10/26 original source: https://archive.org/details/TheStoryOfFiveDreamKitchens [Copy on file as Armstrrong-5-Dream-Kitchens.pdf ]
• Armstrong Cork Co., Armstrong's QUAKER and SETANDARD RUGS and FLOOR COVERING 1939 [PDF] availble at Building Technology Archive - Internet Archive - [Copy on file as Armstrongs-Quaker-And-Standard-Rugs-And-Floor-Covering-1939.pdf ]
• Armstrong Cork Co., Armstrong Floors and Wall Coverings for Homes and Public Buildings - 1939 [PDF] op. cit., original source: https://ia800502.us.archive.org/18/items/Sweets1939812Cat36/Sweets19398-12%20Cat%2036_text.pdf [copy on file as Armstrong-Catalog-1939.pdf ]
  
  This catalog covers all of the company's flooring products and materials as well as other products such as bulletin boards, wall coverings, and flooring underlayments.
• Armstrong Cork Co., Armstrong LINOLEUM PATTERN BOOK 1921 [PDF] - retrieved 2024/10/26, original source: https://ia801708.us.archive.org/19/items/armstrongslinole00arms/armstrongslinole00arms.pdf [Copy on file as Armstrong-Linoleum-Pattern-Book-1921.pdf ]
• Armstrong Cork Co., Armstrong's LINTOILE [PDF] - op. cit. [Copy on file as Armstrong's-Linotile.pdf]
  
  Excerpt: Armstrong’s Linotile® is a beautiful resilient floor that offers ease of maintenance and durability unmatched by any other resilient ffooring material.
  
  Manufactured exclusively by Armstrong since 1914, Linotile is a flooring of proved quality. It is produced essentially from the same raw materials as linoleum, but a series of manufacturing processes make it a completely different flooring with dis- tinctive qualities all its own.
• ARMSTRONG SHEET FLOORING 1940 - 1980 [Web Page]
• A. S. Boyle Company, Beautiful floors woodwork and furniture : their finish and care (ca 1925) [PDF] - Internet Archive cited below.
• CORK FLOORING [Web Page]
• FLOOR TILE HISTORY & INGREDIENTS
• FLOORING MATERIALS, AGE, TYPES  [Web Page] - all ages and all flooring materials
• LINCRUSTA CEILINGS & WALLS
• LINOLEUM & OTHER SHEET FLOORING [Web Page] - 1900 to present
• TABLE of FLOORING MATERIALS & AGES  [Web Page] - all ages and all flooring materials

More older Armstrong flooring products and catalogs can be found at

• Building Technology Archive - Internet Archive - source of many older Armstrong flooring catalogs researched for this article series

...

---

---

ADVERTISEMENT

---

---

Reader Q&A - also see RECOMMENDED ARTICLES & FAQs

This Linoleum over hardwood floor in a 1929 home will be tested for asbestos

I plan to get the flooring [shown above] and adhesive tested, but is this recognizable as any certain manufacturer? House was built in 1929, not sure when the updates happened.

Original floor is hardwood, pictured is the first layer on top of the hardwood. It's got a red backing, and a black interior. - On 2020-11-13 by Jared -

This Q&A appeared originally at ASBESTOS FLOORING IDENTIFICATION

Reply by (mod) - older linoleum, ca 1930-1950

Jared

That looks like 1930s or 1940s linoleum; there were multiple manufacturers (such as Armstrong, Congoleum, others) with a still-longer list depending on the country where your building is located.

A good place to start is at RESILIENT SHEET FLOORING ID GUIDE

or you may also want to click right to LINOLEUM & OTHER SHEET FLOORING - above on this page -- where I will re-post your question so as to invite comments from other readers who may recognize your floor pattern.

There we include links to several early sheet flooring and linoleum catalogs where you might spot your exact flooring pattern.

Note that some asphalt-felt-backed sheet flooring does contain asbestos, at least in the felt backer.

 

...

Continue reading  at ASBESTOS FLOOR TILE IDENTIFICATION PHOTOS 1900 -1950s or select a topic from the closely-related articles below, or see the complete ARTICLE INDEX.

Or see these

Recommended Articles

• ASBESTOS FLOORING IDENTIFICATION GUIDE INDEX - all brands, all years
• ARMSTRONG SOLARIAN NO-WAX FLOORING HISTORY
• CORK FLOORING
• DOES THIS FLOOR CONTAIN ASBESTOS? - 5 easy questions to tell if your FLOOR probably contains asbestos -
• FLOOR COVERINGS: 1900 - 1949 - older types of floor coverings, sheet linoleum, congoleum, & tiles
• FLOOR TILE HISTORY & INGREDIENTS
• FLOOR TYPES & DEFECTS - home
• FLOORING MATERIALS, AGE, TYPES
• LINOLEUM & OTHER SHEET FLOORING
• RESILIENT SHEET FLOORING ID GUIDE

Suggested citation for this web page

FLOOR COVERINGS: 1900 - 1949 at InspectApedia.com - online encyclopedia of building & environmental inspection, testing, diagnosis, repair, & problem prevention advice.

Or see this

INDEX to RELATED ARTICLES: ARTICLE INDEX to ASBESTOS HAZARDS

Or use the SEARCH BOX found below to Ask a Question or Search InspectApedia

Ask a Question or Search InspectApedia

Try the search box just below, or if you prefer, post a question or comment in the Comments box below and we will respond promptly.

Note: appearance of your Comment below may be delayed: if your comment contains an image, photograph, web link, or text that looks to the software as if it might be a web link, your posting will appear after it has been approved by a moderator. Apologies for the delay.

Only one image can be added per comment but you can post as many comments, and therefore images, as you like.
You will not receive a notification when a response to your question has been posted.
Please bookmark this page to make it easy for you to check back for our response.
Our Comment Box is provided by Countable Web Productions countable.ca

Citations & References

In addition to any citations in the article above, a full list is available on request.

---

ADVERTISEMENT

---