I replaced the flooring of a building 7 years ago that—weirdly to me—had a laminate floor sitting on top of a carpet sitting on top of tiles.

The upper flooring layers came off fine and I used a shovel to scrape up the tiles off a bitumin coated concrete floor.

I’ve only recently learned that bitumin coated concrete usually had asbestos tiles placed on top, and a method used to ‘encapsulate’ the asbestos tiles away from human contact is to put carpet over the top. From the sounds of it I’ve likely ripped up asbestos tiles.

I have three things I’m concerned about:

1. Should I be worried that my health may be at risk?

2. Other workers were around me when I did this. Do I need to inform them?

3. Do I need to inform the waste company that originally disposed of the tiles?

We recently bought a home built in 1930. We’ve been doing most of the renovating on our own with some help from in-law whose a GC. I planned on tiling this small entryway & in prepping the area I accidentally pulled up old linoleum tile thinking it was part of the subfloor or possibly the carpet underlay. What should I do/ how freaked out should I be? Also, we have a toddler- who thankfully stays away when we tell her but still.

So, pulling back the carpet in the lounge to expose the matai floor underneath has revealed a couple of bits of real classy looking 70's lino (loose), and a large number of lino backing patches still glued to the floor.

They look like they were sanded down back in the day to get them level with the rest of the floor and then left.

I've dropped some of the loose lino in for testing, but on the assumption it's coming back positive I'm just wondering what the deal for removing this is.

Obviously will need a professional to remove it, but just wondering if anyone knows what my options are - can they sand/scrape it off, or do the floor boards need to be cut out and replaced?