I have been fixing up the interior of the Silver Spoon dining car at the Museum of Transport. I am looking for a source of 9"x9" inch rubber floor tiles, 3/16" thick. Everything seems to be 12"x12", 1/8" thick these days. The old tile wore like iron. I can't just rip up the old tile and replace with the new. I just want to replace some of the missing tiles. The color only has to be close. Thank You.


jim1522@aol.com

Jim,

I know a little about tiles from a past job. I can tell you I was told the industry switched from 9 inch to 12 inch when they stopped using asbestos. The theory is that any 9 inch tile is suspect and all 12 inch tiles are safe.

Tom Gears

tgears1@comcast.net

Well, almost Tom. We run into a good bit of 12x12 vinyl tile that contains asbestos. Also, even in cases where the tile might not have asbestos in it, the mastic often does. Go figure, we even found asbestos in the drywall mud on our current project.

The only "no-test" method I know of is kinda iffy - the "speckles" in the asbestos containing vinyl tile are more muted than the modern tile. You are right that any 9x9 probably contains asbestos.

Rubber tile is a whole 'nother critter, more akin to rubber tread/riser covers used on concrete filled steel pan type stairs. Googling turned up:

http://www.johnsonite.com/products/roundel.htm
http://www.floorsurfaces.com/
http://www.classictile.com/vendors/bm.htm

The stuff shouldn't be hard to cut to size, that has to be done on the job at all walls etc. anyway.



rudd@nospamcogdellmendrala.com

The CRANDIC cars at the Westrn Railway Museum and at Seashore trolley Museum have been worked on in recent years.

I think that Donald Curry at Seashore is using something called "battleship linolum" to do the work. All modern squares have to be cut down to the 9" X 9" size that you need.

The product has been referenced here in the past;
perhaps a search of the RYPN archives might find the reference.

ted_miles@nps.gov

>
Sorry, Ted, but the new floor tiles on Crandic 111 at Western Railway museum are rubber. We got a manufacturer to turn out a small quantity of 9"
tiles (I don't have the name handy).

Rubber tiles can be cut to size fairly easily in a shear. If you set up proper guides, you can get nice straight edges, square corners, and accurate dimensions. That's how I cut them during installation.

fk


fkrock@pacbell.net

> Sorry, Ted, but the new floor tiles on
> Crandic 111 at Western Railway museum are
> rubber. We got a manufacturer to turn out a
> small quantity of 9"
> tiles (I don't have the name handy).

> Rubber tiles can be cut to size fairly
> easily in a shear. If you set up proper
> guides, you can get nice straight edges,
> square corners, and accurate dimensions.
> That's how I cut them during installation.

> fk

9 by 9 rubber tiles used in CR and IC 111 were custom made for the project by RCA Rubber Co. They are a supplier of rubber floors to the transit industry.


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