Are these tiles asbestos?

[Michael Hajduk]

My contractor said these 9x9 tiles are most likely asbestos, and that as a homeowner, I can mitigate it myself much cheaper (with special containers from the city - not being shady)

How do I find out for sure without opening a can of worms and being forced to deal with it right away?

https://i.imgur.com/eNwUV41.jpg

[Jim K.]

Your contractor is probably right. Those are 9x9 vinyl tiles that very likely date back to the 70s and therefore also very likely have abestos fibers in them. The normal remediation is to encapsulate something like that. There are products that will allow you to put ceramic tiles over vinyl floor tiles, you can run floating floors over them, whole bunch of stuff. Getting rid of them, even if you do it yourself, is really never worth it. They're only a little more than a 16th of an inch thick.