Asphalt tile

Description

Resilient floor tiles that were composed of asphalt and mineral fillers. Used in the early part of the 20th century, asphalt tiles were made by various methods that incorporated paper, cork, wood or mineral fillers. The waterproof flooring was produced in dark-color tiles (black, brown, green and red). By the 1920s, asphalt tiles contained a mixture of asphalt with coumarone-indene resin. The clear coumarone-indene polymer permitted lighter color tiles. Slowly the proportion of polymer to asphalt was changed, and by the late 1940s, asphalt tiles were composed almost entirely of coumarone-indene resins.

Synonyms and Related Terms

tuile bitumineuse (Fr.);

Brand names: Elastite [Philip Carey]; Accotile [Armstrong Cork]

Resources and Citations

• Kimberly Konrad, Paul Kofoed, "Vinyl Tile", in Twentieth-Century Building Materials, T. Jester (ed.), McGraw-Hill: New York, 1995.

• G.S.Brady, Materials Handbook, McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York, 1971 Comment: p. 77

• Dictionary of Building Preservation, Ward Bucher, ed., John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York City, 1996