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The day after we closed, an abatement company, Nealco, removed all of the asbestos floor tiles and took the bad carpet away too! They are required to test the air quality once finished so we felt safe breathing upon arrival the next day. Once the majority of the messy work was done (two weeks later), it was time to lay down floor. After walking around on cement slab with ugly mastic remains, it was wonderful and took the place a long ways towards becoming Home. Mike Orecchio and his B & M Floors team progressed quickly and were great about working around the ongoing demo/construction. As for materials, bamboo and/or reclaimed hardwood were the original choices but as we learned more about cork and it’s insulating/cushioning properties we decided to take that route. Thankfully the toilet and whole main line backed up the day before the installers were going to put cork in the bathrooms too. They (and the floor supplier) had tried to talk us out of that application, but after living in Florida where ceramic tile is everywhere, including the living room, we fought it. The overflow made us realize the un-wisdom of our decision so we scrambled around and found new material: Vermont green slate for bathroom 1 and Italian tile for bathroom 2.