The other thread I read about the Linoleum floor in the man-cave made me think about this old house we recently bought.

The kitchen is VERY vintage and I don't think much has been changed since the house was built in 1951. It's got a very retro Linoleum floor and now I worried that it's full of asbestos!

We are planning to gut and replace the kitchen in the future, but not for a couple of years.

Is there a way I can get the floor tested? Should I be concerned here? I've got an 8 month old and a 3 year old running around there all day with their stay-at-home mom.

The floor is in really good shape as the previous (and first) owner really took care of the place, but now I'm worried.

When we go to gut it and if it DOES have asbestos, do I need professionals to do that removal? I'm sure they don't come cheap either!

I wouldn't worry too much about it. Unless your kids are pulling pieces of it up and snorting the dust, everything should be fine. Google abatement company in your area, somebody will turn up. They may analyze a sample or point you to somebody that will. I generally pay $25-$100 depending on the type of test/material. Abatement isn't cheap, as you expected. It's fairly straight forward with containment and setting up negative air. Is the house on a slab or a crawlspace? A slab will take an abatement company longer should it be hot for asbestos.

Linoleum is great flooring and very green so it's been making a comeback. IIRC it's primarily made up of ground cork and linseed oil so do NOT use detergent which will remove the linseed oil and dry it out turning it chalky. Instead use a soap such as Murphy'd Oil.
As far as asbestos if it has it, and it very well may, that will generally be in the backing which is glued to the floor so it's encapsulated and not an issue at all.

When it comes time to remove it you can do it yourself just wear a mask and don't sand it. If you're for fortunate it'll be on something like 1/4" masonite and you can simply take up the masonite in sections leaving the linoleum bonded to it. If the Lino is glued directly to heavy plywood you might be able to get a stiff scraper even a replaceable blade wallpaper scraper under the Lino. In my experience hand scraping doesn't get whatever asbestos there is, airborne, but just to be safe we usually wet the flooring. The worst part is scraping the felt backing off plywood, concrete is much easier. One good thing is the adhesive generally used back then for Lino is water soluble so once you get down to the felt backing just keep wetting it and it should start dissolving.