Thanks for all that info, John.

Last night curiosity got the best of me and while I was waiting for some crack sealer to set-up so I could paint (which I did this morning), I took a putty knife to a couple of the tiles and they pop right up without much effort.

The adhesive that was used on my floor was a newer yellowish stuff. I think the same stuff was used for commercial carpeting glue-downs, it is the stuff that gives up easily, not the more flexible stuff they uses these days where you have to cut the carpeting into 4" strips to pull it up.

Armed with this new information I think I can now get the epoxy work done for $3.50/foot (basically they were going to charge $1/foot to remove the tiles). They were already planning on grinding the floor before putting the epoxy down.

But now I'm back to thinking about tile. Those Armstrong solid vinyl tiles are about $.75 per foot. I'm going to get some quotes on having someone else put them down, though. My back and knees aren't going to improve like yours did with more up/down.