Asbestos Removal
Hard, brittle shingle siding, often with a wavy bottom edge or a textured face, was a popular cladding on houses from the 1920s through the 1960s, and much of it was asbestos-cement. The same material was used for roofing shingles and for flat or corrugated transite panels on garages and outbuildings. Because the asbestos is locked in cement, intact siding is fairly stable. The work is in getting it off without breaking it: nails are cut or pulled, each shingle is kept wet and lowered whole, and the pieces are wrapped for disposal rather than thrown in a dumpster.
Asbestos-cement siding is hard, heavy and brittle, usually in rectangular shingles about a foot by two feet, sometimes with a wavy or deckled bottom edge and a pressed wood-grain or stippled face. It was sold as a fireproof, rot-proof, never-needs-painting alternative to wood, and it went onto houses, garages and additions for decades. The same material came as flat or corrugated transite panels on sheds and outbuildings, and as roofing shingles. In the Pittsburgh area it is common on modest pre-war and post-war houses, often hidden under a later layer of aluminium or vinyl.
The asbestos fibres are locked into cement, so siding in good condition sheds very little, and Pennsylvania's regulators classify it as a nonfriable material. It becomes a hazard when it breaks, is drilled, cut with a power saw, sanded, or pressure-washed. Pieces that have fallen off and been walked on or run over by a mower are the most common problem we see around older houses. If you have broken shingles in the yard, keep people and pets away from them and do not sweep or mow over them.
The aim is to finish the job with the shingles in the same shape they went up in. The ground around the house is sheeted in plastic. Each shingle is kept wet, the nails are cut or pulled, and the piece is lowered by hand rather than pried off and dropped. Shingles are stacked and wrapped in heavy plastic for disposal at a landfill that accepts asbestos waste, not tossed in an open dumpster. Once the walls are bare, the sheeting is cleaned up and the ground around the house is checked for chips before the new siding goes on.
Siding over siding is common, and sometimes it is the right call. The difficulty is that fastening new siding through brittle cement shingles can crack them, and some siding installers will not do it. If the old shingles are already damaged, or you want the wall opened for insulation or a larger renovation, removal gives the new cladding a clean start. A sample confirms what the siding is before anyone quotes either route.
How long does it take? A full house is typically two to four days, depending on height, access and how many layers have gone on over the years.
These usually come up in the same conversation:
Samples of the suspect material, analysed by a lab. You cannot tell asbestos by looking, and nobody should quote removal before the result is in.
Learn More →An asbestos survey and removal ahead of a gut remodel, addition or teardown, so the permit is not held up and the crew is not cutting into it.
Learn More →Sometimes the right answer is not removal. Intact material can be sealed, wrapped or enclosed so it stays put, for a fraction of the disruption.
Learn More →Free · No obligation
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