What does everyone do with a house with asbestos/slate siding?

[Kyle Hipp]

In the area I live and invest there are many houses with asbestos slate siding. I know this siding, if maintained correctly can last forever but it looks horrible and has the stigma attached of old and dangerous. I have had a crew come in to remove it on one property as I like to strip down all original siding and repair anything wrong and go new from there.

I wonder what other investors do with asbestos siding or if it isn't prevelent in your area.
Have you noticed that it is harder to sell or rent if there is asbestos siding?
Do you cover up asbestos siding?
Do you not even want to mess with properties that have asbestos siding?

Thanks all, just getting an idea of what other investors perceptions are on this topic.

[Rob K.]

I'm curious why you would remove it instead of just covering it with vinyl siding?

I own and have owned many houses with asbestos siding. I've painted it before, but haven't covered it. If you paint it, I would highly recommend wearing a HEPA mask with the purple filters. Another trick if you have any missing pieces is to make your own pieces using luan instead of asbestos. Once you paint it, you can barely tell.

[JD Castillo]

I have a house with asbestos siding and i painted it and it looks pretty good. if other houses in the area have asbestos as well, make sure when you are trying to sell it, you comp your property with other asbestos houses. to cover it with either hardy board or do brink in front and do siding on the rest of the house it is going to cost about 5-8k depending on how big your house is. when deciding what to do with the property; run two sets of comps. if houses that have brick and hardy are selling for over 8k than the regular asbestos houses then the decision is easy.

[Kyle Hipp]

Rob - I have removed the asbestos siding in the past because I think it looks horrible. I also ses it as a selling feature being able tonsay the siding is no longer asbestos but actually all new vinyl. I also have experienced that the asbestos is usually over the original wood lap siding and adding another layer is starting to really sink the windows in which also looks bad and is quite noticable.

The house I removed the asbestos siding on cost me $1900 to have a company come in and remove it. I then removed the wood lap and had a sub install the new vinyl. I would say it cost another $1500 for the vinyl siding and materials and about the same for installation. So about $5,000 total. I can also then add thermal board or blow in insulation very easy as well as find any problems by getting all the old siding off.

[Pat L.]

Why would you take down perfectly good fire proofing (sarcasm)

The only reason I could think of would be to insulate from the outside ??
Two of our SFH had it. One I just covered it with vinyl & it sold fast. But it was 2x6 construction & well insulated when built.
The other I sold then took back Deed In Lieu of.
But they had completely removed it replacing it with vinyl & a lot of insulation (2x4 construction).

[Stephen Masek]

If there is old wood siding under the AC shingles, it is likely to be coated with lead-based paint, and that is also very highly regulated. If you had a good consultant inspect the house, you would know, and the same abatement contractor could remove all of it. You would then have an easy time with any plumbing, wiring or insulation work.

[Kyle Hipp]

Stephen, you are correct on the wood lap most likely containing lead paint. State laws recently changed, so at the tims it was ok and cheaper for me to remove the wood lap.

[Ben Dillard]

Paint it.

[Carl Schmitt]

I'd just cover it up. We're these $1900 asbestos removers doing it legally? It's not a simple process where I live. You can get vinyl installed for 300 a square. A decent painter charges more than that. People love the "maintenance free" aspect of vinyl.

[Kyle Hipp]

Carl, everything was state certified and properly licensed. It cost between $1.15 - $1.25 a sq. ft. This company actually primarily works in industrial setting which is how I met them at my manufacturing job at the time. I get siding installed about $100 a square so I would imagine my area is a lot cheaper all around compared to your market. I think I have found a niche in this area.

I did a little poll on my facebook and was surprised that almost no one wanted to mess with it. The potential for health concerns bothered many. Some had painted it or covered it up but in the end it still was a concern that isn't taken care of unless it is removed. At the end of the day it might not be logical but people's perception doesn't have to be logical.

[Kyle Hipp]

Actually just looked at the bill. They charged $50 for the state license that is required on each job. I have the dump reciept. Then they charged $1850 for removal and disposal of $1,750 sq ft. of siding. My siding install guy was actually $95/square.

[Carl Schmitt]

Kyle, wow.... Those prices are incredible. My day job is selling siding, windows, ect. I'd be done for if prices were that low near me!

[Kyle Hipp]

Yeah things are relatively inexpensive here. My windows were basic but energy efficient, double pane, low-e and argon and wraps done for $360 per window installed. I did buy a couple $1,300 windows for my personal residence when I first started. They were triple pane with Krypton instead of argon and I finished with the cheaper windows and like the cheaper ones a lot better. The only one that has had an issue was one of the expensive ones. They got me the part to fix it within a couple weeks but definately not worth the extra money for me. I can get decent houses in the $50,000 - $80,000 range and bring up to $100,000 - $120,000. You can have a nice home in the city for $130,000 - $150,000. In a nice suburb $200,000 buys a pretty nice home. There are $300,000+ properties but those are really really nice. It is amazing when I see some of the prices in other larger areas. I really like my fox cites area in wisconsin. We have enough people to have neccessary demand and to have access to all the products and services we need. There are definately low income areas but no real scary areas. With all the manufacturing in the area the next coming years will be really interesting as the baby boomers retire and the next generation has so many job options...

[Amy Ganser]

I see that this topic is fairly old, hopefully I'll get some response.

My husband and I are in the market for a house, the home we really love has asbestos siding. After researching, I'm not concerned with health hazards in living there (the siding appears to be in great condition) though am concerned in being able to re-sell the home once we "move on" to a different location.

Kyle, I noticed that you actually live in the same area (Fox Cities). We're trying to get a rough estimate on how much the total cost from start to finish would be (removing the old siding, buying, and then installing the new siding - all professionally). Right now we're weighing our options, since we don't want to spend a small fortune on re-siding a home, just so we can sell it again in the future. If the costs are minimal in the area though, this isn't an issue at all. Do you mind me asking what company you went through when you had this done?

[Kyle Hipp]

Amy,

The company I used was Advanced Asbestos removal out of Oshkosh. Owner is Ralph Zemple.

Advanced Asbestos is just on the asbestos removal side. You would need adifferent contractor to install new vinyl siding over it. I would measure your exterior square footage and multiply that by 3.5 -4 to get your total price.

So 1,000 sq ft

$1,250 - slate siding removal and disposal

New siding materials and house wrap $1,000 - $1,250

Installation labor - $1,250 - $1,500

This is probably on the cheaper end and it will depend on what type of vinyl siding that you go with. You surface area of your exterior will be more than 1,000 sq ft unless it is a tiny house. You would also have further expense if you have any other old siding to remove under the asbestos slate.

It was interesting that you revived this topic as I was just discussing this on another project and was e-mailing back and forth on it .

[Matthew Thomson]

Maybe it's different up north but vinyl siding in our area (Austin) is viewed as a cheap or inferior product.  Most people here are trying to remove the vinyl siding to expose the original wood siding.

[Matthew Paul]

I paint it , if asbestos siding were a hazard ,houses with it would be selling dirt cheap . Unless you are grinding it , or sanding it , it is not a problem ,. Its no big deal .  It lasts forever