There’s not one answer when it comes to how difficult the removal of asbestos siding really is.
Each job involves many factors such as your experience and handiness with tools, how physically fit you are, and how comfortable you are with careful, methodical work.
But as far as a quick answer to the questions of “How Difficult is the Removal of Asbestos Siding?”, the answer is: not too difficult.
Unlike other asbestos-containing materials (ACM), siding is very durable and next to impossible to make friable, which is when asbestos really is dangerous.
If you can’t crush it with your hands, it’s not friable, and siding fits that bill.
That doesn’t mean you’re completely out of the woods and can start ripping siding off with a crowbar but it does mean that the task of removing it is within the capabilities of most people.
How Difficult is the Removal of Asbestos Siding?
But don’t make the mistake of equating “not too hard” with “completely and utterly safe”, as you’ll need to follow basic safety steps during all steps of the asbestos siding removal process.
You’ll need to be extremely careful when working with the siding, taking care to remove each shingle or piece of siding with as little chipping and breaking as possible.
Always wear a Tyvek suit and respirator rated for the work and wet down all material before working with it.
If possible, wear clothes you don’t mind throwing away underneath the Tyvek suit, as you want to be extremely careful about not bringing in any stray asbestos fibers into your home after the removal process is complete.
Asbestos Disposal
Perhaps the hardest part of removing asbestos siding isn’t so much the work itself but the disposal process, as you must double bag or wrap all pieces of siding and label them properly.
That sounds easy enough but the weight of the siding means you’ll be continuously stopping to bag or wrap a relatively small number of siding pieces.
Once you have everything removed, bagged up, and labeled, you’ll still have to dispose of all the old siding.
It varies from state to state but typically only certain landfills and dump sites will take asbestos materials, charging a higher fee — usually double or more — what you’d typically pay for normal waste.