Our bid on was accepted on a house, and the engineer did inspection today. The house is wood construction with vinyl siding. We asked the engineer whether there was any way to check what is under the siding, and he said no. He assumed though that it was asbestos and shingles.
The word asbestos sounds very scary - I know it causes cancer. Both the inspector and realor tell us that it is perfectlu fine since all the asbestos is covered. They say it has to be 'air-born' to become dangerous, and that most of the houses in the area are bulit that way. It sounds consoling, but still I am not comfortable with that.
Any info you can share on the subject would be greately appreciated. Thanks in advance :)
kptoys
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Re: Asbestos under vinyl siding - is it safe?
Im 99% sure that its fine. My mom has asbestos shingles on her house and she covered them in vinyl. I think it would be more hazardous to remove them cause they chip and break and then it becomes airborn.
kelly4
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Re: Asbestos under vinyl siding - is it safe?
They should be fine! My parents also sided over their asbestos. When we had our house done the crew took off our asbestos shingles and threw them down to the ground- cracking them What a cleanup we had to do!
RedHead
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Re: Asbestos under vinyl siding - is it safe?
Yes it should be fine...Asbestos is used in MANY places you wouldn't think (ex shcools!).
It is harmful only when it is disturbed..ex. shipping away, removal
NPbride
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Re: Asbestos under vinyl siding - is it safe?
The house we're in contract for has a kitchen floor that the inspector said is most likely asbestos. When we re-do the kitchen he just advised us to cover it or get someone that specializes in removing asbestos (b/c there are laws that need to be followed). We'll most likely just cover it though and he said that would be fine.
cluelessbride
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Re: Asbestos under vinyl siding - is it safe?
Like others said it should be fine. My office is asbestos-tiled
NYWeekends
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Re: Asbestos under vinyl siding - is it safe?
Thank you all :)
In addition to a health concern I am also worried about the investment value of the house. Will we be OK selling it 10-15 year from now? Would it stop potential buyer from paying the market value of the house?
cluelessbride
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Re: Asbestos under vinyl siding - is it safe?
It would most likely stop a potential buyer from buying the home only if they wanted to knock it down and rebuild.
philby
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Re: Asbestos under vinyl siding - is it safe?
The asbestos shingles under your siding pose no immediate danger. The problem occurs when these shingles are broken and the particles go airborn and inhaled. The removal of asbestos is very expensive to have done by an asbestos removal company. Most situations I have heard of the contractor just makes them 'disappear'. wink wink nod nod. I would also not worry about the resale because it is not all that uncommon. There are literally thousands of homes on the island done in the same fashion by covering up the shingles with siding.
RedHead
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Re: Asbestos under vinyl siding - is it safe?
Posted by NYWeekends
Thank you all :)
In addition to a health concern I am also worried about the investment value of the house. Will we be OK selling it 10-15 year from now? Would it stop potential buyer from paying the market value of the house?
no i don't thnk it will affect anything... you may have removed the asbestos by then... either way it isn't uncommon
princess99
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Re: Asbestos under vinyl siding - is it safe?
I just went thru this, asbestos shingles are perfectly safe, it is used to help the prevent of fires spreading into your own home if your neighbors home was on fire. I had a few siding men here for estimates and they all told me this. It is not the unsafe asbestos that you hear about in old buildings. HTH.
NYWeekends
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Re: Asbestos under vinyl siding - is it safe?
We took the time to go to the town office and look at the blueprints. Just as we suspected, asbestos shigles were put into outside walls and are now covered with vinyl.
How much can we expect to spend on asbestos removal (for that we would also need to remove the vinyl siding and put a new one).
Niecey
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Re: Asbestos under vinyl siding - is it safe?
Posted by NYWeekends
We took the time to go to the town office and look at the blueprints. Just as we suspected, asbestos shigles were put into outside walls and are now covered with vinyl.
How much can we expect to spend on asbestos removal (for that we would also need to remove the vinyl siding and put a new one).
My house had asbestos shingles on the sides and back and the front was covered with vinyl siding. Seeing the word asbestos scared us but from what I know it is totally safe. I re-did all my siding when I moved in (for cosmetic reasons) and got quotes from 5 vendors. Only 1 would remove the asbestos shingles - even if we paid them to. Most say it is perfectly normal to cover them with vinyl..even lay claim that it adds to the insulation of the house and from talking to people - most people do just go over it. DH and I chose to remove it and that was only because the vendor that we liked best would only do the job if he reomved it. His claim was that the shingles erode after time and can cause the siding to warp and he didn't want his name attached to a warped siding job.
Supposedly it is costly to dispose of and more time consuming thus why most people cover it. The vendor I chose wanted to charge us to remove it and dispose of it. We were getting our siding, windows and roof done all at once adn refused to pay for this - so since it was a large job this was one of the things we negotiated not to pay for.
