Remove pieces of siding by pulling nails or cutting nail heads so as to minimize breakage.
Remove nails broken asbestos siding.
Asbestos shingles are relatively strong but brittle.
Be sure to wet down the siding before working with it and double bag any pieces of old asbestos siding in contractor bags and dispose of according to your local and state laws.
In most cases you can pry out old pieces in one intact piece which is very important as asbestos only becomes dangerous when it s broken and made friable and fibers are released into the air.
Hammer each shingle along its top edge.
If necessary carefully lift siding pieces with pry tool to expose nail heads.
Keep the nails 1 inch 2 5 cm below the top of the shingles and space them around 12 inches 0 30 m apart from one another.
Breakage releases asbestos fibers.
Use vise grips or end cutting pliers illustrated in our faqs below or a pair of horse shoe nail clips or similar tool to carefully pull out the nails from the intact un damaged cement asbestos shingles above and around the damaged shingles.
I wanted to chime in and say that if your patient and take your time you can remove the asbestos tile by pulling the nails out with a pair of linesmans pliers.
If siding should begin to crack or crumble immediately wet the cracked or broken areas with the pint size spray bottle or garden pump sprayer.
Covering old asbestos shingles with new siding may seem like an option too but it s not easy to do safely.
Working from top to bottom remove siding as whole as possible by pulling the nails out rather than breaking the siding.
Use a nail gun or hammer to drive nails into the shingle.
You can t drive screws and nails through them without pre drilling.
This would trigger dust and asbestos dust is a problem as i ve mentioned.
Please keep in mind that once asbestos siding is significantly broken drilled or sawed it becomes friable and must be handled by licensed professionals.
If you remove them this way you can stack them up carefully and even sell them on craigslist to people that still have the siding and need to replace broken pieces on thier house.
