Old House Renovations

An awful lot of old homes were resided many decades ago with big white shingles. The shingles are fairly durable, but a crack or chip after several years is almost inevitable. No problem. You’ll just pop that broken shingle off, chunk it in the trash and nail down one of the spare shingles someone conveniently left in the basement.

If only it was that simple! Unfortunately, these rather ugly, but long lasting, shingles have asbestos in them. While cement asbestos shingles aren’t that dangerous while they’re hanging out on your house, removing, nailing, or cutting them releases that deadly asbestos dust into the air and quite possibly your lungs.

Purists insist that the shingles should be stripped off the house by a professional asbestos removal team and replaced with clapboard siding. People on a budget usually opt to avoid disturbing the shingles and simply ask a siding expert to put a new layer of siding over the shingles. No matter what you decide to do, please don’t mess around with asbestos shingles by yourself. It just isn’t safe.

photo by Stephen Simpson

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