I have an old house and all the siding is asbestos. I've had to cut some soffit vents
in the top row of the siding, just under the eaves...I've very carefully removed some
siding, one piece at a time (12" x 24" pieces), and put it in a garbage can full of
water and sawed (underwater) off 2" sections. I think that's pretty safe. I don't like
dealing with this stuff, but I haven't found a replacement non asbestos siding that
matches up with it (so I can replace pieces one at a time as they crack or break, or
need to be cut).

The asbestos siding cracks very easily when you try to remove it, it seems to be very
brittle, hard but brittle. I try to keep it wet when I have to remove it. The only
good thing about it is that the house is in a southern california brush fire area so
that gives some measure of comfort.

John




wrote in message
ups.com...
Hello. I'm in Japan and I'm Japanese. I built a 2x6 house in 1995 and
installed siding made in USA. By some reason, I'm not able to contact
the contractor who built my house anymore, and I have no clue to find
out whether the siding is made of asbestos or not. I heard asbestos has
been already banned in the US since some years ago, but I have no clue
about if the siding manufactured before year 1995 contains asbestos or
not.

Here is the picture of the siding:
http://spilaris.atspace.com/siding.htm

It's approximately 9mm(0.35 inches) thick and approximately 150mm(5.9
inches) wide, but each shingle is overlapping so I don't know the real
width of the original product. I suppose the length of overlapped part
is probably some 2 inches. I suppose the siding was manufactured a few
months or a few years before 1995 since they were new.

The sidings were shipped from a building material dealer in Seattle in
1995.

I really appreciate if someone could inform me if the siding of my
house contains asbestos or not.

Incidentally, in case the siding contains asbestos, should I remove
them? Or if I paint on them thick, could I avoid the particles of
asbestos flying in the air effectively? Is removing of the siding the
only method to avoid them flying in the air? Or is there any other
method to avoid them flying in the air?

Thanks in advance.