Painting Asbestos Tile Siding

Painting asbestos siding is often a much better alternative than trying to remove it.

Painting asbestos tile siding.

Begin painting the siding with your choice of brushes and rollers making sure to check often for runs. Installing vinyl siding will require disturbing the asbestos by nailing into it. Apply latex primer to the siding. Allow the primer to dry completely.

It s not difficult at all to paint asbestos siding as one of its benefits is that paint easily adheres to it and it is very durable and can last for decades without chipping or cracking. Painting over asbestos tile use an oil based primer to seal the floor and further encapsulate the asbestos fibers. We have rarely seen this material in a worn friable condition but should that occur one might paint the surface also to stop fiber shedding and to preserve the material. Disadvantages asbestos cement siding is very brittle and can be easily chipped cracked or broken.

Do you need to use special paint for cement asbestos siding. Begin with the walls at the top of the building. Place the pad at the top of the asbestos cement tile and stroke the pad down with the grain of the tile. To use the shingle paint pad dip the pad into a paint tray of paint and shake out the excess.

Unlike more porous siding materials such as wood clapboard asbestos cement siding will not quickly soak up paint which allows it to be painted more easily. Remove the baseboards or cover them with masking tape and use a brush or roller to evenly coat the floor leaving an escape route so you won t be trapped until the paint dries. However once considerable testing proved that it was a killer the miracle became a nightmare to deal with and remove. The thing about painting over the asbestos is that your top coating is only going to be as strong or durable as the coating underneath it.

Unless asbestos siding is disturbed it doesn t pose a significant health hazard and does not need to be removed. The thin coating that the paint could provide would not be enough to encapsulate fibers that may become friable if crushed or punctured making it just as bad as if you had made no treatment at all. Scraping or brushing off old paint from asbestos siding is necessary before repainting but dangerous because it can release small asbestos fibres the approach of removing the old shingles and replacing them with new siding is an option that many homeowners have pursued though probably not as safely as they should. Painting cement asbestos siding or non asbestos fiber cement siding is in part a cosmetic decision.

Both the epa and the vinyl siding institute recommend not disturbing asbestos if at all possible.