Tiny Old House vs Asbestos Siding, Day 4

Today was hard. It rained. We were in no mood to work; grumpy, irritable, cantankerous. Here's today's work:



ALL the asbestos is gone except THIS:

"This" is few panels under and around our electrical box. The City is coming out sometime this week to disconnect our service so we can safely remove and reattach it. They came out this morning to do this for us, but couldn't figure out how it was attached with the siding up. They asked us to call them when we had the siding down.

In answer to a few queries in the comments, we don't yet know what we will do with the house yet. Our dream is to salvage the brick; if we can do it ourselves AND it will cost the same or less than siding or stucco, we will DEFINITELY do it. Otherwise, we will likely paint it. A travesty... but there is a lot of damage. We're crossing our fingers here!

The Patio Ghost (The Great Siding Tear-Down Continues)

We removed the siding from the front of the house today:


We noticed two curious pairs of white lines running down the house vertically, a few feet from the door on each side:


Here's a close up:


We puzzled over them for a while before we realized that they are the "ghosts" of the original porch! The house next to us (which is identical in almost every way) has a porch that is exactly that size, covering just the front door. It also has two turned columns in the front, and two "half" columns against the house in exactly those spots. The current porch on our house must not be original to the house; I am guessing it was poured and roofed at the same time as the house was clad in siding.

A Little Math Problem (and an Update)

Found this written on the back of a shingle:

Who says you don't need math in the "real" world?

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Here's the daily update:


It is VERY hard to get the nails out of the 2x4's without damaging the brick behind. The nails are masonry nails (threaded) and so they grip the brick. If you try to pull them straight out, they pull the brick out with it, leaving a huge chunk.

We discovered that "unscrewing" them from the wall was the best option, using our vise-grips and a LOT of elbow grease. First, you must "free" the head of the nail... an old chisel worked well to chip away the wood around the nail head. Then, grip the nail in the tip of the vise grips, as tight as you can get. Slowly twist and pull the nail straight out. This only leaves a small hole.

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Disclaimer: I am NOT a professional! Don't take my word on anything related to asbestos. Do NOT attempt to remove asbestos siding without consulting with the proper state licensing/permit agency. Do NOT attempt it without the proper safety precautions. And PLEASE do your research!

Inch by Inch, Row by Row...

Going to get this siding off!

We started on this side:


Inch by inch...


Row by row...

the asbestos siding came off from the top.

As a short person, I started on the bottom with the steel siding:


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Discoveries!
Here you can see how long the far right window is "supposed" to be:

Going to have to get a replacement in the original size!

We discovered that the original trim around the soffits was green:

This is one of the colors we have been debating for the trim if we can salvage the brick... I think it is confirmed!

Someone named Murray lived in our house:

Must find time to dig through the historical records at the library to confirm.

Finally... something SCARY. This is the corner of the wall:

SCARY. We have no idea if it is salvageable or not... or even if it is structurally sound. We took a risk taking the siding off... hopefully we didn't open a bigger can of worms. I suppose it is better for us to find and fix it than to live in ignorance.

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HOW?
How did we take the siding off? I thought you might ask. First, we donned special protective gear...

being a petite person, I had to try on several respirators to find one that would actually seal around my face. Most of them went past my eyelids when properly tightened!

Once we were fully geared up, we soaked the wall with water and dish-soap using a garden sprayer. We used nail snips to remove the heads off of the nails, allowing us to pull the shingles off intact with little to no breakage. We sprayed down the backs of the shingles and deposited them carefully in a heavy plastic bag. This is all that is required in my state... yours might be different.

It is very difficult to get the wood strips off of the brick without dislodging chunks of weaker brick... luckily most nails were in mortar. There are quite a few gouges that need patched, now...

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Here is what we accomplished today:


Back in the saddle tomorrow, and all this week... we will be trying to decide the best course of action as we uncover more and more. Do we salvage? Do we patch and paint? Do we just stucco over it? Tough decisions... but at least the ugly siding is gone!

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Disclaimer: I am NOT a professional. This is in no way a condonement of DIY asbestos containment or removal. Do NOT attempt to remove asbestos siding without consulting with the proper state licensing/permit agency. Do NOT attempt it without the proper safety precautions. And PLEASE do your research!

Drum Roll Please!

And the results of the asbestos test sent off to Western Analytical Laboratory are....

NO asbestos in the ceiling popcorn! YEAH!!!!!

Oh, and 15% in the siding, but we expected that. It doesn't change any of our plans... it's still coming off to expose that beautiful brick that might be underneath. We will just have to pay the larger dump fees for asbestos now, and be a little more careful in removal.

I'm pretty surprised about the popcorn ceiling... it must be a relatively recent "improvement" to the house. I'm thinking it will be coming down now... room by room.

As an aside, I was very impressed with how fast WAL tested the materials and got the results to me. I dropped it in the mail on Friday, and received an email today with the results. I'll get a paper form in the mail later this week, but the email told me what I needed to know. I would highly recommend them for anyone needed asbestos testing done.

Asbestos Testing

I prepared samples of our cement siding for asbestos testing today, in anticipation of RIPPING it off. While I was at it, I scraped off a bit of the popcorn ceiling to send off, too, as the cost is $30 for one or $20 each. I figured I can get the ceiling tested for $10.



I am using Western Analytical Laboratory for the testing for a few reasons. Number one is that it is confidential; only I (and anyone I authorize) can see the results. The other reason is that One Project Closer posted a good review of their experience with WAL. It's always good to go with something tried and true!

Here's hoping that NEITHER the siding or the popcorn has asbestos in it! (Although, I would settle for the popcorn not having any).

Alternatives to Removal?

As I mentioned below, I have popcorn ceilings throughout my home. Below I discussed testing the material in order to possibly remove it. However, removing the popcorn ceiling would add to the landfill, as it is non-recyclable and unable to be reused.

What are some possible alternatives to removing the popcorn that will still give me a nice ceiling?

• Install a new drywall ceiling below the original ceiling.
• Install a beadboard ceiling.
• Install a tin or aluminum ceiling tile system.

All of these materials could be either salvaged or bought from a job overage AND there would be no waste to dispose of.

Asbestos and Popcorn Ceilings

There are popcorn ceilings throughout the entire house. Popcorn ceiling manufactured prior to 1978 likely contains asbestos.

I HATE the popcorn ceiling. It would be pretty easy to remove myself IF it doesn't contain asbestos. But, if it contains asbestos, I'm leaving it up there because the removal is hard and costly, even if you do it yourself.

I can have samples of the material tested for asbestos. It will cost me $100 to $200. And, if I find there is asbestos, I am legally required to disclose this fact when we sell the house.

Do I test or not? I can't afford to have the asbestos removed if it is there, so it will stay, and the disclosure will likely decrease my resale value. But if it isn't asbestos, I can remove the ugly popcorn ceilings and increase both my enjoyment of the house and it's resale value.