How To Safely Cut Asbestos Siding

Use slow deliberate strokes to keep dust down.

How to safely cut asbestos siding.

4 1 2 diamond blade in a grinder. Use a hand saw with a water stream and wear a good quality dust mask. Have a helper move a running hose to follow the rasp while cutting. Cut asbestos cement corrugated roofing material with a pair of heavy dolphin nosed tin snips.

Wet the siding and start your cutting. Asbestos siding as it is on a house is perfectly safe. The old style siding could be cut with a knife as the above poster stated make your score and lay on bench with the score on the edge of the bench and pop the shingle to snap it. Covering old asbestos shingles with new siding may seem like an option too but it s not easy to do safely.

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. Asbestos dust which is what would be created by sawing it is the dangerous part. Cut a 45 degree bevel onto the edge joint of asbestos cement siding with a large carpenter s rasp. Breakage releases asbestos fibers.

If you absolutely have to cut it do not use power tools. Asbestos shingles are relatively strong but brittle. The newer siding will not cut this way with out breaking. Use slow deliberate strokes with the saw under water trickling from a hose pipe.

If necessary carefully lift siding pieces with pry tool to expose nail heads. Lead paint wasn t outlawed until 1978 so it s sure to be present on siding going back to the 1950s. Let the siding dry then prime and paint with the best exterior latex you can find.