How To Tell If A Home Has Asbestos Siding

The only way to be sure if your siding has asbestos in it is to collect a sample and send it to an accredited testing lab.

How to tell if a home has asbestos siding.

An outline of old flooring tiles in a 9 inch by 9 inch pattern. Look for a siding that is made to look like roof shingles. To determine if your building has asbestos check areas where the material was most commonly used like the roof bathroom and basement. Most floor tiles of this size used asbestos.

Asbestos siding was manufactured to resemble many different materials so it doesn t always look the same. Recognizing siding with asbestos. However signs that a home may have contained asbestos include. The use of a pressure washer for maintenance can crack the siding and lead to moisture intrusion if the pressure setting is high enough.

In a house that was built in that era if it did have asbestos it would most likely be an asbestos tile. Since asbestos is a fibrous material you can t simply look at a material and know it contains asbestos. Do you have asbestos siding on your home. Asbestos cement can be dangerous if pulverized by sawing sanding breaking etc.

The asbestos network recommends bringing in a professional to collect samples. Here is everything you need to know about testing for asbestos the health hazards and how to safely remove it. Asbestos cement siding is very brittle and can be easily chipped cracked or broken. That s called a cement asbestos tile because the asbestos is inside of a cement binder.

It is generally very brittle and the back may be black and have the appearance of tar paper. Most often you won t know unless someone disclosed the information or you ve checked the original building documents. Actually what he said he mentioned lap board is what he said. Also look around the siding roofing and soffit materials for small dimples or shallow craters on the surface which are signs of asbestos.

Because exposure to asbestos occurs when the fibers become airborne these professionals will know how to keep your home safe during the testing process. Contractors and inspectors or anyone identifying asbestos siding can t tell from just an on site inspection whether or not your siding really has asbestos in it. They then send the samples to a qualified laboratory to test and determine whether they contain asbestos. Pipes that aren t insulated but have white or gray insulation remnants particularly on the fittings.