Painting Asbestos Tile Siding

Place the pad at the top of the asbestos cement tile and stroke the pad down with the grain of the tile.

Painting asbestos tile siding.

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. Painting cement asbestos siding or non asbestos fiber cement siding is in part a cosmetic decision. Do you need to use special paint for cement asbestos siding. 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.

To use the shingle paint pad dip the pad into a paint tray of paint and shake out the excess. Painting over asbestos tile use an oil based primer to seal the floor and further encapsulate the asbestos fibers. 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. You can roll it or brush it on but make sure you get under the small lip at the bottom of each asbestos siding shingle.

Begin painting the siding with your choice of brushes and rollers making sure to check often for runs. Apply latex primer to the siding. 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. Begin with the walls at the top of the building.

Disadvantages asbestos cement siding is very brittle and can be easily chipped cracked or broken. Unless asbestos siding is disturbed it doesn t pose a significant health hazard and does not need to be removed. 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.

Allow the primer to dry completely. Installing vinyl siding will require disturbing the asbestos by nailing into it. 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. Sbestos was once considered a miracle material used in everything from paint and pipe insulation to even tiling.

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