It’s cheap, lasts forever, fireproof, what more could you want from a miracle material? – My dad, on asbestos
I knew this going in, but oh god nothing is ever easy with home repairs.
Let’s start with what we knew going into this: the house is covered in asbestos. Literally. It has asbestos siding, but it’s in good shape so who cares just leave it alone and we’re fine.
We also knew the house had inadequate flood venting. Aside from driving up the cost of flood insurance the inadequate venting traps moisture under the house which makes the wooden structure rot faster. So we knew we’d be spending about a thousand dollars on replacement/additional vents.
What we did not know is that the vents are placed in such a way that they can’t be replaced without cutting into the siding. Which is made of asbestos. Therefore the cost of replacing vents is more like $2500. Ouch. “But,” the venting contractor said “if you were planning on replacing the siding anyway I could do the venting while the siding is off and that would save you a lot of the labor charges.” I assure you, with the laundry list of things to fix on the house I was not intending to replace the siding.
From what I’ve read asbestos siding lasts damn near forever, so I’m leaning towards not replacing it. I’m going to have someone come out and give a quote tomorrow but I can’t imagine the cost being worth it. Opinions from anyone who has done this before are appreciated.
Speaking of asbestos, did you know that some vinyl floor tiles contain asbestos? Me neither! I cut a chunk of vinyl out of the kitchen floor and am sending it off to a lab to have it tested. We should get the results in a week or so. I don’t even want to have someone look at the roof (which will need replacing within the next few years) because I’m afraid to find out how much asbestos it is full of.
So yeah. Asbestos. Fun stuff.