As a real estate investor, you’ve been looking for houses to flip for a profit and found one—a home with good potential for the resale value that needs some updating that you can resell at a profit once you have cleaned it up and made it better. One of the items with obvious signs of wear is the siding. You will need to tear it out and replace it with new material. But it may have asbestos, and you don’t want to disturb the siding if it has asbestos. How do you know if you have asbestos in your siding?
How to test for asbestos
Asbestos-containing siding is considered friable asbestos—it can be crushed, pulverized, or crumbled. Cement board asbestos, the common name for this type of siding, has a wood grain finish, making it look like natural wood. If you look at it up close, you might be able to see that it is fibrous. The only way to know if the siding has asbestos is to have it tested. Get a sample and have it tested by an asbestos testing lab. But before you disturb this dangerous material, I suggest that you hire a professional to get the piece, or if you feel up to it and take the proper precautions, you can do this yourself. To collect a sample, I recommend you wear a half-face respirator with P100 filters. Also, wear latex gloves, get a hammer, a couple of ziplock® sandwich bags, and a marker. Hit a corner of the siding with the hammer and get a 3 square inch sample from two different areas. Place the samples in a bag and label them with a number and location.
Asbestos testing lab near me
When you have the models ready, you can take them to an asbestos testing lab in your area for testing. The laboratory will test the material by Polarized Light Microscopy, and the test results will indicate the presence, type, and percentage of asbestos.
Asbestos testing near me
Not comfortable with taking the sample yourself, then hire an asbestos testing consultant to help you. The work is also sure to be performed safely and correctly. The professional will give you a full report and help interpret the result, and the professional will also provide some valuable information in the process. You can find a consultant through your local building department if they have an asbestos department, which they usually do. A list of licensed consultants should be available for your reference. Search online for “asbestos testing near me,” Some in your area should come up in the results.
Asbestos testing cost
There are a couple of different cost scenarios for asbestos testing. Doing part of the work yourself will cost you $25-$40 per sample for the laboratory testing part. If you engage the services of a professional with an AHERA license, it can cost about $300 on average.
