Yes, both can be priced, and the short version is this. Encapsulating intact asbestos cement siding costs roughly $2 to $6 per square foot in the Portland and Vancouver market, siding over it costs whatever the new siding costs, and removing it costs $6 to $12 per square foot including the SWCAA notice and disposal. We recommend encapsulation when the board is sound and you are keeping the house as it is. We recommend removal when the siding is broken or chalking, when windows or doors are changing, when the house is a rental or a flip, or when you want the question closed before a sale. Here is how we get to that answer on a specific house.
What are my options, exactly?
There are four, and the EPA describes three of them as the standard choices for any asbestos material in a house: leave it alone, seal it, cover it, or remove it. The agency’s own words are that “usually the best thing is to leave asbestos containing material alone if it is in good condition,” and that “with any type of repair, the asbestos remains in place.” Removal is the only option that ends the disclosure and the future regulated work.
| Option | What it is | Typical cost in this market | Who may do it | What it does not solve |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leave it and maintain | Keep the siding, caulk and spot paint, replace nothing | Near zero, plus a $40 to $90 lab sample so you know what you have | Anyone, as long as nothing is cut, sanded or broken | Disclosure at sale, every future window or door change becomes a regulated job |
| Encapsulate (paint or coating) | Hand wash, masonry primer, 100 percent acrylic or elastomeric topcoat that binds the surface | $2 to $6 per sq ft, about $3,000 to $9,000 on a 1,500 sq ft house | A painter, with no sanding, scraping or pressure washing | Same as leaving it, plus the coating needs re inspection every few years |
| Enclose (side over it) | New fiber cement, vinyl or wood over furring, fastened into the framing, the cement board untouched | The new siding itself, roughly $4 to $12 per sq ft installed | A siding contractor, as long as no piece is removed or broken | Two layers to remove later, trim depth problems at windows, still disclosed |
| Remove | Lifted wet and whole at the nails, bagged, hauled on a waste shipment record | $6 to $9 per sq ft one story, $8 to $12 two story, SWCAA fee and landfill included | A Washington L&I certified abatement contractor, or the owner occupant under a $39 notice | New siding is a separate contract |
Is encapsulating asbestos siding cheaper than removing it?
Yes, by about half up front. A painter can seal a sound 1,500 square foot ranch for $3,000 to $9,000, where removing the same siding lands between $6,500 and $12,000 on our published cost guide, and the new siding that follows removal is a second bill. The gap is real and it is why most of the houses in Hough, Shumway and Fruit Valley with cement shingle still have it under a coat of paint.
The catch is that encapsulation defers the cost rather than erasing it. The siding is still disclosed on Form 17 when you sell. The next owner who wants a bigger kitchen window pays for a regulated removal of that wall. And a coating only works on board that is intact. Chalking, cracked, water damaged or crumbling transite does not hold paint, and brushing it to prep is itself a release. On those houses the cheap option is not available, and the price comparison is removal now or removal later with a second layer nailed through it.
What about the interior area, like a garage wall or behind a wood stove?
Interior transite follows the same rules and the same notice as the siding outside, and we lean harder toward removal indoors. Cement asbestos board shows up inside Clark County houses as a heat shield behind a wood stove, as garage and basement wall panels, and as soffit or eave board. The Southwest Clean Air Agency notice covers interior and exterior board on one filing, and the fee is set by the total square footage of the removal, not by which side of the wall it is on.
The reason to remove it indoors is use. Nobody drills into siding. People drill into garage walls to hang shelves, into stove surrounds to mount a TV, and into basement panels to add an outlet, and each screw in cement asbestos board sends dust into a closed room. Sealing a board that will carry fasteners is not a repair. If the interior panel is a true heat shield that nobody touches, leaving it and labeling it is reasonable. If the wall has a job to do, take the board out and replace it with cement board that contains no asbestos.
Which option do we recommend?
It depends on four things we check on every house: the condition of the board, what else is changing on the exterior, who lives there, and whether a sale is coming. Here is the order we work through.
- Intact board, no window or door changes, you are staying. Leave it or paint it. Get the lab result so it is documented, keep a copy with the house papers, and tell any contractor who works on the exterior.
- Intact board, you want a new look, no openings change. Siding over is legal and often the right call. Ask the siding contractor how they will fasten through the joints without breaking shingles, and have a removal contractor on call for the window trim that usually has to come off.
- Broken, chalking or layered board, or any opening changes. Remove it. Coatings fail on damaged board, and the first cut for a new window starts the notice and the 10 day wait anyway, so the whole wall may as well come off clean.
- Rental, flip, duplex, or a house under contract. Remove it with a certified crew. There is no owner occupant exemption on these buildings, a buyer’s inspector will flag it, and the contractor rules require a written survey before anyone else works on the exterior.
The methods, in the order they run
Encapsulation is a painting job with three rules. Wash by hand or with a garden hose, never a pressure washer. Prime with a masonry or bonding primer, because cement board is alkaline and chalks. Top coat with 100 percent acrylic or an elastomeric coating thick enough to bridge hairline checks. No sanding, no scraping, no wire brush, and any loose piece gets wetted and bagged by someone certified rather than knocked off.
Enclosure is a siding job with one rule: nothing comes off and nothing breaks. Furring strips are fastened through the shingle joints into the studs, every fastener point is wetted, and the new cladding hangs on the furring. Window and door trim that has to be removed is a regulated removal, so a good siding crew prices that piece with a certified contractor instead of pulling it.
Removal follows the agency’s cement board procedure: plastic along the base of the wall, every shingle wetted before it moves, lifted at the nail rather than pried, stacked whole in labeled six mil bags, and hauled on a waste shipment record to an approved landfill. A lab sample comes first on every job, because a few houses a year test clean and the owner saves the whole bill.
How we price your two options
We are a removal company, so the number we put in writing is for removal, and we give it from the address and a few photos the same day you ask. For the encapsulation or siding over side of the comparison, we tell you what a painter or siding contractor in Vancouver typically charges and what to ask them, so you can hold both numbers side by side. Every house is different. A 1948 Fruit Valley cottage with intact shingle over felt prices very differently from a two story Longview house with a cracked second layer, and the only way to get the exact figure is to call and send the photos.