Asbestos Cement Shingle Removal
If your home still has its original siding or roofing from the mid 20th century, there’s a good chance you’re looking at asbestos cement shingles. Builders used this material heavily from the 1920s into the early 1980s because it was fireproof, cheap to produce, and held up for decades without much maintenance.
The problem shows up only when the shingles crack, get drilled into, or come down during a renovation. That’s when fibers can become airborne.
We get calls constantly from homeowners who found these shingles under a layer of vinyl siding, or who started tearing off an old roof and stopped when the material didn’t look right. Here’s what Raleigh Asbestos Removal Pros wants you to know before you touch any of it.
How to Tell If You Have Asbestos Cement Shingles
- Thick, rigid panels that feel more like slate than wood
- Gray, dark green, or faded red coloring that hasn’t peeled the way paint does
- Edges that chip in small, jagged pieces rather than splintering
- A stamped manufacturer mark on the back, sometimes visible on a broken piece
- A building permit or sale listing dated before 1985
None of these signs confirm asbestos by themselves. The only way to know for certain is a lab test on a small sample, and we can arrange that before any removal work starts.
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Brands You Might Recognize
A small group of manufacturers supplied most of the asbestos cement shingles installed in the U.S. during that era. You may still see their names on old permit paperwork or product stamps.
| Manufacturer | Known For | Approximate Era |
|---|---|---|
| Johns Manville | Transite asbestos cement panels and shingles | 1920s to early 1980s |
| CertainTeed | Asbestos cement roofing and siding shingles | 1920s to early 1980s |
| GAF | Asbestos containing roofing products | 1920s to early 1980s |
| Ambler Asbestos Shingle and Sheathing Company | One of the earliest U.S. producers, founded in 1905 | Early 1900s onward |
If your home in Raleigh or the surrounding area went up during that window, one of these names is a reasonable guess. It doesn’t tell you the condition of the material today, though. That takes an inspection.
Why This Isn’t a DIY Project
OSHA sets the permissible exposure limit for airborne asbestos at 0.1 fibers per cubic centimeter of air, averaged over an eight hour shift. That’s a small number. Cutting or breaking cement shingles with a circular saw or a pressure washer can push fiber counts well past that limit in seconds.
North Carolina also requires licensed abatement contractors for most asbestos removal jobs, and larger renovation or demolition projects involving these materials can trigger a notification requirement under federal air quality rules before work begins.
Our crew handles this differently than a standard roofing or siding job. We test the material first. We seal off the work area with plastic sheeting and negative air pressure when the scope calls for it. We keep the shingles wet during removal so fibers stay out of the air, bag everything in labeled asbestos waste containers, and haul it to a facility licensed to accept it. We document the process too, which matters if you sell the house down the road and a buyer’s inspector asks about it.
Wondering whether that gray siding on your garage or the shingles peeking out from under your soffit are worth worrying about? Call us. We’ll take a look, tell you honestly what we find, and only recommend removal if the material actually needs to come down.