Here in the Milwaukee area you find every kind of home, lots of new construction, but a whole lot of houses from the 1950s and earlier too. Those older homes usually have great bones. What they also have, more often than people realize, is old exterior material that isn't used anymore, and some of it is a real problem. This is a story about one of those homes, and about how getting angry at the contractor at your door can sometimes be the thing that saves you.
The homeowner who wouldn't open the door
It was a Saturday, and I drove out to South Milwaukee to meet a woman who'd asked for information on siding replacement. I knocked, she answered, and she cracked the door just a couple of inches. I understood it. Older lady, alone in her home, and the world is what it is. I've helped plenty of folks who started out wary. This one was more than wary. She was flat-out angry at me from the second I got there, and I didn't know why yet.
I'm a professional and I was there to help her, so even though she wasn't kind about it, I went to work. She said she wanted a quote on her siding. I asked the basics: what was wrong with it, what she didn't like, what she might want instead. Short, guarded answers, nothing more. She was bracing to be taken advantage of, and she still wouldn't open the door past the storm door. So I told her, no problem, let me start out here, I'll inspect the outside and tell you what I find. She agreed and shut the door behind me.
What I saw when I turned the corner
The front was brick. But the second I came around the corner, I saw it. The entire left side, right side, and back of that house were sided in asbestos cement siding. In the older parts of the city it's not rare. Usually, though, the homeowner already knows they have it and they're braced for it.
Here's the thing about asbestos siding. You can't just repair it, because the material hasn't been manufactured in decades, so there's nothing new to patch it with. And you can't have a regular siding crew tear it off. In Wisconsin, disturbing or removing asbestos-containing material is regulated work that generally has to be done by a certified asbestos abatement company, with only limited exceptions for an owner working on their own home. That's laid out in the state's asbestos rules through the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. Do it wrong and you're not only risking your health, you're risking a job that gets shut down and real penalties.
So for her, the question was never "does the siding need to be replaced." It was "how does this get done correctly, and who handles what." I finished my inspection and went back to the front door.
The word that changed everything
She opened up again and told me to just email her a quote. I said, ma'am, I'm happy to do whatever you want, but I at least need to know who's handling the remediation and what kind of siding you'd like.
She stopped me mid-sentence. "Remediation? What do you mean, remediation?"
I explained that the siding on her house was asbestos, and that we couldn't take it off even if we wanted to, because we're not a certified asbestos abatement company. Her whole demeanor changed in a second. She had no idea her siding was asbestos. Not one of the other contractors she'd talked to had told her, most likely because they didn't know what they were looking at.
Then she told me why she'd been so angry. Her sister's house, just two weeks earlier, had asbestos found on the roof mid-project. The whole job got shut down. The contractor wouldn't finish under those conditions, so they had to find a new one, and now her sister had an unfinished roof in the middle of a Wisconsin February. That is a nightmare you do not want. After she told me that, she let me inside.
Own an older Milwaukee-area home and not sure what's really on it? Book a free in-home assessment. We start outside, we tell you exactly what you're dealing with, and we'll never quote you a job that can't legally be done the way it was pitched.
Proof, not pressure
The first thing I did inside was take a photo of the siding and run it through a Google image search, right there in front of her, so she could see the confirmation herself instead of just taking my word for it. It came right back. From that moment on, she was thanking me for telling her the truth.
I've got connections all over this city in just about every trade, so I called a couple of local abatement companies who handle remediation and got her a real price on the spot to take care of it correctly. She listened closely, picked the one she felt comfortable with, and paid a deposit for the remediation with me sitting right there beside her.
To be clear about why this matters, the EPA notes that asbestos siding left undisturbed and in good condition is generally low risk, because the fibers are bound into the cement. The danger comes when it's cracked, cut, broken, or torn off, because that's when fibers get into the air, and asbestos exposure is linked to serious lung disease. That's the whole reason you don't let an uncertified crew rip it off to save a buck.
What we did
We spent about two hours together after that. We went through siding styles and colors, and I used my Hover design tool to render a virtual mockup of exactly what her home would look like when it was done. We completely redesigned the exterior of her house, together.
Eight weeks later, her home had been safely and legally remediated, the hazardous material was properly removed, and her new insulated Mastic vinyl siding was on. If you want to understand the material choices we walked through, I broke the options down in vinyl versus LP SmartSide versus James Hardie for Wisconsin, and what it all costs in what siding costs in Wisconsin.
Why I'm telling you this
In home improvement, trying to "sell" people is a failure across the board. The rewarding part, the part that actually builds a business, is taking care of people. Solving their problems, including the ones they don't even know they have, and helping them build the vision for what they want their home to be.
She got angry at me because four people before me had made her feel like a target. What turned it around wasn't a better pitch. It was the truth, shown to her with proof, and a plan to get it done right. If you own an older home anywhere in the greater Milwaukee metro, especially in the neighborhoods full of homes from the 50s and before, get someone out there who actually knows what they're looking at before anyone hands you a quote. You can see our siding options or book a free in-home visit whenever you're ready.
Asbestos siding on older Milwaukee homes.
Does my older Milwaukee home have asbestos siding?
Many Milwaukee-area homes built in the 1950s and earlier were sided with asbestos cement siding, so it's common in the older neighborhoods. It often looks like thick, brittle shingle-style panels, frequently with a wood-grain texture. You can't confirm it by looking alone, it takes testing, but if your home is that era with original siding, it's worth having someone who knows what they're looking at take a look before any work is quoted.
Can you repair or paint asbestos siding?
Left undisturbed and in good condition, asbestos siding is generally considered low risk because the fibers are locked into the cement, and painting intact siding is often fine. What you should not do is sand, cut, break, or scrape it, or try to patch damaged pieces yourself, because that's when fibers can be released into the air. Replacement material isn't manufactured anymore, so there's nothing new to patch it with anyway.
Can a siding contractor just tear off asbestos siding?
No. In Wisconsin, disturbing or removing asbestos-containing material is regulated work that generally must be performed by a certified asbestos abatement company, with limited exceptions for an owner working on their own owner-occupied home. See the Wisconsin DHS asbestos program. A regular siding crew tearing it off is both a health hazard and a serious violation that can shut a job down.
How do you replace asbestos siding safely?
The siding has to be handled by a certified asbestos abatement contractor first, either removed and disposed of properly or, in some cases, safely covered. Only after that's dealt with does new siding go on. The right way is to identify it up front, bring in certified remediation, and coordinate the new siding install around it, so you're protected legally and physically.
Older home? Find out what you're really dealing with.
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