Reclad fibro house

Hi everyone,

I'm looking at a fibro house in Sydney and contemplating putting cladding on the house to improve the looks. Does anyone have examples of the cost to replace the fibro sheeting with cladding? Also opinions on if it increases the value of the property sufficiently to get back the money spent?

Thanks

 

Reclad with what?

Colourbond, wooden weatherboards, cement sheet weatherboards, cement sheet panels...?

 

Often they do not replace, the cladding goes on top of the existing fibro.

 

If it’s asbestos cement sheet cladding (fibro) then it’s better to get rid of it to avoid anyone inadvertently being exposed to asbestos dust in future.

Imagine sawing or drilling into wooden weatherboards to discover that you have been breathing in asbestos cement dust once the saw goes through the wood into the asbestos sheet hidden underneath.

 

While I agree, best practice is getting rid of the asbestos, this is extremely expensive, which is why most people don't.

The quickest, cheapest way to clad an old fibro home is with aluminum cladding. Fibro (asbestos) won't hurt you, so long as you leave it alone. If you are going to remove it, then you need to get professionals in, and do it properly.

 

The problem is that the next owners - or the owners after them - won’t know about the hidden asbestos sheeting. So it could hurt them - or their tradies - through inadvertent drilling etc...

Being hidden it would not be identified by a building inspection.

I wonder if there is a legal requirement on the owner to alert new purchasers to the risk?

 

Nah! I'd suggest that part of their trade would/should include skills to spot potential asbestos, and most of the tradies can spot it. In a similar vein to when Hubby did his electrical apprentice, he had to learn about previous unsafe wiring and how to deal with it. Most of the fibro builds are old homes that you can spot easily from the new builds of today. A lot of them are in clusters of housing commission builds.

For instance every home in the Mt Druitt original housing commission build has asbestos in it. Some more than others. Some have the complete externals, fibro sheet AND fibro roofing, as well as bathroom & laundry. Others just internals.

Some building inspectors inform the new purchasers of it in the B&P, others don't, but a good Agent will set the new purchaser straight and inform them that this was a material that was in common use at the time of the build, and it's perfectly safe so long as you don't go messing with it. Get a specialist in if you want to remove some of it. You can even do this yourself, so long as you are careful and wear the correct PPE , wrap it properly and take to the tip in the specified manner. Not that I'm recommending this, BTW.

 

But if it’s covered by a new layer of external cladding how will the inspector or tradie see it?

I have a fair amount of experience with it myself as I have both paid to have it removed and done some DIY removal too.

 

They don't need to actually see it to know to look out for it, if it was built between certain years. For instance, bathroom we're doing in an old home has tiles over asbestos. We didn't need to pull the stuff down to know that it would be asbestos.

 

Worthwhile I reckon. But don’t reclad with lead.

 

In NSW its illegal to install cladding over asbestos sheeting. Not in Vic. The cladding installers will work with a licensed asbestor remover.

 

Thanks all. Interesting how a question about recladding leads to the question around removing the asbestos or cladding over it - happened in multiple prior posts I've found. As the property in NSW as @[email protected] mentioned, it has to be removed so no choice around that.

I'm interested in ball park numbers based on previous jobs people have done as I assume cost is dependent on a range of factors specific to the property. Property I'm looking at is single level, 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom. My preference is for the weatherboard look rather than brick or render but haven't researched the various material options available.

This is similar to what I'm looking into on an old Somersoft thread <Link>, post #16 by ToniBell.

 

Hipages indicate some variables in costs here.

2020 How much does cladding cost?

 

I am very glad to hear that.

I think VIC may have far fewer old asbestos cement sheet clad houses than NSW.

Though there are quite a few garages and bungalows clad with it.

 

Vic has far greater issues with fluffy insulation. Melbourne old homes can have asbestos clad pipes to limit freezing. More properties are timber boards in their climate.

And cement sheet must always be considered as absestos sheeting until confirmed otherwise so if a inspector finds you ripping up modern cement sheet without testing it you can be penalised. Ditto if you dump it in the borrom of askip. When its sorted it will be found. How can you tell cement sheet from asbestos ?...It will be printed on the UNDERSIDE of cement sheet that it is cement sheet. And breaking it up may mean that marking is lost. A silly mistake. Otherwise treat as asbestos is the rule....Seems strange but remember fibro was a cement sheet that used absestos fibre as the binder. Now cement sheet uses other plastic & glass type binders. Its much the same thing except for the asbestos.

Melbourne bathrooms, laundries and kitchens are a hazard for asbestos just as much as those north of the berlin wall

 

At least Melbourne escaped the Mr Fluffy issues of the ACT.