I am purchasing a 76 year old home that we will be renovating over the years. The home currently has asbestos shingle siding on the exterior. Our end dream is to remove this, insulate (possibly with SIPs) from the exterior and apply a stone veneer to the exterior. In the meantime, I was hoping to be able to paint the asbestos to freshen up the exterior of our farmhouse. I am unfamiliar with the process and am curious if someone may be able to lend advice. I am told that it is fairly easy to do, but worry. The house could use a good pressure washing prior to painting, but the asbestos is so brittle. Help!

Just wash it gently, not under high pressure, and allow it to dry thoroughly, and paint.

Thanks! I appreciate the advice.....definitely in uncharted territory there! What are your thoughts on applying SIPs to the outside to insulate the home and then applying stone veneer to the outside of that? The SIPs should be strong enough to hold the stone, right?

A good quality exterior latex paint will hold very well to asbestos siding. just be careful with the cleaning. Asbestos siding was a great procuct but many times it fails because the nails used to attach it fail. Excessive mechanical action while cleaning could mean you'll be holding pieces of loose siding in your hands.

Yes, that is one of my concerns. The process will, I'm sure be quite tedious, as I was planning to scrub them by hand and then hopefully choose a color that will cover well. I was hoping to do one coat of primer and one coat of exterior paint.