Asbestos cement siding removal in Vancouver, Washington costs $6 to $9 per square foot on a one story house and $8 to $12 per square foot on a two story house in 2026. A typical 1,200 to 1,800 square foot ranch lands between $6,500 and $12,000, a two story house between $14,000 and $26,000, and a single wall or a patch under 160 square feet starts at $1,200. Those figures include the $384 Southwest Clean Air Agency notice that applies to nearly every house, the labeled bags, the trailer, the landfill, and the shipment record. They do not include new siding.
Price by job type
| Job | Typical range | What moves the price |
|---|---|---|
| Single story ranch, 1,000 to 1,500 sq ft of siding | $6,500 to $12,000 | Pieces intact or broken, how many windows and corners, whether the old wood under it stays |
| Two story house, 1,800 to 2,500 sq ft of siding | $14,000 to $26,000 | Scaffold or lift time, steep or tight lots, second layer of siding under the cement board |
| One wall, addition tie-in, or window cut-ins (under 160 sq ft) | $1,200 to $2,800 | Our minimum covers notice, setup and disposal; the wall count matters less than the trip |
| Garage, shed or outbuilding, 300 to 700 sq ft | $2,500 to $6,000 | Roof panels on the same building, access for the trailer |
| Duplex or small multifamily, 3,000 to 5,000 sq ft | $24,000 to $50,000 | Occupied units need staged work days; the SWCAA fee steps up at 5,000 sq ft |
| Lab sample, per piece tested | $40 to $90 | Two or three samples cover most houses; rush results cost more |
The per square foot rate, and what sets it
The rate is built from three things: how high the crew works, whether the pieces are intact, and how much the material weighs at the landfill. Intact shingle on a one story wall reachable from a ladder is $6 to $9 per square foot. Two story walls, steep lots, and anything that needs scaffold or a lift run $8 to $12. Broken, chalking, water damaged, or double layered siding adds $1 to $2 per square foot, because broken pieces take more wetting and more bags and cannot be stacked.
- Square footage of siding, not of the house. A 1,400 square foot ranch has about 1,300 to 1,700 square feet of wall after windows and doors. We measure from the record and confirm on site before the notice is filed.
- Corners, windows and trim. A house with twenty windows and six corners has more cut pieces and more trim to work around than a plain box of the same size.
- What is under it. Shingle over original wood lifts clean. Shingle over a second layer of shingle, or over sheathing with no felt, breaks more and takes longer.
- Access. Room for the trailer, a flat yard for the plastic, and no mature shrubs against the wall all push a job to the low end.
- Outbuildings. A garage or shop sided or roofed in the same material goes on the same notice and the same trip. It adds its square footage, not a second setup.
The SWCAA notice fee tiers
The Southwest Clean Air Agency sets the fee by the size of the removal on a single notice. The table is from SWCAA Table 11, effective January 9, 2026. We file the notice and pay the fee, and it appears as its own line on the invoice.
| Removal size on one notice | Fee | Waiting period |
|---|---|---|
| Under 48 sq ft (and under 10 linear ft) | $0 | none |
| 48 to 159 sq ft | $153 | 10 days |
| 160 to 4,999 sq ft | $384 | 10 days |
| 5,000 sq ft and up | $765 | 10 days |
| Owner occupied single family house, work done by the occupant | $39 | prior notice, no wait |
Two things catch people. A job that touches 5,000 square feet, which can happen on a farmhouse with a barn and a shop, steps the fee to $765, so we tell you where the line falls before filing. And emergency notices double the fee, which is why we never file on a rush when a normal schedule will do.
Lab testing before anything else
A sample costs $40 to $90 per piece at an accredited lab, and two or three samples cover most houses. Washington Labor and Industries requires either a result or that the material be treated as asbestos, and we always test, because every year a few houses come back clean and the owner saves the whole job. The testing page covers how a sample is taken and what the report says.
Disposal is in the price
Cement asbestos siding cannot go in a dumpster or a transfer station. It goes double bagged or wrapped in six mil plastic, labeled and logged on a waste shipment record to a landfill on the agency’s approved disposal list. Those landfills charge by the ton and cement board is heavy, roughly three pounds per square foot, so a 1,500 square foot house is about two tons of waste. That weight is why the per square foot rate exists and why it is already in your range.
Leaving it on versus taking it off
Intact cement asbestos siding that nobody cuts, drills or sands releases nothing, and the EPA and the Southwest Clean Air Agency both say leaving it alone is a legitimate choice. Siding over it is legal if no piece is disturbed. We will tell you when that is the right call. The costs of leaving it are deferred rather than avoided: it gets disclosed at every sale, every future window or door change becomes a regulated job, and removal later means working through a second layer that was nailed into it.
What the quote looks like
- A written range from the address and photos, the same day you ask.
- A site measurement that turns the range into one number, broken into removal, notice fee, and lab.
- An invoice that matches the quote. If we find a second layer under the first course, we stop, show you, and price the difference before continuing.
Homeowners who want to do it themselves
If you own the house and live in it before and after the work, Washington allows you to remove the siding personally under a $39 SWCAA notice. The agency publishes a procedure for cement board siding: half face respirators with HEPA cartridges, disposable coveralls, plastic on the ground, constant wetting, no breaking, about a dozen waste bags per 100 square feet, and a trip to an approved landfill. Family and friends may help unpaid. Nobody may be paid to help unless they are a certified abatement contractor. Many owners read that list, price the gear and the landfill, and call us for comparison. We are glad to give the number either way.