If the house is not owner occupied by the person doing the work, Washington requires a certified asbestos abatement contractor to remove cement asbestos siding, and the Southwest Clean Air Agency notice carries a 10 day wait and a $384 fee for nearly every house. We run that whole piece as a subcontract: the lab sample, the notice, the certified crew, the landfill, and the manifest, so your siding crew starts on a bare wall the next morning and your file has the paperwork a buyer or a lender will ask for.
Who this page is for
- Siding and remodel contractors who hit transite on a reside and need it gone without putting their own crew on it.
- Flippers and wholesalers pricing a pre-1980 house in Fruit Valley, Kelso or Hazel Dell where the inspector flagged the siding.
- Landlords and property managers with a 1950s rental that needs new siding, or an insurance carrier asking about the exterior.
- Agents with a listing under contract and a buyer who wants the siding handled before closing.
- Demolition and excavation contractors who need the asbestos survey and the siding off before the structure comes down.
The law, as it applies to you
The owner occupant exemption that lets a homeowner pull their own siding for a $39 notice is defined narrowly: a single family residence the owner lives in before and after the work. The agency’s own guidance excludes rental property, multifamily, mixed use, commercial, property management, real estate transactions, and ordered demolition by name. For every one of those, the removal must be performed by a contractor certified by Washington Labor and Industries, and a written good faith asbestos survey has to be on site before any trade starts work that could disturb the material. The fines run up to $600 per day for the survey alone, and higher if workers are exposed.
How we fit into your schedule
- Send the address at award. We measure from the record and send a written range within hours.
- We sample, or you send us the survey if one exists. Results in two to five days.
- We file the SWCAA notice. The 10 day clock starts.
- Removal in one to three working days, one elevation at a time if the building is occupied.
- Bare wall swept, plastic gone, bags on the trailer. Your crew starts the next morning.
- Lab report, notice and waste shipment record as PDFs to whoever you name, within the week.
Pricing for the trade
The ranges on the cost guide are the ranges you get. A one story ranch with 1,000 to 1,500 square feet of siding is $6,500 to $12,000, a two story house $14,000 to $26,000, a duplex or small multifamily $24,000 to $50,000, all including the notice fee and disposal. What we add for repeat work is speed on the quote and priority on the calendar, not a different number.
Multifamily and commercial
Occupied buildings get staged elevations, posted notices at every entry, and a crew lead who talks to the tenants. Commercial buildings and anything headed for demolition need the full AHERA survey, which we arrange through an accredited inspector on the agency list. Projects that cross 5,000 square feet on one notice step the fee to $765, and we tell you where that line is before filing.
What we need from you
- The address and who is on title, so the notice names the right owner.
- Any existing lab result or survey.
- The target date for the siding crew, so we can file backward from it.
- Anything about access, such as gates, dogs, tenants and where the trailer can sit.