Insul-brick: Best Way to Remove?

[SkiMKE]

Hello,

My wife and I have a 1906 cottage-type house that has been insensitively 'upgraded' with (first) insul-brick and (later) aluminum siding. I've just started removing both layers with the ultimate goal of restoring the original clapboards. This process is agonizingly slow due to the 30+ minutes it can take to remove a single ~18x24in insul-brick panel. I suspect it contains asbestos and thus I've been using a respirator mask and handling it gently whenever possible. Unfortunately, this approach has me removing nails one at a time with a nifty pliers/hammer/prybar routine that can get dicey at the top of a 30ft extension ladder. Please tell me there is a better/faster way of doing this that won't buy me mesothelioma. I've tried using a punch to pound each nail in deeper before trying to remove the panel, but this has its own risks and isn't any faster. Thanks in advance - I'm getting frustrated here!

[SkiMKE]

Surely I'm not the first to encounter this problem... right?

[lupinfarm]

Hi...I had insulbrick allover my front porch approx 10X 30ft I removed it using a pry bar and hammer. I found a join between
two sheets of the stuff and hammered my prybar into it and levered it off and then afterward I removed all the nails still
left in the wood. I now have lovely cedar ogee siding to look at. Please post pics of the before and after.
Good luck all it takes is patience and alot of muscle.

[S Melissa]

Hard to know if the insul-brick has asbestos or not. We tore it off our house back in the 1970's with no protection or worry and neither of us are dead yet (slowing down - but then heck - that was 30+ yrs ago!). There was asbestos siding, what I've seen was a "shingle-panel" type cement-ish type panel, quite brittle, often ridged vertically and painted. The insul-brick we took off were more like roof shingles, which were shaped like bricks, brown and black. More certainly like asphalt than cement-ish. Not that this helps - but if it is the asphalt type brick shingles then rip away. crow bar will take you a long way. Invite friends over and offer beer and pizza afterwards and put them to work! It's fun!

[lupinfarm]

May need many beers and many pizzas Melissa. I agree if it is the asphalt type ( which mine was) it is much easier to remove
and probably safer too since the pieces can be cleaned up easily and do not pulverize into a harmful lead based dust. I wore
a mask and gloves just in case I encountered something more evil lurking underneath. I am hoping to tackle the side of the
house later this year. I am really hoping to find the same lovely cedar siding underneath.