removing timber cladding

Almo

After some thoughts or advice please!

We are about to make an offer on a 3 bed weatherboard house (we've emigrated to Australia, these houses are the norm where we are). The house is about 80 years old, and at some point it has been externally clad with fake brick, and been clad inside with timber cladding in all 3 bedrooms and the living room. This is the house http://www.sweeneyestateagents.com.au/profile.php?clientid=sweencp&cat=sales&propertyid=1878232

We've done a little research and found that more than likely the external cladding contains asbestos. After freaking out a little, I've calmed down, this is apparently fairly frequent and not too much of a pain to remove here. What concerns me now is the timber cladding inside - is it going to be fiendishly difficult to remove or will it just rip off in a day? It's not a deal breaker either way (yet) but I'd like to be prepared.

Does anyone have any experience of this or can anyone shed any light on the situation? TIA

ukwoody

Almo, to strip the timber cladding will probably take about a day, you may need to start at the top and work your way down. it may well leave a hell of a mess afterwards though.

However, my brother lives in Australia, and I do not know if it is the same all over Aussi but things are far more complicated where he is (about 150 miles from Sydney). Firstly there are hideous bugs that live behind things that need to be considered (including 20 foot long spiders with big hairy teeth;-) )
And to do some of the work you must have a permit.

Woody

Volcano

Possible alternative:

Clad (internally) with plasterboard, then paint/plaster over it. It seems that not every room has wood cladding so it might not be too expensive. If you try a discrete corner of the cladding it might give you an idea of how easy/difficult it is too remove.

The external asbestos will be fine if it is in good repair. It only becomes an issue if it is deteriorating or you need to cut/drill it.