thomb

Have a 50’s era cottage in New Hampshire, where the original part of the house is on a post and beam foundation, additions were built on concrete foundation walls.

The current skirting enclosing the crawl space on the post and beam part of the house is a thin cement board material, that is broken and missing in many places. I'll be residing and fixing termite damage this summer, so now is a good time to replace the "skirting". Suggestions on materials? I would like something that would have the appearance of a solid foundation to match the rest of the house, and I prefer this to be a DIY job that will not cost major $$$'s

asbestos

Sounds like the old stuff may be Transite® or cementitious asbestos board (CAB). this was often used in that era as both shingles, and as skirting. It should be easy enough to safely remove, but I would strongly recommend you get information on how to do this correctly and/or legally. I don't know what the laws in NH are but in WA you can remove it yourself with a permit.

As for a replacement, the closest thing these days is a tile backer board, but I would not recommend that. The CAB was great in this application except when it got hit with something. Try Hardieboard
http://www.jameshardie.com

On a job we once removed well over 100 4'x8' sheets of CAB. We took them off in whole pieces. What a waste, would have been good for another 50+years

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