Just noticed this tread.
Re the painting of the asbestos sheets in the bathroom I can give my experiences over 7 years for Jane and the others who queried the success of painting. Mine was the flat finish and small gold on white patterned look.
I sanded wet with a couple of grades of wet and dry - thoroughly to remove scum build up which was hard like calcium, not grease. See photo before. I primed and painted the shower area with White Knight tile paint and a different good quality primer and standard semi gloss Dulux paint for the rest of the bathroom walls.
The bathroom walls are holding up good other than the odd small scratch - epoxy glue is about the only thing I can think of that would really stick rock hard to the asbestos sheet surface.
The shower area came up terrific - small nap mohair roller gives a spray gun finish ...and a fussy painter
The aluminium corner strips were painted in the same way, did not try sealing any minute gaps as this would cause greater issues with painting over. The bottom edge strip was a different story - half corroded away. I cleaned up the best I could and painted, knowing it would be the first area to need redoing. I had considered covering it but did not want to seal the bottom of the wall to the shower base as this is where any water would escape if it got behind the taps or past the corner strips.
Since then I have had to repaint sections of the shower where paint has been scratched or the odd bit has lifted - twice I think. Only minor, but a partial paint improves the look. I did not do a total repaint as this would have required a lot more prep work - although look better. The enamel paint will yellow with age and a touch up is noticeable, but time remedies this. As for touching up, it is impossible to feather the edge on the peeled/chipped paint - you will end up in the kitchen chasing the edge as it keeps peeling (not a prep issue). Sand as smooth and fine as possible, and after a light sand of undercoat and first top coat half of the edge disappears anyway. I phoned White Knight - Taubmans and asked if there was a better primer that gripped the asbestos sheeting better, I was told that was as good as it got and a very good primer. He said there is a limit to the surfaces paint will adhere to and degree of adhesion. Note: soap dripping onto the paint will eat it away and cause it to bubble/lift - I had to change the soap holder to prevent this.
I am amazed how well the paint stands up to grime build up and cleaning. Although I request tenants not to use abrasive cleaners I doubt if they take any notice, and even when sanding with wet and dry it takes a fair bit of rubbing or a courser paper to take the shine off it.
The lower aluminium strip edge looked daggy after a few years as hard to clean along a half corroded strip
I ended up spending a couple of hours tearing what I could off with pliers and bending the remaining sharp edges back under the sheet - bugger of a job. I then bought some plastic quad strips from Bunnings and placed them around the bottom of the shower - siliconed on. This covered the horrible edge and sealed up the gap between bottom of sheeting and shower base - as visible in after paint photo before the quad was fitted - a few years later. Looked good and I have not had any problems with water behind the sheets and not able to drain - although I did make some covers to fit behind the tap flanges to minimize any water getting inside wall sheeting.
All up, a cheap way to improve the look of the asbestos sheeting even if the is some upkeep and cost involved. It actually looked a lot better after cleaning before painting
