Where do tree hugging, vegetarian liberals belong in north Chicago? (Evanston: environment, apartment complex)

[jaynetarzana]

Originally Posted by Rusty_Shackleford

Air quality can highly vary, whether it's suburbs or the city. It's probably best to stay at least a half mile away from a freeway or railroad yard. The worst polluters are industrial trucks, trains, and coal power plants. (there are a couple along the canal/I-55) Being near Lake Shore Drive isn't bad, because it gets such little use by large trucks. A bigger environmental concern than air pollution is heavy metals in the soil and leaded paint dust in homes. Children can get poisoned by it just by playing in dirt outside.

That is a great point you bring up Rusty. My husband and I actually looked at some vintage buildings and we were both very concerned as in those, lead paint is an absolute certainty. What are your thoughts on the vintage rehabbed bldgs? Isn't it terrible that we can't even garden with our kids without fear of lead poisoning? What have we done to our planet?

[jaynetarzana]

Originally Posted by Lookout Kid

SoCal has much worse air quality...

Anyway, the "L" is pretty safe at night. The Red Line is packed with young people south of the Sheridan Stop (and some up to Edgewater or Loyola), and the Purple Line just always seems to have less riff raff. I wouldn't worry too much about it unless it's REALLY late.

I agree, but we lived in Santa Cruz with 99.2% air quality. Those redwoods are the best defense against air pollution.

It could potentially be really late if I am coming home from a production that I'm involved in. I'd be coming home after midnight.

[aragx6]

^^ While it's impossible to know for sure if it's all gone, most gut rehabs had all the old plaster or drywall ripped out anyway, so all that paint should be gone... maybe someone
knows more about this than me.

[Lookout Kid]

Originally Posted by aragx6

^^ While it's impossible to know for sure if it's all gone, most gut rehabs had all the old plaster or drywall ripped out anyway, so all that paint should be gone... maybe someone
knows more about this than me.

Yes, any "gut rehab" should be entirely devoid of lead paint. Most gut rehabs I've seen constructed in the city don't even have the old studs.

Of course, the "greenest" thing you can do is to re-use an old building without gutting it. I personally live in a non-gutted vintage buidling from the 1920's which I'm sure has lead paint under many layers, but we just make sure that there isn't anything chipping off anywhere. It's really only a problem in buidlings with chipping paint.

[Rusty_Shackleford]

Originally Posted by jaynetarzana

That is a great point you bring up Rusty. My husband and I actually looked at some vintage buildings and we were both very concerned as in those, lead paint is an absolute certainty. What are your thoughts on the vintage rehabbed bldgs? Isn't it terrible that we can't even garden with our kids without fear of lead poisoning? What have we done to our planet?

I don't know. Lead paint isn't necessarily a problem, but paint dust eroded from the walls certainly is. So any cracks in the paint are a red flag. Lead paint in window frames especially an issue, as the paint erodes much more quickly there, and usually window sills have the highest levels of leaded dust in a lead paint home. There are methods that professionals can use in cases that require fixing a lead paint problem.

With regards to soil... I don't know why, but lead and mercury don't wash away from soil easily. Any mercury deposited into the air over the last 100 years from coal power plants, and any lead from leaded gasoline exhaust, can accumulate on outdoor surfaces and stay there for decades. Soil can be tested. You'll probably find the most toxic soils to be near coal power plants (Pilsen and Little Village come to mind), and also near freeways (areas that had a lot of traffic through the 40s-70s, when lead poisoning rates were very high).

So the bad thing is any hand to mouth contact with toxic soil/dust can be harmful to a child. Lead and mercury are toxic at all concentrations... a child can be under the 'poisoned' level of lead in their body and still have problems from it. But on the positive side, you can check up on these things to know whether it's safe or not, and heavy metal poisoning is far less common than it was just 20-30 years ago. Air quality overall is much much better than it used to be in that regard. And yes, Chicago's air isn't as bad as NYC and especially better than SoCal.

Originally Posted by aragx6

^^ While it's impossible to know for sure if it's all gone, most gut rehabs had all the old plaster or drywall ripped out anyway, so all that paint should be gone...

I was wondering about that. Good to know.

[Lookout Kid]

Most of the rehabbed condo buildings are brick with little exterior paint, so there wouldn't be much lead in the soil. But this could be a bigger deal if you bought an old house. Of course, newer houses will kill you with all of the Volatile Organic Compounds offgassing from the plastic, vinyl siding, carpet, paint, and solvents. You really can't win. I'm a LEED-Acredited architect, and the factors that go into environmentally friendly building can be very complicated. Indoor air quality and particluate control is also an issue.

[jaynetarzana]

I agree Lookout Kid. We don't do carpet, don't use plastic when it comes to food, won't touch vinyl siding with a 10 foot pole and we use zero VOC paint. It is very complicated.

[Anthera]

Lead blocking primer works quite well.

[jaynetarzana]

But then you deal with the offgassing from the oil based primer. It is an impossible situation.

[jaynetarzana]

Can anyone recommend any good contractors or home improvement specialists in Evanston? I am going to help my landlord remodel his loft condo we are living in so he can sell it in a few years. I'm hoping to find someone who has a small operation with only a few dependable, skilled people working for him. They tend to be less expensive. I'd like to start interviewing contractors next week for a complete bathroom remodel and then a less extensive kitchen update as well as some other odds and ends that I feel would help him to sell. Thanks in advance!