Lead paint in house (how much, contractor, home inspection)

[sjs100]

For those of you who have bought older homes (ie, 1920s or 30s), what did you do about the possibility of lead paint? Did you do a separate risk assessment after the regular inspection? If there is not clear evidence of flaking paint, is this something we need to worry about? How much does it cost to get this assessed? Thanks!

[jjinla]

It's not a possibility, it's a near certainty that you have lead pain in a 1920s house. Just make sure to be safe when sanding, renovating (close off properly, have a professional do it, adequately ventilate and/or wear mask) and you should be fine.

[dma1250]

Any house older than late 1970's will probably have a layer of lead paint. As long as the paint isn't chipping and exposed, you're fine. If you do have exposed lead paint, the simplest and safest approach is to sheetrock over it (rather than sanding and getting all of that lead dust into the air). I'd only bother testing for it if you plan on doing major renovations. In that case, it can arranged as part of a home inspection. (In NYC it is a mandatory part of the home inspection process.)

[tgm2012]

This is a timely thread. I'm looking for a painter / contractor who is experienced in dealing with lead paint in lower Westchester and those I have talked to seemed pretty clueless about working in a lead-safe manner.

Does anyone have any recommendations?