Deleaded apartments nightmare (Cambridge, Somerville, Arlington: hardwood floors, renter, houses)

[Ronswanson]

I couldn't find a single thread with the word Deleaded in the title (and only a couple with the word lead.) Does no one procreate anymore??

We are looking for a deleaded place in the Somerville / Cambridge / Arlington area and it has been tough.. of the ~ 40 listings a day on Craigslist in that area, there is maybe 1 new deleaded house. (You can find new apartment buildings with carpeted floors that never had lead to start with but we'd prefer hardwood floors and a 2-family house.)

The best we have now is a 2 bedroom ~ 900 sq feet place near Fresh Pond that is on the 72 bus line. The rent - $2000 + utilities.

Does that sound like a reasonable price to any of you? Should we keep looking in the Davis Sq / Porter Sq area (our preferred area) or are we not going to do too much better for a Sep 1 move in date?

[JacksonPanther]

No one deleads, because it's too expensive, for little gain. That's why you can't find a deleaded place.

Leaded paint hasn't been used in homes for decades. Any lead paint that was in place was covered years ago by unleaded paint. As long as your paint is solid and not chipping and peeling, there's no issue to your kids.

[Cato the Elder]

Also look for houses with unpainted original trim, which will obviously not contain lead but won't be called deleaded (maybe unleaded would be the correct term!). The biggest concern is around windows since paint gets rubbed and cracked. The other common culprit is rubbing doors.

[seeriously]

We went through the deleading era back in the 80s and as landlords we were put through the ringer, thousands of dollars spent, deleader specialists in hazmat suits and State authorities breathing down our neck, all the while lead was present in pottery, city water, the soil and just about everywhere but landlords were the easy target of the era. I'm so glad that the rules have eased up. Let the renter beware!

[kmann-sherborn]

I know, it's disappointing how few deleaded places there are. I just looked in the MLS for no lead paint or deleaded & found one:
505 Mystic Valley Parkway, Somerville 2bd, 1ba, 1272 sq ft, 2 parking
spaces. $1750/month. I don't know if you've seen that one.

[Ronswanson]

Thank you for those wonderful replies! I can't find a listing for the 505 Mystic Valley Parkway place anywhere.. craigslist or through any agency I know. Not sure how I'd contact the owner (besides knocking on their door!) (Edit: I did manage to find this place listed on Zillow and contacted the realtor.)

We have the option of moving into this place which will be deleaded just before we move in. We are getting a little skeptical if that is a good idea.. couldn't it kick up a lot of lead dust if not done perfectly? Couldn't you end up with a bunch of lead falling onto the soil around which we would promptly drag in?

Anyway, independent of whether lead is a real issue and whether paint is intact, the law makes it difficult for any responsible landlord to rent to us without deleading. The landlord stays liable until the child turns 21! So it's not a matter of me being satisfied with the condition of the windows, paint etc.. the landlord needs to be willing to risk a lawsuit down the line.

[kmann-sherborn]

It's not deleaded now? They listed it in the MLS as deleaded. If they are deleading they're legally supposed to use certified professionals who remove it in a way that doesn't emit particulate into the air. I don't know enough about this process to know whether that really works but if you do go forward with a place that's being deleaded I'd make sure that they did this with a certified contractor.

[Cato the Elder]

This site run by Health and Human Services should help: Lead Safe Homes Search

[miu]

How many children do you have? How old are they?

[Ronswanson]

Expecting our first child soon after moving in.

Kmann, the place we are looking at is going to be deleaded before we move. I dont know about 505 Mystic - the agent advertising the place doesnt mention it in the ad.