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My house was built in 1957. It still has the original windows. I have contracted with Champion to replace all of them and they sent someone out a few days ago to take detailed measurements and to perform lead tests inside and out.
Both lead tests were negative. The guy stated that he has never seen a house with my style of construction/windows test positive for lead. I had assumed due to the age of my house that lead-based paint was a given. He said that the only houses he has seen test positive for lead that were built pre-1978 were ones with window frames in any material except aluminum. My window frames are aluminum and have never been painted. He said lead paint was almost always used in exterior applications, not interior applications.
Is he right? I'm not paranoid about lead paint but it would be nice to know what the risk is when I start scraping paint off wood surfaces in here. Basically I want to know if I should drop some bucks on lots of plastic sheeting and a respirator rated for lead or if I can skip that.
Those Home Depot lead tests are not that accurate. I have some paint that I knew contained lead. I wanted to test the whole house anyway, so I bought a bunch of those lead test kits. I tested everywhere - all negative. I has some left over so I tested theled paint - Negative. I rested everywhere and got three positives, including the paint that I knew was lead. I bought some more test kits. I got more positves, but in completely different areas (the lead paint tested negative again). I tried again, another mix of positives and negatives including a positive on some modern latex paint that I had just done on a cabinet that I built with new lumber.
This caused me to resaerch how much a problem lead really is. It is a problem for kids who ingest it certainly. It appears to be somewhat less of a problem for adults (I seem to recall that it can make men sterile, but that was not a negative for me at the time). It is bad to breathe the dust or to eat lead based paint. It might be bad to breathe the fumes from removing lead paint with a heat gun.
I ended up removing the paint just using heat and occaisionally chemicals. I cleaned up really well, used a HEPA filter on my shop vac and only worked on it when the kis were out. I did not eat any of the paint and did not allow the kids to eat it either. I also ventilated well when I was using the heat gun.
I had already been removing paint (massive quantities of it) both by sanding and by heat gun before I even thought about the possibility of lead. Becasue of this, I took all of my kids to the Dr. and had them tested for lead levels. They all tested essentailly none.
That was about ten years ago. To the best of my knowlege, I am still alive. Who knows, maybe I will turn out to be sterile someday, but that is more likely to be due to the surgury that i paid for than due to lead paint.
You need to make your own decisions. My conclusion was that the lead based paint scare was massivley overblown, just like they seem to do with everything else. However do your own research, make your own decision. Do not rely on anyone here.
Both my boyfriend and I have asthma; mine is much more severe than his is. I have had a couple of serious lung infections (bronchitis and pneumonia) in 2008 and 2009, though nothing in 2010 (touch wood). That makes me think I might be more sensitive or susceptible to the effects of lead paint.
I'm not paranoid about lead; if I was I would have bought a newer house. I know for sure that the house does have asbestos, but I know exactly where it is (the attic) and I never go anywhere near it.
I agree that the dangers of lead paint are probably overblown, but I also don't want to needlessly make myself sick.
As far as Champion Windows I can not speak for how they do there lead testing or there representation of what there experience is but, there are certain mandates set by the government that they must follow as a certified contractor. The law reads that any house built prior to 1978 must be tested for lead paint - however you most likely already know this. To make a assumption that a particular window style does not have lead paint would be a very risky move considering that the fines are very heavy.
The main question here is "How many windows are you having replaced?" let say that you are having ten windows replacedm, if the first window is negative after a EPA Recognized lead test is completed you must continue to test every window in the dwelling until you find a positive reading or until every window is cleared. also they should be checked inside and out because many times you will finde a negative reading on the inside but a positve reading on the outside.
As far as someone stating that lead paint was not usually used on the interior would be a remark that I would not stand behind especially when dealing with the EPA.
It is always a good idea to take every precaution when dealing with lead because it takes very little to contaminate the interior of a home. Make sure that if you are using a respirator mask that you use a n100 rated mask - the very cheap mask that you find in the home improvement centers are not acceptable per the EPA.
Location: Visitation between Wal-Mart & Home Depot
8,309 posts, read 38,774,074 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BigDGeek
Both my boyfriend and I have asthma; mine is much more severe than his is. I have had a couple of serious lung infections (bronchitis and pneumonia) in 2008 and 2009, though nothing in 2010 (touch wood). That makes me think I might be more sensitive or susceptible to the effects of lead paint.
I'm not paranoid about lead; if I was I would have bought a newer house. I know for sure that the house does have asbestos, but I know exactly where it is (the attic) and I never go anywhere near it.
I agree that the dangers of lead paint are probably overblown, but I also don't want to needlessly make myself sick.
The new and very real danger of lead-based paint is in runaway remodeling costs. There are new certifications and procedural requirements that are going to inflate the contractor's bill very considerably. Simply replacing an old door frame is now a major to-do (if you follow the regs, anyway).
Asthema does nto make you more susciptable to lead paint. Lead poisoning has no relanship to asthema at all. Lead poisning is a blood issue, aesthma is a breathing issue - not related.
To the best of my knowlege, lead paint was used both inside and outside of houses. It was a great way to make paint super durable. I know that is was commonly used on heat radiators and window sills. That is where most kids got it, by chewing or sucking on radiators or window sills. Obviously on walls, kids are not going to ingest the lead. (Unless maybe the lick the walls repeatedly for hours. The existience of lead in a home is not a problem. It is ingesting the lead that creates a problem. Unless I am going to remove paint anyway, I just paint or paper over any lead based paint that I find. On the exterior, sometimes you have to remove it in order to get a good bond with new paint.
One solution is to just refrain from sucking on or eating any part of your house.
Location: Visitation between Wal-Mart & Home Depot
8,309 posts, read 38,774,074 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Coldjensens
Asthema does nto make you more susciptable to lead paint. Lead poisoning has no relanship to asthema at all. Lead poisning is a blood issue, aesthma is a breathing issue - not related.
To the best of my knowlege, lead paint was used both inside and outside of houses. It was a great way to make paint super durable. I know that is was commonly used on heat radiators and window sills. That is where most kids got it, by chewing or sucking on radiators or window sills. Obviously on walls, kids are not going to ingest the lead. (Unless maybe the lick the walls repeatedly for hours. The existience of lead in a home is not a problem. It is ingesting the lead that creates a problem. Unless I am going to remove paint anyway, I just paint or paper over any lead based paint that I find. On the exterior, sometimes you have to remove it in order to get a good bond with new paint.
One solution is to just refrain from sucking on or eating any part of your house.
I can't imagine any house built in the 1950s without lead paint, asbestos, lead pipes... My rentals had to be tested for lead based paint. The inspector wipes the window sill and the carpet, then sends it to a lab for testing. I had to have the bottom of the sills wrapped with a strip of aluminum and they passed. Of course they did, it was unpainted metal. If you are removing paint, it is probably a hazardous material. I'd scrape the peeling paint and paint over everything else. Whatever you do, I wouldn't rely on an inspection to determine the safety of lead based paint in my home. Passing an inspection doesn't take much effort.
I am a certified lead paint inspector (actually it's expired, but I still have my ID ) and you should not worry:
1. Lead is everywhere. Dirt, water you name it.
2. Lead (in paint, or dirt or air) is more dangerous if you are undernourished. The body absorbs Lead in lieu of vitamins that are missing such as calcium and iron. http://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/lead/do...1Nutrition.pdf I suspect that's why more lower income children succumb to lead "poisoning." I grew up in mostly older houses and apartments chock full of lead paint...and I iz perferktly fine. If you're severely malnourished ***(see details below) then the body attempts to bind to lead, because the molecular structure is similar to that of elements the body actually needs.
3. Lead is dangerous in dust form. It's probably the same with almost any solid element. For instance, I'm sure breathing gold dust is dangerous. There are tons of people living in houses that were painted with lead paint with no ill effects. Having said that, if you plan to remodel, you could breathe in ALL kinds of dangerous stuff, not just heavy metals.
Goals:
1. Avoid inhaling toxins.
2. Prevent debris from reaching other parts of the house.
3. Properly clean up and dispose of debris.
My tips:
1. Wear goggles, gloves and a respirator and either leave your clothes in the work area or wash after you're done. You can wash the goggles and the outside of your gloves with warm, soapy water.
2. Dispose of your plastic and big pieces of debris according to local regulations.
It's a shame you have to use plastic. You may be able to use thrift store sheets to cordon off the rooms. At least they're washable. Poor mother earth. Sadly, I also use plastic.
3. Sweep up any big pieces. Wash your dust pan and broom with soap and water. You can use any soap. Supposedly Simple Green works great.
4. Vacuum with a vacuum cleaner that has a hepa filter. Most do these days, I think.
5. Mop a couple of times. As I mentioned before, Lead is everywhere, but you never know when you may have a malnourished kid come to your house and lick the floor. So, do what I do with my rentals. Mop once with Murphy's Oil soap, or a cleaner for the type of floor you have w/ water that's warm and a little soapy. Rinse often. If you're crazy, you can do what I do and mop with a rag. You know, crawl on the floor and mop. You get the floor cleaner that way. Then mop TWO more times with warm water with no soap. VOILA.
Below is a nonsequiter about Lead "poisoning" in kids... Feel free to skip it.
*** I have discovered that at least a few of the people who get food stamps in my state sell the food stamps instead of feeding their kids. It's also common for a lot of people in lower income areas to feed the kids lots of candy and sugary, artificially-colored drinks with no nutritional value instead of fruits, vegetables and vitamins. That's in spite of programs like WIC. There was an article on NPR about selling foodstamps that gave a little different spin on WHY the parents do that, but I think that malnutrition completely explains the behavioral and learning etc problems in that population...not lead paint. Sadly, some of the stores that only sell bad "foods" in the lower income neighborhoods are complicit in converting foodstamps into money...so the parents don't have incentive to go to regular stores in order to properly feed their kids. I personally feel sorry for the children. I think NYs Mayor Bloomberg has the right idea. Anyway, I digress. Hope you do a great job on the renovation and good luck with the house!
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