Lead Paint (windows, vacuum, asbestos, glass)

[BabyBear1234]

What is the best way to deal with old lead paint on the exterior parts of windows and in the window sill? Replacing them would be ideal but not in the budget. I am open to slowly repairing each window but they are the original wood windows. They all seem to need reglazing and some need to have certain panes of glass replaced. Some also need to be restrung. However the inside of the winder sill has tested positive for lead paint and it is chipping. It makes me mad that in over 40 years NO ONE has bothered to really address this issue or to do some sort of maintenance on these windows!



My kids are all old enough to not chew on paint chips or on the window sills and I stressed the importance of staying away from the sills and washing hands if they touched inside. However I AM concerned about the possible dust from opening and closing the windows now that spring is around the corner.



(I've been religiously testing all interior paint surfaces before I scrape it off to repaint it. So far the only thing that has turned up as lead based has been the interior window sills, thankfully...I still have a few more exterior portions to test as well.)

[turf3]

Wash your hands after doing sanding or scraping. Don't breathe the dust (wear a dust mask). Vacuum it all up.


That's all you need to do.


Whatever dust is caused from wear by raising and lowering windows has already, decades ago, worn through the old lead-containing paint and been dispersed.


Unless you make a practice of eating or breathing lead containing compounds, you have nothing to worry about. The lead hype has been overblown just like the asbestos hype, which has the unfortunate effect of making people discount real hazards. Both lead and asbestos present real hazards, but if everything on earth has to come with a thousand warning labels, or you make it prohibitively expensive to repaint a house, people will start disregarding the minor and sensible precautions they ought to take, and will hire gypsy contractors to do that work.

[NewfieMama]

We had some lead remediation done on our windows and the person we hired said the same thing that turf said--decades of friction from opening/closing windows probably wore through any lead paint years ago and there likely isn't anything left. We did replace some of the wood, but I honestly think that was a waste of money. We did have lead-certified painters come in and scrape the paint in/around/on the windows and repaint. They were just super careful about putting protection on the ground and capturing all the dust.

[Moth]

Originally Posted by BabyBear1234

What is the best way to deal with old lead paint on the exterior parts of windows and in the window sill? Replacing them would be ideal but not in the budget. I am open to slowly repairing each window but they are the original wood windows. They all seem to need reglazing and some need to have certain panes of glass replaced. Some also need to be restrung. However the inside of the winder sill has tested positive for lead paint and it is chipping. It makes me mad that in over 40 years NO ONE has bothered to really address this issue or to do some sort of maintenance on these windows!



My kids are all old enough to not chew on paint chips or on the window sills and I stressed the importance of staying away from the sills and washing hands if they touched inside. However I AM concerned about the possible dust from opening and closing the windows now that spring is around the corner.



(I've been religiously testing all interior paint surfaces before I scrape it off to repaint it. So far the only thing that has turned up as lead based has been the interior window sills, thankfully...I still have a few more exterior portions to test as well.)

I have been in the same boat as I purchased a house built in 1952 and was not painted since the mid 70s. Lead paint everywhere.

If it is flaking, wear the ventilator mask as suggested. Try to contain where the chips go. I read that using a squirt bottle with water as you scrape keeps them from flying around too much

If not flaking, use Peel Stop to prep the area and then repaint. Works well by sealing it.

I swallowed a few flakes by accident and ran to my doctor in a panic. He said it was no big deal and that it was prolonged exposure i.e. eating them every day that caused the problems we read about.

[BabyBear1234]

Thanks everyone! You're making me feel less worried about this now