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So, if we were to buy a house older than 1976, should we have it tested for lead and has anyone on this forum gone through lead testing and removal? What's the process like? Or would you forget about an older home all together?
What you do depends on your comfort level. I bought a 1960's house because I wanted an older neighborhood with big trees. So we tested for lead because we have kids. There was some on some window trim so we had a contractor remove the trim and replace it.
It wasn't a big deal to me and I'm fine living in old houses. Just because something is new doesn't mean that it is good. Ask all the folks with Chinese drywall.
Will you have kids in the house? If not I wouldn't worry. If so, I'd only worry about those areas they may bite, or any loose/chipped/falling paint.
I grew up in old houses, ranging from 1870's construction to the 1890's. I survived. The original woodwork certainly had lead underneath new paint but it's really not as dangerous as some believe.
Assume that the house probably has had lead based paint. Go from there. You can choose to get it tested, but if you do, then you have to disclose all records to anyone you ever rent or sell to after that point, and they have to disclose and so on and so forth. I've always been told that getting the house tested puts you at some risk, because if you don't remediate, and something happens years from now, that person is going to sue everyone, back to the first person who knew about the lead and didn't fix it.
Basically, the lead based paint disclosure handbook http://www.epa.gov/lead/pubs/leadpdfe.pdf tells you
1) Don't eat peeling paint (also means don't play with peeling paint and then eat without washing your hands)
2) Don't eat the dirt around the house
and 3) If you sand paint off the walls, wear a mask so you don't breathe it in.
It says other stuff too, but that gives you the basics.
Some huge percentage of houses (I think it was 75%+) built prior to 1978 had lead in the paint. So you are better off in most cases to just assume the house has, or has had, lead based paint on the walls. If that is going to be a problem for you, you are better off to just avoid older houses.
Some huge percentage of houses (I think it was 75%+) built prior to 1978 had lead in the paint. So you are better off in most cases to just assume the house has, or has had, lead based paint on the walls. If that is going to be a problem for you, you are better off to just avoid older houses.
Actually the lead inspector guy here said it is rare to find lead paint on the walls themselves. It is the baseboards, quarter rounds, doors, window trim and sashes, and of course exterior siding, which tends to have the highest lead concentration. He's done several thousand here in Oregon and that's what he said.
At least out here he also said he has only found a couple in the 1970's that had lead paint because while it was officially banned in 1978, painters were phasing it out in the 50's-60's. That's probably why we found so little in our 1960's home.
It was only $250 for the test out here, so I think it you will sleep better at night, get it tested. I do agree that once you know about it though you must disclose the test results. It won't make a difference in a 1920's home because no sane person buys a home of that vintage and thinks it is free of lead paint and in fact it may make people feel better if they know exactly where it is for remodeling work.
Silverfall's experience in Oregon parallels mine in Illinois and surrounding states -- lead based paint had no real advantages for indoor use except on very "high wear" type surfaces like windowsills and trim, and that advantage was not worth the risk for most responsible painters / home owners. The phase out was accompanied by improvement in the quality of all paint.
In the unlikley even a very old house has any significant amounts of lead based paint on the interior it can re-mediated pretty easily when those high wear surfaces are replaced.
For homes built after the Korean War the shift to synthetic pigments simply made non-lead based paint a better choice. The manufacturing of paints with an acrylic base was common in the 1960s and by the 1970's you really needed to seek out supplies of "old fashioned" lead based paint formulations -- something that might have happened to "match up" trim in a building constructed long ago.
So, if we were to buy a house older than 1976, should we have it tested for lead and has anyone on this forum gone through lead testing and removal? What's the process like? Or would you forget about an older home all together?
My house was built in 1957 and I assume that it may have lead paint on some of the wood trim.
However, I do not eat paint chips and it is always a good idea to wear a mask when removing paint and to clean the area AND yourself thoroughly afterwards whether you are removing old lead paint or newer oil-based paint. I would not let it scare you and you CAN actually remove lead paint yourself with some basic precautions and a good dose of common sense. Plus, as another poster said, if you confirm lead paint in the house you may have to disclose it on down the line and freak out other buyers who overestimate the risk of lead-based paint.
Also, if the wood trim has been painted multiple times since the lead-containing layer was laid down (and this is true of most older houses), the lead is "trapped" anyway. You can paint over that to your heart's content. It is only an issue if you try to remove the lead paint or if the paint is flaking off.
It is 1978. And as of April 1, when a house is inspected or appraised and there is flaking or missing paint it is to be remedied by a lead paint professional. It used to be that I could just ask the homeowner to slap some paint on the affected areas, but no more. So be on the lookout when you are considering buying a house dated before 1978.
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