House of the Day: Not Much Green for Greene

Way up there in JMZ territory -- not nearly as nice a neighborhood as Stuyvesant Heights

I know someone who had a gorgeous painted ceiling in his brownstone -- unfortunately it was done with lead-based paint -- and he rented it out to some tenants who freaked out, sued him, and the remediation was a nightmare. So maybe if you use that only as an owner's residence -- but even so, what about your own kids?

Posted by: babs at January 31, 2006 12:51 PM

And it's $775K, not $800K, which isn't that bad considering a few blocks south, into the historic district, houses are going for upwards of $900K.

Posted by: babs at January 31, 2006 12:53 PM

Apparently his ceiling did start flaking -- that's what precipitated the whole problem. The tenants were also concerned about "microscopic flaking," i.e., dust, and he had to have the air tested. Whoever buys this place had better have the condition of those murals checked out.

And I don't think they won, but to fight it he had to remediate the problem. I don't know how it was ever resolved, except that they moved out and supposedly the lead paint issue was corrected -- I don't think it became anything like the stuff you see on the subway, with million dollar verdicts and all.

Posted by: babs at January 31, 2006 2:16 PM

Yeah, they were bizarre. By the time they moved out they had all these air filter things in every room, with plastic tubes going out the windows, surrounded by duct tape -- just what that was supposed to achieve I don't know, but it sure looked scary as heck!

But I've even had childless couples, moving into newly gut-renovated buildings (hence no lead paint anywhere because nothing was left of the old construction), go all paranoid and start asking to see lead paint test results, etc. In the meantime just pushing your stroller down Seventh Ave puts plenty of dust and exhaust fumes into baby's lungs and is much more of a hazard than anything he'll be exposed to at home.

Posted by: babs at January 31, 2006 3:45 PM

The problem is that most of the kids eating peeling paint, etc., weren't being watched by anyone -- sadly to say, lead poisoning is not a disease that usually affects middle class people and above, which is why these people's concerns were a bit wacko. Most peeling lead pain is in old, poorly maintained buildings inhabited by poorer people, who unfortunately don't have the time/financial and emotional resources/cultural background/education/maturity/energy/health/whatever term you want to use to pay such close attention to their kids. We all know the horror stories, and, like most horror stories, they are exceptions. Fortunately. But when they do occur, they aren't going to be happening in 3/4 million dollar brownstones.

Posted by: babs at January 31, 2006 4:38 PM

Wow, thanks, good to know -- hope all brownstone owners are checking things out here!

Posted by: babs at February 1, 2006 1:45 PM

But couldn't he have picked up the lead elsewhere as well? Maybe the soil in the backyard or something? Scary!

Posted by: babs at February 1, 2006 1:46 PM

That form is pretty meaningless -- no landlord ever has any evidence of any lead paint hazards, the agent initials it to say he/she has duly informed the client of any lead paint hazards (kind of hard to do when there's no evidence of any), and the tenant/owner initials to say he/she has received a copy of the pamphlet describing how to protect your child from lead. It was extremely remiss of the seller's broker not to get this to you, but it wouldn't have helped much if he/she had.

I've read that wiping down windowsills with a baby wipe or similar on a daily basis will take care of lead dust from opening the window, as well as what blows in from the street (from exhaust fumes etc. -- though with the switch to unleaded gas this is reduced).

One other thought -- could the above poster's child have gotten sick from lead pipes? No matter where you are, just to be safe, you should always let the water run for 15 seconds before drinking or showering -- that's enough to clear out all lead residue.

Posted by: babs at February 1, 2006 3:43 PM