The water in our house tests high for lead, and I’m wondering how other homeowners have handled this problem. There is a lead pipe in our basement leading from the water main which may be causing the problem on its own; but our former contractor told us that there may be other sources of lead impacting the water supply outside the house, and that rather than replacing the lead pipe we should install under-sink water filters. Has anyone done this? Any recommendations as to companies or brands to use? (And if you live in a brownstone and haven’t had your lead levels tested, do, particularly if you have children in the house.)


Comments

  1. I’ve been concerned about this and other environmental issues in the brownstone we’re buying. I want to test the soil in our backyard for contaminants too, though I haven’t thought about what we would do if we got bad results- but would just like to know.

    Brownstoner- what other precautions to you plan to take while renovating? I worry about lead paint particles in the air while tearing down walls, and stuff like that. Have you discussed any of this with your contractor?

  2. We used Main Man to replace our lead pipe + we use an undersink water filter. Cost of lead pipe replacement is 2-3k. We were fortunate that we had a copper pipe coming into the house for the old sprinkler system (which we removed) – so it was fairly easy to switch.

    Main Man will get all permits required to do the job.