Help, Lead Paint.
Please share any info about dealing with lead paint in old brownstones. I bought a two family house this summer which is in fairly decent shape and has a rental unit. The plan was to buy a house now that we could have and raise kids in. We just scraped it together to buy the…
Please share any info about dealing with lead paint in old brownstones. I bought a two family house this summer which is in fairly decent shape and has a rental unit. The plan was to buy a house now that we could have and raise kids in. We just scraped it together to buy the house and planned to do renovations down the road. I am now really concerned about lead paint issues. Of course there must be lead paint all over the house (walls, trim, baseboards, doors, stairs, etc…) it is 100 years old. I’ve talked with a variety of people about this and gotten a variety of responses. So generally the best idea is to remove the paint right? That would basically amount to a gut renovation of our house. We also should not be living in the house when this would happen (which would be an another huge financial burden). Now, we were told if we could stabilize the lead paint than we’d be okay. We were also told to be careful about rubbing doors and windows, powdering paint and chipping paint. I think all our doors probably rub and there is of course chipping paint from pipes and ocassionally baseboards, etc… Everytime you put a nail in a wall you get powdering paint… Doesn’t everyone out there who does not have a perfectally renovated brownstone have the same problems? How are you supposed to adhere to all the lead safety rules and have children and live in a brownstone that has not had a complete gut rehab? Please share any advice, experiences, refrences for good contractors, lead experts etc….I would really appreciate it.
Drop me a line if you’re still having a problem, and I’ll try and give you some sound advice. I’m retired, but was in the retail-wholesale end of the paint business, and yours’ is not an unusual problem.
I just got my renewal notice from my homeowners insurance company and noticed there is a new “WE DON”T COVER ANY DAMAGES/INJURIES WHEN IT CONCERNS LEAD PAINT” clause. I think the lawyers have mined out asbestos and cigarette claims and moved on to lead paint. What is next, brownstone dust?
For safer removal you may want to try:
1. silentpaintremover.com
2. Niflisk HEPA vaccuum
3. Ledizolv: http://www.ledizolv.com/LearnAbout/LedizolvCleaner/LszCleaner.asp
Don’t freak out. Just only wet sand painted surfaces. Clean up completely after doing anything that might raise dust; use double sheets of 6mil plastic, clean afterwards first with simple green or other tsp solution and then rinse with water. and clean surfaces the same way every so often as well. you can get those lead testing strips at all the hardware stores to test the dust. can’t tell you how much you’ve got though, but it’s useful to have around.
In our home, I dipped most doors and replaced many windows. Then repainted everything else. My kids have always tested low.
One thing you can do is have all the doors dipped and stripped of lead paint as well as all your mouldings and trim (this involves removing, labeling and extracting the nails from them). Also you can skim coat all the walls and ceilings with new plaster and repaint. This should just about take care of it.
don’t over react- if money is an issue then paint over all your trim etc. stripping an entire house is beyond a huge investment on so many levels- it’s not worth it if you don’t have the luxury of moving out and having it done all the way.
I lived in an apartment where my son tested high for lead. I contacted the Department of Health and they send you a pamphlet. If you cannot remove the paint you can make sure there are no peeling/cracking paint (especially around door jambs and window sills) This is the main cause of lead in children since they tend to put their hands and small object (i.e., paint chips) in their mouth. Then paint over anywhere that is chipping. You can buy paint (I think it is sold in Pinchek on Flatbush) that is specifically to paint over old (and possibly lead contaminated) walls. Afer we did all this my son’s lead dropped to the normal range. Good luck
PS You can get a very cheap lead tester kit at Home Depot or Lowes.