Lead paint removal - windowsills
My wife and I moved into a beautiful brownstone in Carroll Gardens a few years ago before we had kids with lots of original details on the parlor floor. The folks who sold us the place had little children of their own and had renovated both floors. Now we have two sons, the second at…
My wife and I moved into a beautiful brownstone in Carroll Gardens a few years ago before we had kids with lots of original details on the parlor floor. The folks who sold us the place had little children of their own and had renovated both floors.
Now we have two sons, the second at 1 years who spends a lot of time around the parlor windows and just tested for a slightly elevated lead level. We were trying to pinpoint the cause and narrowed it down to potentially lead in the paint around the sills, since he spends a great deal more time around there than our first son (who is now 3).
Sure enough we had lead testing done and the statement in return is that the lead around the windows is “off the charts” – whatever that means (still haven’t gotten a report back so only had this statement over the phone.
We have beautiful old shutters that we have now sent out to be dipped, but the firm that is dipping will not come out and strip the moldings around the sill. Our contractor also is concerned about doing anything to disturb and create more dust.
Any thoughts here? Can we just repaint and encapsulate? My fear is that the shutters do bang around a bit and if they simply hit the molding sides and dislodge more paint, I fear we will still have issues.
One idea our contractor had was to remove the moldings completely, have them dipped, and reinstalled. The only concern is cost and of course potential damage that may happen in the removal process. Other option he had was so simply replace these old moldings – he claims he could replicate them exactly… though I am always a little skeptical of this.
SHould we just call a lead abatement expert and get their advice?
Thanks so much for any thoughts – totally freaked out over all of this!
Where to get doors dipped in NYC? Please send recommendations.
Can someone recommend a good contractor for getting shutters dipped?
We repainted with a paint made for encapsulating lead. Our carpenter told us NYC requires contractors to pass a certification for painting, plumbing, carpentry (windows, doors, mouldings, etc.).
http://www.nyc.gov/html/hpd/html/homeowners/lead_paint.shtml
Don’t remove the trim without reading this. We now ask all contractors if they have been through the training.
My Advice is if these are simple moldings 6″ or less in width then replace them & get rid of the lead. Stripping whether by peelaway $145 per 5 gallon tub) or remove & dip ($5 per foot to dip if longer than 8′) tank is only 8′ long is expensive & if not done correctly will still leave lead residue. Good Housekeeping is evrything. hepavacum all brownstoners with young kids should have one & weekly cleaning will take care of most of your concerns.
Lead truly is the next Asbestos Moms are scared to death of it. for the most part a clean home with well sealed paint is a good home.
(Original poster) THanks for the thoughts on your process (anon, 10.20pm). Yes, lots of nice details for my kids… 😉
As for the dipping, yes, we thought taking out all the moldings may be going too far. We were just focused on dipping the moldings around the windows and leaving it at that (and encapsulating everything else with another layer of paint).
Frankly our moldings around the sills and at the edge of the floor, which I looked at again last night, are just not all that special (as compared to certain other details on the ceiling etc). I am starting to wonder more and more whether we really even want to dip rather than just replace the moldings.
I guess as an experiment perhaps we’d have a couple of pieces dipped to see how it turns out, and if we like the results, continue that process with teh windows.
We are in the process of renovating our place before we move in. Being parents, as well as tenants of a very poorly maintained prewar building, we were very scared of lead and removed all wood for dip stripping (except on the stairs which tested low). One thing to note is that it took a long time to get this done & if we did this over, we might encapsulate things that didn’t move (just dip stripping doors & shutters & carefully stripping (without dust as much as possible) the things they rub against…)
Another point to consider is that while the problems of lead are proven, nevertheless, a number of people we have spoken to consider the lead abatement profession to be generally unprofessional. It is a situation ripe for exploitation by those with licenses – scared parents with limited knowledge. I don’t want to downplay the risk, but rather that it is very hard to find people who will do the job properly (completely & safely).
FYI I understand that Ledizolv is the best cleaning agent (see http://www.ledizolv.com). It is fairly cheap and combined with other precautions & cleanups as described above should do an ok job. Keep children well out of the way when you do this stuff.
PS I’m sure you didn’t mean this but we had a chuckle about your comment “we had kids with lots of original details ” 🙂 Ours came with lots too.
stacy, the lead in dust is just as bad as eating chips. Children get the dust on their hands and put them in their mouths. My daughter also tested at a 9 when she was little. I think the shutters present a special problem that painting over won’t solve. I would pull the details out and send them to be stripped. Just be super careful to seal off the area when you remove this stuff. Then go crazy with the hepa vac. and TSP to clean up. Lead resists a simple wipe down, I found. It will bond with TSP, however. Go to NJ to buy some at Home Depot, as it is not allowed in NYC. You may also find TSP in some powdered dishwahing cleaners.
I had the same problem with my son. He did test at 9.8 and I freaked out myself. I found out that we had 3 strikes against us: 1. old paint on the windows 2. demolitions of three old buildings directly next to us as well as close proximity to an elevated subway line.
We repainted everything and we rented a HEPA vacuum to clean it all up. Since we were only renters I repainted each year (just around the sills) and the second time he retested it was at 2. If I am not mistaken the information I received was that lead poisoning is caused by a child ingesting chips that were contaminated and not by the trace amounts in the dust – but this was 7 years ago. You should check out the NYC Department of Health website. If you are thinking about having more children I would definately go the replacement route.
Also – I think when we closed on our house we had to have a form signed by the seller which would disclose if there was lead paint used or a possibility of it.
I had the same problem with my son. He did test at 9.8 and I freaked out myself. I found out that we had 3 strikes against us: 1. old paint on the windows 2. demolitions of three old buildings directly next to us as well as close proximity to an elevated subway line.
We repainted everything and we rented a HEPA vacuum to clean it all up. Since we were only renters I repainted each year (just around the sills) and the second time he retested it was at 2. If I am not mistaken the information I received was that lead poisoning is caused by a child ingesting chips that were contaminated and not by the trace amounts in the dust – but this was 7 years ago. You should check out the NYC Department of Health website.
Also – I think when we closed on our house we had to have a form signed by the seller which would disclose if there was lead paint used or a possibility of it.