Buying a house that may have asbestos and lead paint

[dmg222]

Hi,
I'm at a loss and hoping some of you can help me out.
We are moving from San Diego, CA to Dallas, TX. :( We found a house to buy that was built in the late 1950's and have yet to do any inspections. We assume it will have lead paint and asbestos issues as from my understanding lead paint wasn't outlawed until 1978 and apparently in Texas you could still buy materials with asbestos in 2003. For those of you with houses that have lead and/or asbestos did you have them removed? If so, how long did the entire process take and was it prohibitively expenisve? And how serious are lead and asbestos?
Thanks for all your help,

Daniella

[bcky2]

well i dont have much advice but we just moved and alot of the houses we looked at fell into the catagory your in. i am not sure about asbestos issues and the cost but i do know for the lead paint it would have been costly to have someone come in and remove it. lead is very dangerous for little ones, windows and ledges are the worst because of them chewing on it. i dont have much info on asbestos but i bet if you did a google for it you would come up with a ton of info. sorry that i couldnt help more, good luck :)

[alexsmommy]

We live in a town where houses built in 1950 are considered "new". I have always lived in an old home - around here no one does lead testing b/c then it becomes an issue when you sell b/c you have to "disclose" the information - but the reality is almost no home around here doesn't have lead paint. As the pp said, as long as you have painted over the old paint you are fine, except around windowsills and other areas that tent to flake/collect paint chips. In the summer, I vacuum my windowsills at the same time I do the floors. It's fairly easy to deal with this.
Asbestos also pops up around here a fair amount. The issue is encapsulation. As long as it's encapsulated, it's supposed to be safe. It's removal that is an issue. You would have to spend thousands of dollars having it removed to do so properly and to make sure you didn't contaminate your air system. For us, we looked at a house that had some asbestos used to insulate pipes that were out in the open. The asbestos has been properly "encapusulated" (painted over in special material to keep it from degenerating). We figured if it was used there, it was probably in the insulation in the walls as well. We decided that since we planned to finish the basment of any home we purchased, it wasn't worth it to us to risk finding even more than what we could see and spending tons of money/time having it removed. I also know that I would have been paranoid enough to want to move out while it was happening no matter what they said. Everything we read said "leave it alone if at all possible and you'll avoid problems." I'd get an estimate of what removal costs would be just in case you decided to add onto your house or need to disturb the insulation in any way.
I think my tolerance level for this stuff is pretty high because of where I grew up/live currently - but the asbestos really did give me pause in certain situations.
Alaina
Alex 2-4-03

[lmintzer]

Having lived in that same town as Alaina, I will second what she wrote. The term I heard in reference to asbestos is "aerosolized" (that is, asbestos is safe as long as it is not in partical form in your air). There were some old tiles in our basement near the furnace that were clearly asbestos. They came up on inspection, but we weren't worried because as long as no one was going to be drilling on them, they were part of the floor and wouldn't be going anywhere. And we weren't going to be hanging out by the furnace, anyway. Asbestos tiles were common (in the 50s?) and you can recognize them by their size (if I'm remembering correctly, they were all 7 X 7 inch squares -- someone correct me if I'm wrong on that).

[mamamayi]

I have heard that with asbestos removal, the folks removing the asbestos have to don the hazardous waste suits and wear masks and the whole nine yards. I've been told it is cost prohibitive, but I've not actually checked into it personally.

[Melanie]

We had our acoustic ceilings scraped to get rid of that asbestos. It took the painters about a week or less. We found out later they should have charged us tons extra, but they didn't. They probably didn't do it as they should of, but it was their lungs. We weren't living here at the time.

It's in our heating/AC ducts but we were told that as long as they are intact, it's no danger. It's if they are opened up/repaired/etc. that causes an issue.

As for the paint, well, it's been painted over with non-lead-based paint. Ds was lead tested about a year after we moved here and he is fine thank goodness. It's of note, though, that he's not the type to ingest just anything so that was not a cause for concern for us.

[muskiesusan]

Our last house was over 100 years old and when we went to sell it, the buyers wanted the asbestos removed (it was used as insulation around the pipes). Well, there was no way we could do that as the cost was through the roof. All the companies we called told us just to encapsulated it. This was also expensive, but definately more affordable. It was difficult, however, to find a company willing to do such a small job. A few of the companies just told DH how to do it, which is what we ended up doing since it was pretty easy.

As for the lead paint, it is my understanding if it is painted over, it is okay, but you do need to be viligant about chipping.


Susan
Mom to Nick 10/01
& Alex 04/04

[aliceinwonderland]

The house we bought 1.5 yrs ago(our first) is an old house that had not been touched in 20 yrs. Yes, there was lead paint in the trim, windows, etc. I know it is not adviced, but we were/are poor and we did all the work ourselves, painted over everything, bought an air purifier for my DS's room, kept everything wet, etc.

It was a very stressful time as we were doing the work WHILE living in it, with an infant. DH would work in his office all day and then we'd paint till the wee hrs of the morning.

I love old houses, and now my little house is so pretty, but my baby's lead levels did go up (always were withing "normal", but they went up) and as soon as the reno was finished, we took measures to lower it and now it is lower than most city kids.

My basement is still FULL of lead, but DS never goes there, I wear special shoes when I go (only for laundry), etc.

In other words, lead CAN be contained, you just need to take active measures to do so. SOme mamas here have much more experience and were enormously helful to me.

[emilyf]

Both lead and asbestos are an issue when they get into air and can be inhaled, so generally encapsulation is the safer route for both. The house may not have lead, some states were already banning lead paint in the 50s, it's the nationwide ban that went into effect in 78. Also, if the windows have been replaced since the late 70s that gets rid of one of the biggest problem areas I would probably ask to do inspections for both, most home inspectors can check for both or your realtor can recommend a separate company. Once you know what problem areas exist (if any) you can keep an eye on them and make sure it's clean, no dust or peeling paint.
Emily mom of Charlie born 11/02 and Zoe born 9/05

[wagner36]

Also living in the same town, I third everything! 1950's here is definitely considered modern.

My understanding is that the lead in paint was reduced in 1950, and then outlawed in the 70's. Unless you have really crumbly paint, it shouldn't be a huge concern. A bigger concern for us is that we have the original cast iron tub which has lead - so Charlie doesn't bathe in there. There are some really good pamphlets available from the EPA website. Charlie has been tested for lead regularly, and he has had no increased levels at all.

Abestos tiles are really common, and they are still used in construction everywhere - including in schools. They are only dangerous if they are cracked and crumbling. I *think* that if your tile is 7x7 there is something like a 90% chance of it containing abestos, if it is 9x9, there is a 75% chance, and if it is 12x12 there is about a 50% chance.

[dmg222]

Hi,
I just wanted to thank you all for your input. Besides trying to buy a house from 1500 miles away, the lead and asbestos issues are stressing me out even more. It's funny how times have changed though. Both DH and I grew up in houses with lead and asbestos issues and our car seats were a joke back then but we survived :) There are so many unknows about what is safe today and I guess I just feel that for the items that are known to be problematic DH and I should try to fix them. However sometimes I feel that messing with this stuff could make it worse! And I wonder why I can't sleep at night sometimes :)
Thanks again and I really appreciate everyone's input!
-Daniella

[jesseandgrace]

I just wanted to add that both my kids grew up in a house with tons of lead paint - but painted over and not chipping. Neither one has ever had elevated lead levels on their blood tests at their well child visits.