Concern on lead levels in an older home?

[mom2akm]

We're living in a house that's 15 years old but are thinking about moving to an older neighborhood. Most houses there are built in the 50's or 60's. Should I be concerned about lead paint on my 22 months old DD? Will it be safer for us to buy a house that's been renovated? (But who knows how they have dealt with the lead paint.) Any other recommendations?

[brittone2]

Any house built pre 1978 can have lead paint concerns. For me, one concern would be how likely we would be to renovate-sanding, etc. will stir up the old paint.

edited to fix grammar ;)

[SnuggleBuggles]

We live in a 1920's house and I am not worried about lead. I pay attention to the state of our paint. And, though to make the walls look super nice we could sand and such, we have chosen not to do that b/c of the work involved with really and truly doing it safely (HEPA vacuums...). Have lead levels checked if conncerned. By that age you shouldn't really have to worry about your dc eating paint chips and if you were worried you could just keep a close eye on things.

A renovated house won't help that much unless they have gutted it and dry walled it, I think.

[niccig]

I know about this. Our house is 1940s. We knew we would have lead in there somewhere. Paint job was in immaculate condition when moved in. Silly us didn't insist on lead inspection. Previous owner didn't know if had it or where.

Fast forward to DS at 9 months old. He had a higher than normal for our area lead test - not too high but enough for the DR. to talk to us about lead paint and to have follow up tests at 2 and 3 years old. Our paint was still in good condition though.

Then we started to have chipping/flaking paint on windows. I got a lead inspector out, it cost about $200 and he tested everything - walls, doors, floors, all trim, tiles, garage doors etc. We got a detailed report - turns out highest lead paint was in DS's room. GREAT. Having a lead inspection means that you must tell people when you go to sell, so many people do not do it. We opted to do it because of DS, and decided we would deal with what we found. Luckily, it was on window sashes/doors that we were able to have removed and then professionally stripped off site. But it still cost us some money.

The only lead remaining is in the tile glaze of the 2nd bathroom. It's fine as it is, but when we renovate we have to either get a company in to remove it OR our historical restorer who did our windows, said that they have successfully popped the tiles off intact rather than smashing with sledge hammer, which is how most contractors remove old tile. Smashing the tile will release lead dust.

My advice, as part of the house inspections have a lead test done by a certified lead inspector - states list who can do lead inspections. Home owners of older homes will NOT be happy, as if you find it, and good chance there will be there somewhere, you can then negotiate to have them reduce costs to cover the lead removal. Our lead inspector told me that amount in a home does depend on what was renovated. Eg. one of our 14 windows did NOT have any lead, he surmised that at some point it was either stripped to bare wood or it's not an original window. He also told me that even if the paint was in good shape, the friction of opening/closing of windows releases lead dust, so being told that paint isn't chipped, doesn't mean all the lead paint is sealed off. He said the bigger concern is lead DUST and not CHIPS of lead paint. Until we got the windows/doors fixed, he told me to wipe down the areas with a wet paper towel and throw it away - don't use a cloth that you will re use.

If we buy another home, I will insist on a lead inspection. DS's lead levels are fine now, barely detected.

[brittone2]

Just back to add that I've also seen some reports in recent years about the lead on the outside of the house, etc. getting into the ground, and kids playing in the dirt/outside were exposed. Not sure how common this is in the era of home you are considering, or if a soil sample(s) would tell you much??
eta: http://dhs.wisconsin.gov/eh/Lead/Factsheets/LeadSoil.HTM not sure if this helps. Has some good tips about external lead and ways to minimize exposure there, which seem doable.

[niccig]

Just back to add that I've also seen some reports in recent years about the lead on the outside of the house, etc. getting into the ground, and kids playing in the dirt/outside were exposed. Not sure how common this is in the era of home you are considering, or if a soil sample(s) would tell you much??

Yep, the lead inspector told me that when they power wash homes to remove the paint, lead paint chips get mixed into the soil. So make sure DS washed hands if digging in the soil around the house foundations.

We actually didn't have too much lead paint - thankfully it wasn't in walls etc, and it was in places easy to removed. Except for the trim around the front door - we have ornate trim and it took the restorer 3 days to strip it all off. I am relieved that it's all gone from the house..except the tile, but that's fine for now.

[C99]

Just do your homework and know what lead paint looks like, have it inspected, figure out how much it would be to remediate it, etc. Our house is from 1905 and has lead paint, most of which has now been abated via lead-encapsulating paint. It's not only lead in the paint you have to worry about, but lead in the soil from leaded gas, lead weights used in double hung/sash windows, lead in older plastic mini blinds.

[MommyofAmaya]

Another vote for a lead inspector. We had an inspection prior to purchasing our home (built in 1929). He provided us a detailed report on exactly where the lead paint remained (a couple of door jams inside the house and on the outside of some windows). We were able to paint the jams with encapsulating paint and are careful about disturbing the paint on the outside of the windows. We've had negative lead tests for both kids thus far. The lead inspector was well worth the $$.

[ThreeofUs]

We have lead paint everywhere in our old house. We're taking it off room by room with SmartStrip, an environmentally friendly stripper that's part of the PeelAway family. If the paint wasn't peeling, I'd probably ensure a good, thick, smooth paint job and leave it alone (except for the windows).

The vector for lead is twofold, but basically centered on lead dust being where little ones can get it on their hands, which then go into their mouths. So,
-windows going up and down and getting lead dust on the sills and floors where kids can touch it.
-soil, both as kids get dirt on their hands outside and anyone who lives in the house gets dirt on their shoes or clothes and tracks it into the house, where it's on the floor where kids can get it on their hands and thence to their mouths.

ETA: Carpets are notorious for holding lead dust.

[lowrioh]

Should you be concerned, yes...but would it stop me from buying a place, no.
Lead paint is a serious issue but if the paint is in good condition (ie not chipping) your family should be fine. I would look carefully at the property and see if there is evidence of peeling/chipping paint. Houses built before 1940 have a very high probability of having lead paint. It was used less after that point so houses built in the 60's and 70's are much less likely to have lead paint.
I don't know if I would have a lead paint test done because if you do when you sell you have to disclose the findings and that might make harder to sell. Either way, you might want to talk to your doctor about getting yearly lead tests if you are concerned about it.
As far as a renovated house , I don't know that it really makes a difference except for the fact that then you wouldn't have to do the work in the future.


ETA: We bought a pre-1940's house and didn't have it tested but that was pre-DD. We just bought a 1967 rambler and didn't have any testing done....I might test the exterior paint myself though.

[niccig]

I will say that when you buy the paint might be in good condition, but at some point, 3 years later, 5 years later, the paint will deteriorate and then you have to do something about it. Repainting involves sanding - our painters came through and sanded everything before painting - and that's what you can't do if you have lead paint. We had already removed the lead paint, so it was OK.

It's why we had an inspection when we knew we were going to have repaint the windows/doors because the paint had deteriorated. Don't buy a lead test at Home Depot - Consumer Reports did testing and I think they found about half gave false negatives - there was lead, and the Home Depot test didn't pick it up. An inspector isn't very expensive. But you must be prepared to deal with what you find and disclose it to future buyers. We have our lead inspection report, and then all the information on the work we've done to remove the hazard.

If you do the inspection as part of other house inspections, you don't own the house yet. If it's too much lead, you could use that as reason to not buy the house.

[Ceepa]

Also inspect where the windows open and close, same with doors. You know, those old-house doors that stick all the time? These are prime areas for paint to rub and flake off.