Concern on lead levels in an older home?

[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.