Older homes - lead paint question

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:resurrecting this thread with a similar question. my pediatrician is on me to get my house tested for lead paint. the house is 100 years old; i assume there is lead paint somewhere. but we take precautions - keeping the paint in good shape and dusting the windowsills, etc, at least once a week. oh, and the previous owner replaced the windows; so there's probably less hazard there, if any. is there any benefit to doing the testing? would a lead remediation expert likely advise any remediation measures other than what we are already doing? anyone know? i guess i would at least know for sure where the lead paint is.

there are special covers to go over windows, different types of sealing paint. its worth having a pro check it out. is there a special reason your pediatrician is recommending the test? replacing the windows was a good move, so you are well on the way to having it taken care of

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:resurrecting this thread with a similar question. my pediatrician is on me to get my house tested for lead paint. the house is 100 years old; i assume there is lead paint somewhere. but we take precautions - keeping the paint in good shape and dusting the windowsills, etc, at least once a week. oh, and the previous owner replaced the windows; so there's probably less hazard there, if any. is there any benefit to doing the testing? would a lead remediation expert likely advise any remediation measures other than what we are already doing? anyone know? i guess i would at least know for sure where the lead paint is.

there are special covers to go over windows, different types of sealing paint. its worth having a pro check it out. is there a special reason your pediatrician is recommending the test? replacing the windows was a good move, so you are well on the way to having it taken care of

no special reason - she recommends that anyone who lives in an old home takes care of it *before* the child is mobile. which mine will be quite soon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nope. And 60s houses are generally okay - they started phasing out lead in the 40s and 50s I think. Make sure the paint is in good repair, get the house tested, and then if you still worry have your DC's blood tested.

We looked at houses built in the mid to late 60s and one of them we put a contract on tested positive for lead paint.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Nope. And 60s houses are generally okay - they started phasing out lead in the 40s and 50s I think. Make sure the paint is in good repair, get the house tested, and then if you still worry have your DC's blood tested.

This. Lead paint was not sold after 1950; the 1978 line was to account for any paint that was still on the shelves of homes and stores. It would be rare that a house built in the 60s would ever have had lead paint in it. Ask your home inspector.

This is absolutely NOT true. We had an inspector find lead paint in a house built in the mid-60s.

[Anonymous]

The quality of pre 1960 construction outweighs the minimal and fixable lead paint risk.