House Renovation - safe during pregnancy?

[Anonymous]

phew! Luckily I haven't been living at the house while we have been renovating but I have visited it to see how everything is going and I was worried about the exposure of Lead and other toxins. I have worn a dust mask each time I've entered but I know that toxins can get through that so I have been freaking out a little! Strangely enough though, when I was pregnant with my first we renovated our bathroom and kitchen while I lived at the house and I didn't worry a bit - he is now an active and very bright 4 year old!

[Anonymous]

We renovated our master bed/bath while pregnant, and replaced all the floors upstairs. I/we had no problems. Ours is not a house with asbestos or lead in it, however.

I was a total nag about getting the renovation done BEFORE baby arrived, though. I didn't want fumes, dust, NOISE while my baby was napping. It was done in the nick of time.

[Anonymous]

We lived in an old rowhouse buitl in 1880s when pregnant with first (and until he was 2). Of course windowsills and baseboards tested + for lead paint. We did major renovations prior to my pregnancy and then some minor and painting when I was pregnant and when baby was 1. I was such a neurotic mess. I had myself and child tested about 3-4 times for lead exposure. Neither of us were ever + or even had any detectable lead levels in our blood. My pediatrician kept telling me the baby and I would have to be eating huge amounts of paint chips to be effected. This, of course, is contrary to what you read on the Internet which claims even a grain of salt sized lead dust particle will poision you. I don't know what to believe.

Flash forward 4 years later. I am currently living in a hotel with a toddler and 4 year old while we tear down some walls of a house built in the 1930s. There is dust all over the downstairs...to make matters worse..the first day they did not shut off the HVAC system so they sucked the dust all over!!! gdamn it!!

I am keeping the kids out. I have a renovation cleaning crew coming right after renovation is complete; we also have a air duct and HVAC cleaner sheducled first avail in 1 week but we won't run it until then. A few days after the renovation cleaning crew...I will have my regular cleaning lady come because I know sometimes it settles. Luckily the new furniture hasn't arrived yet. Still worried that part of the old couch wasn't completely covered up--plan to have cleaning crew steam clean it. It's expensive but I am neurotic and would rather be overly cautious.

One thing overlooked is that kids on healthy diets---partic. calcium and iron rich don't absorb the lead as readily. That is one of the reasons poison. is more prevalent in lower income areas-sad.

I plan to have both kids tested about 1 month after we move back in because that is how long it will take to register in their blood.

[Anonymous]

What are the contractors doing to lessen the dust?

They should be putting up tarps, keeping the windows open (especially with such mild outdoor temps), and covering the vents/ducts so dust/dirt don't get into the ducts).

Granted, that isn't 100% fool proof but that should help.

Are you at high risk? Or have respirarotry problems OP?

Remember, your body and placenta are very good at filtering out a lot of pollutants/germs/toxins so don't worry too much.

We re-modeled the kitchen and bath - complete overhauls when I was pregnant. Me, the baby, and the dog were all fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Have a really good post-construction cleaner come when you are done - they should go over all the walls, baseboards, doors, furniture etc. It'll be expensive, but worth it. The dust can take a week or so to settle sometimes, but the cleaning really helps. And I second the low/no-VOC paint and floor stuff. It makes a HUGE difference. No new paint smell, but I guess that's what's bad for yoU!

Any recommendations for a post-renovation cleaning crew? I went with one of the well known name cleaning companies and the 2 women they sent just did a regular style cleaning even though they did a renovation rate...I had to keep going around and telling them not to use a feather duster...wet wipe everything!! I find the majority out there are like this. Luckily i work from home so spent the day checking in and following them around and telling them how and what i wanted done (for the record i am not this neurotic for regular cleanings). i also had the air duct/hvac cleaning done. I know nothing can be 100% but i am fairly confident that what is left behind is in such trace amts it won't harm any of us.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the stories! I am only 6 weeks pregnant but I have been renovating for the past 2 months and was really worried about the drywall dust. I feel much better now. Does anyone know anthing about potential asbestos exposure while pregnant? We were ripping out the kitchen sub-floor which contained 5 layers of old laminate flooring. The house was built in 1958 and we were later told that the old laminates may have contained asbestos. I can't imagine it was a lot and i was only exposed for a few hours but i'm still paranoid. Any info would be helpful to ease my mind. thanks!

[Anonymous]

We did major renovation to our open-floor-plan condo while I was pregnant. We had no need to be concerned about asbestos or lead, though if they were an issue, I would have stayed at a friends' house. However, I did help with painting - lots of fans and windows open even though it was 40 outside. But I slept elsewhere if the last coat of paint wasn't dry by bedtime, since we figured sleeping overnight with the fumes wasn't the best thing. To help with cleanup, we sealed the bedrooms up with tape and plastic sheeting and of course shut of the HVAC and opened windows - I was a little nuts about it. We vacuumed up all the dust after each major 'project' with a shop-vac outfitted with a HEPA filter (which we also replaced frequently). We did wipe down the walls with a damp cloth when all was said and done, and I did a thorough cleaning/dusting of the floors, ceiling fan, etc. But i did it myself and minimized the amount of dust I was stirring up. Plus, it was heavier, 'stickier' dust than you'd expect. Tack cloths were very helpful as well - you can get them at home depot, they are sticky cloths that are made to remove fine sawdust after sanding wood.
So in general, just avoiding being there while the dust is being made and thrown into the air is helpful, taking preventative measures so you have a 'clean room' and don't have to deep-clean the entire house after, and not sticking around to inhale fumes overnight when they're strong, is enough I think. You'll have to live without HVAC or fans until you get it cleaned up (if you have a forced air system) but if you're also concerned about breathing stuff in while you're cleaning up (again, sheetrock and wood dust is pretty heavy), you can certainly wear a dust mask.
Good luck tolerating the mess with all the clean freak pregnancy hormones! For me, that was the hardest part.

[Anonymous]

My concern reading all of this later, is the baby may have been born healthy but no one is talking about possible long term effects that might arise due to the exposure during these tasks. Some things won't show their ugly heads for many years to come to yourself or your child. I would be finding out what things that you can be exposed to that would cross the placenta and cause possible long term harm to my baby that may not show now but later. I would wait to finish them or not be around during any of it nor invovled with the cleanup of it. I would lean on the side of caution with anything I did while pregnant.