Lead paint removal

[marta.sosnowskaconra]

Hi,

I am trying to assess a situation at my home.

I decided to renovate a staircase in my Victorian property in London.

When we removed carpet from the stairs we found lead paint on the steps (beautiful red colour and some other white paint over it, but also wood not painted at all). The other wooden areas covered in layers of paint seem to have lead paint underneath as indicated by the swabs of paint chips (cheap Amazon ones).

The staircase is in a lovely shape minus the lead paint.

Now, a few carpenters want to do dry sanding, the painter wants to dry sand the wooden areas with multiple layers of paint to prepare for further painting.

What I find on the internet warns against imminent brain damage to all and environment contamination, no exposure is safe!!! This great danger seems not to be mediated by anything else rather than some strict government guidance with no enforcement regarding the consequences of not applying it.

I do not want to do the chemical peel myself, the carpenter and the painter do not want to do wet sanding - they are telling me that I am crazy asking them to do that.

I could paint to encapsulate but this feels more of a Chernobyl approach, also apparently the existing paint needs to be tested if still ok, if it peels off I should not paint but do the chemical peel.

If I was to do it, apparently I would have to use a hepa 14 filter vacuum which costs £400 to buy and£130 to rent. Plus protective clothing, masks, googles, sealing every bit of the house from the dangerous dust....

I live in a house with an 8 year old.

What to do? It feels trully kafesque

 

[JohnD]

Start by getting it tested.

 

[endecotp]

a few carpenters want to do dry sanding, the painter wants to dry sand the wooden areas with multiple layers of paint to prepare for further painting.

Idiots.

But frankly, it’s mostly them who will breath it in if they use proper extraction while sanding. Still not recommended though.

What I find on the internet warns against imminent brain damage to all and environment contamination, no exposure is safe!!!

Not really, lead is cumulative, the danger is long-term exposure (like your tradesmen will get over their career). For you, maybe if you breath it all in it will make you 1% less smart or something. It’s not like asbestos.

I do not want to do the chemical peel myself

This is a DIY site. Why not do it yourself if you cannot find someone to do it for you?

 

[JohnD]

I knew a builder who got early-onset dementia due to working with lead years ago.

He went from working and runnjng a business, to having to be led around by his wife, in less than three years.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

How do they know lead paint caused that?

 

[JohnD]

Lead test of the brain in hospital, I believe.

It might not have been paint. He had also made wiped lead joints in old plumbing.

Lead is known to damage the nervous system and brain, it most often happens to babies and children who are particularly vulnerable.

The removal of Lead from petrol is considered to have led to the reduction, twenty years later, of crime, especially violent crime.

I suppose because brain damaged people may not behave as well as they might otherwise.

You might be interested to read the news of damage to children still happening near old Welsh lead mines.

 

[opps]

You can "safely" remove lead based paint with a heat gun at 450°c.

I have been decorating for years, I tend to dry sand with my sanders connected to an L class dust extractor (not even a M class with a HEPA). I am not aware of having been harmed by lead. Most the houses that I work in are Victorian. I am not discounting the risks of lead, but, I do think that concerns are often over inflated.

As a child I probably consumed more lead by breathing in car exhaust fumes.

 

[marta.sosnowskaconra]

Thank you all, it is a shame that there is no clear health and safety guidance about this issue and proactive policy about reducing harm, I also love it that in London you will not find a company that will remove lead paint from a residential property, due to insurance considerations - even if it is vacated for the duration of the work, as they cannot ensure that the lead dust would travel into rooms even with all the required measures in place!

 

[marta.sosnowskaconra]

I think I decided, from the stairs where the one layer of cover paint is flaking off, I will do a mixture of heat gun and chemical peel if needed, I need advice about what to do with the areas that have multiple layers of oil paint (skirting, dado rails, banister, door frames), the plasterer left a lot of plaster on those when he was plastering, and now is keen to do shallow sand dusting to prep for painting, the paint on these is not in a bad shape but it is damaged at places from impact, I do not want further damage, I also do not want to do encapsulation, I thought that I would do the same method with these area but my painter is telling me that it is "stupid", "putting a rope on my neck", and that it will damage the plastering job he did, and that it will take months. I do not want to be stupid (more that I am already), I do not want to put a rope on my neck (, and I do not want to work on this project for months and destroy the precious plaster he had put on. If it was safe what he said, I would go ahead but he said so many things which were incorrect with the same certainty ( wanting to put gypsum plaster and hardwall on a dump cold wall that requires lime plaster after it is treated), he also was on an occasion right. Any suggestions about how to move forward? should I ignore the little voice that thinks that shallow dry dusting is not great or consider let's say wet dusting (my painter will explode with frustration if I suggest that). I am thinking about all of this as my son is 8 years old and I would like to ensure that I do not cause him harm.