Easy/Cheap way to remove (lead) paint?

By gaikokujinkyofusho

Hi, my family has an old house and we just finished removing old sheetrock that was just horrible looking. I quite like the bead board (the real thing not that sheet of bead board stuff) underneath and am thinking about keeping it exposed (at least on the ceiling) but all of it is covered in lead paint and all the other woodwork (door/window frames etc) as well as the outside (which *really* needs to be stripped/repainted) is all covered in lead paint. This house is pretty much a "family retreat" now and my uncle is worried about the lead paint and his children and in truth I am not sure if I want to expose my kids to lead paint (not that I think they will be licking the walls or anything). So, I want to strip at least most of the paint off and repaint it but wanted to see if anyone had any suggestions i.e. machines, recommended masks, tools, methods, etc about how best to go about this. Someone had suggested sand blasting but while I like to think this house is fairly sturdy (old house) it is still made of mostly pine which strikes me as being a bit soft for something like sandblasting. I have tried chemicals in another project and that just doesnâ€™t seem to be realistic for a 4k sq ft house. Any ideas would really be appreciated! Cheers -Gaiko

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paint Lead tools tips Toxic

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January 12, 2007

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About: Sense of Style: Souther Victorian meets LL Bean Love about my house: Old family home...

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erinn

January 17, 2007

I would definitely check your local zoning/building codes as Manzabar suggested for laws relative to lead-based paint abatement. Definitely don't sandblast it. That will creat the dust particles that can be easily injested. As far as your children being exposed, the only way for them to be exposed if they injest dust particles or to eat paint flakes that have fallen off and they would have to eat a lot of it. Your best bet is to scrape off everything that is loose, collect all the flakes, clean up with soap and water and then paint over it to seal in all the suspected lead. This process obviously won't give you a totally smooth (or like-new) surface to paint over, but that's part of the charm of an old house.

gaikokujinkyofusho

January 16, 2007

If anyone is interested i posted on to a few groups on Usenet as well and got a few responses:
here

or here http://tinyurl.com/y4t5nm

gaikokujinkyofusho

January 16, 2007

Thanks for the suggestions; the "job for professionals" is not particularly encouraging since that would probably be kinda expensive (there are other high dollar things that need to be done to the house as well). The stripper certainly sounds like the safer way to go but this is a large house with walls and bead board not just a few doorways. I will check out the pricing on professional lead paint removal and go from there. thanks all, -Gaiko

Senseless

January 15, 2007

If you're going to use paint stripper a good trik is to lay a heavy coat on brushing just once in rows to get an even coat and cover it with some 6mil plastic. Paint stripper makes a seal and the fumes get under and lift the paint so the longer it stays wet and the longer the fumes are held against the paint the more effective it is.

Strippper would be preferable to sanding and turning the lead into dust that you might inhale days later.

Manzabar

January 12, 2007

Ron Hazelton (PBS home repair guy, think lower budget This Old House) has a page on his website talking about this subject: Remove Lead Paint

BungalowHome has some tips on doing this as well.

Lowes claims this is a job for professionals on their page about Lead-Based Paint.

The Childern's Health Environmental Coalition also says this is a job for a professional.

I'd say you might want to check into the laws in your area to see if you're even allowed to do this sort of work yourself and then think very carefully about whether you want to expose yourself to these sorts of hazards (remember lead is highly toxic!).