How to remove lead-based paint

leadpaint

I live in an older home (built c. 1920) and I am positive that it's full of lead-based paint. When we bought the house, there was NO wood exposed anywhere in the house. The previous owners covered every inch of any natural wood with layers and layers of paint. Well, my do-it-yourself type husband removed much of the paint in an effort to expose, sand and refinish some of the wood baseboards, door trim and trim around the room transitions. Unfortunately, he's notorious for leaving projects half-finished so there are a couple places where there is not a clean transition between painted and unpainted wall/wood. Long question short… What's the best way to seal off these transitions to limit the exposure of the lead-based paint hiding underneath? We have a very mobile 10mo daughter and it's imperative that any lead-based paint be sealed away from her. Any ideas?

Best Answer

Stop sanding immediately! Lead based dust is the worst threat of all. Simply painting over it to encapsulate it is the simplest measure.

To fully remove the lead paint is a big chore, and important to do right. Look for local community classes if you can - the local one here had some classes on lead certification. The short answer is, you have to seal the area off with plastic, wear a hazmat suit, scrape it all off and remove the paint from the premise, and then clean up all the dust.

You can google around and turn up tons of hits for lead removal procedures, here's the first I found and looks pretty good:

http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/eh/lead/homes/interior.html

One tool I used in my own lead paint removal was http://www.speedheater.us/

While it is stated not to use heat guns to remove lead paint, this one is a much lower temperature version that is much safer. The fumes are still an issue so make sure there is ventilation to outside while working. (Not related to speed heater, just a happy customer)

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