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minni_ash
member
Need Advice: What should I do about lead paint?
minni_ash
member
My husband and I are relocating and were planning on moving into a 2 bedroom house that is 80+ years old. I am 5 months pregnant and we are planning on stay for 1 year before buying a permanent home. Our baby will probably live there for the first 5 months of his/her life. The landlord emailed me a copy of the lease and a copy of the home inspection that took place when he bought the house. No one ever tested for lead. I have been reading articles that say most homes built before 1978 will have lead based paint and potentially even lead piping. This home does not have lead piping but may have lead based paint. The entire home has been repainted and even has wall paper in some rooms and then paint over top of that wallpaper. The landlord said he would go purchase a home test kit for lead from Lowes and would get back to me with the results. I have been frantically doing my homework trying to get as much info on this as possible. I called the center for disease control and they said that it is only a concern if I or the baby ingest paint chips or paint dust. CDC also said that to create dust, you have to be doing sanding or sawing or some other kind of constuction to create dust. IT still makes me nervouse because now I'm realizing that it's not just about my husband and me anymore... we're responsible for our baby! (My mother in law says "Welcome to parenthood... you never stop worrying") lol I need advice on what to do! It still makes me nervous to move in but the house is such a good price and in a good location.
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Re: Need Advice: What should I do about lead paint?
The CDC is correct- lead paint is only an issue if it's ingested or inhaled. If you're not going to have work done on the house (I'm assuming not since it sounds like you'll be renting), and you're only going to be there for a year while you have an infant, I wouldn't worry too much about it. Especially if it's covered up.
How do you know there aren't lead pipes? Has the water been tested for lead? A lot of times surface pipes are replaced, but not the lower/ground pipes, so you can't just look at them and tell. Definitely make sure to have the water tested for lead.
Me:27, DH:28 - DX: MFI, varicocele repair Nov 2011
Post-Op SA: Count- 15 million, Motility- 75%, Morphology- 3%
IVF with ICSI - Stimming 10/4/12 - 10/13/12, Lupron Trigger
ER 10/18/12, 12 eggs retrieved, 8 mature, 5 fertilized
5 day transfer 10/23/12, 3 frosties
Beta #1 11/5/12: 453, Beta #2 11/7/12: 1,013, DD born 7/19/13
With lead paint, you can re paint over w/o any problems. If you have to sand the walls, say there was a wall that needed to patched up from holes, then that leads to a problem, you will put the dust everywhere. You cannot control the dust. You can even paint over the wall paper which I imagine since they did paint over the wallpaper,that room has lead paint which is why it was not taken down. To repaint over that, i would get your dh to KILZ it (you can get that at lowes) then repaint, it will look much nicer not seeing the wallpaper come through the paint. YOU should not be in the house while he kilz the paper, it is very strong! After the smell if gone, If you want to help paint, you can, just use a mask ( a paper one is fine,it will cut down on the smell)
Me and my dh paint for a living (well not me now
)
We live in a 100+ year old house. I also handle environmental insurance claims.... as long as your child is not chewing on the windowsill, eating chipped paint or around someone sanding paint you are fine.
We even have asbesto siding on our house, that is more of a concern of mine than the lead paint. But even with that unless you break the siding and get it to flake, its not an issue.