Easy/Cheap way to remove (lead) paint?

[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 doesn't seem to be realistic for a 4k sq ft house.

Any ideas would really be appreciated!

Cheers

-Gaiko

[Tim S]

Sheetrock = plasterboard - but what's bead board?

I don't think it's much of a problem unless it's flaking - here in the UK, it was lead paint on toys that caused most of the concern, domestically, what with the sprogs chewing on them. Having said that, we don't use lead generally these days. Pink lead primer was very common 20 years ago when I were a lad. Half the houses here must still have coats of it buried under subsequent layers of whatever. If it's stable enough to paint over, I personally would just paint over it, with a non leaded paint of course :)

If it were me, I'd probably go for a hot air gun and scraper - soften, scrape off, sweep up. Boring job, but not insurmountable. Perhaps less likely to produce noxious fumes than a blowtorch, and better than sanding as you'll not be trying to guard against breathing the dust which will get everywhere. I'm not an expert on lead paint BTW - that's just how I'd consider doing it - hang around for more replies...

Another option might be chemical stripper. I have a feeling that I read somewhere that lead paint goes weird with some chemical strippers, but one that might be worth a try is a product, that is, in the UK, called "Ronstrip". It's more or less, AFAICT caustic soda, lime powder and a few other things, probably plasticisers. Mix with water to a thick paste, apply 1/4" or so thick, leave for hours/overnight, peel/wash off. Tends to reduce paint to a liquid then soak it up into the lime. Still messy, expensive (unless you make your own from the raw components as I did once, though it wasn't as easy to handle) and tends to raise the grain on pine.

Cheers

Tim

[Steve Barker]

The ENTIRE issue with lead paint is kids eating it. Practice normal (but unusual) parent supervision and don't let your kids eat the frikkin woodwork and there is no problem.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Sand blasting and sanding is NOT the way to go. Lead paint sitting on the walls is harmless, but blasting or sanding will create a lot of dust that can be a problem. I'd probably opt for chemical strippers since I've had good luck with them re-finishing some furniture. Spray it on, then just scrape the paint away. Some normal chemical precautions must be taken, of course.

Heat may work, but that is time consuming and if you use a flame, somewhat a danger.

[gort]

Please dont top post, it makes threads very hard to follow.

Dave

[Cheri]

Please dont top post, it makes threads very hard to follow.

Dave

What makes things even harder to follow, is not snipping. I am placing a number one wreath on you...for snipping for relevance and content. When one has to scroll through pages and pages and pages of content...to get... I told you so or some such nonsense, any top poster looks good, and BTW I have never had a problem following posters, top or bottom.

Cheri

[Anna Kettle]

Dont use a hot air gun to remove lead paint. Chemical strippers is the best way to remove it and the cheapest way to do this is to mix up caustic soda and water, paint on, cover with cling film, allow to soften and remove with a scraper. Horrible job though (I know cos I did all my window frames last summer) and probably not worth the effort. Just paint over it. If your kids start chewing the walls then they are very bored. Buy them a new computer game

Anna

[Norminn]

Not quite - dry sanding indoors can permeate the place with lead dust that is breathed in or, in the case of small children with everything going the "taste test", being eaten.

Indoors, chemical stripper would be the way to go if the lead paint MUST be removed. Outdoors, torch or heat gun. I used a torch to get rid of heavy old paint on house trim; not a huge undertaking. Always, containment and disposal of waste is important.

[jd]

don't do anything until you get some info. Lead paint is a hazard to adult as well as kids.

Remediation is pretty easy - you scrape/sand/strip as usualy, but with one excepstion: the dust that you create is really toxic, so you need to keep everything wet while you work (this will turn the dust into mud, which can be contained). Collect up all the mud, and either bury it somewhere that you don't care about, or mix it with plaster to make is solid, and throw it out.

Once you've finished stripping, plan on "rinsing" the entire interior of hte house to get rid of any dust that got away. - I spnge and a lot of clean water will do a good job here.

The risk is that the dust will be very fine, so breathing it gets it into your system. the reason kids are more prone to lead toxicity is becuase they like the (sweet) taste of the paint, so if its chipping or pealing, they will nibble at it. The other hazard is to kids that are at the stage where everything goes into their mouth - the kids crawls along the floor, and sticks everything they find into their mouth. Of course, everythign on the flor has a fine coating of lead dust.... The dust is usually worst when door or windows are painted with lead paint. the friction of opening and closing the door/window abrades off very fine particles that hang in the air and drift all over the house...

Just so that you know what your getting into: the treatment for adult lead poisening is to check into the hospital, and take a slew of nasty drugs that chelate the lead in your system, allowing it to be excreted (yes, you sill be shi**ing a literal lead brick). Of course, the side effects of the meds include horrible headaches, vomiting, and pretty much the crappiest week or two you will ever spend this side of ICU. Oh yeah, and IV feeding because you can't keep anything down....

Lower doses of lead are treated by taking mega doses of iron, which will either give you diarhea like you can't imagine, or constipate you beyond belief, depending on your physiollogy.

The extra hazard that kids have is that up to about 6-8 years old, thier brains are still developing, and the lead interferes with the development. the result is anything from very little (for very low doses) to sever retardation for large doses. Oh yeah, and a really big dose will kill you...

--JD

[Steve Barker]

please don't waste bandwidth telling me how to post. top posting is really the only sensible way to do it. This way you don't have to scroll down through what you've already read to see the new reply. And if you do need a review, THEN you can scroll down. Thanks for your input.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Sensible to you, dumb to most of the rest of us. Learn to snip.

[gaikokujinkyofusho]

but what's bead board?

Its easier to show pictures:

unless it's flaking - here in the UK,

gun and scraper - soften,

[gaikokujinkyofusho]

Thanks to all for your suggestions. It is somewhat comforting to hear (from multiple sources) that lead paint isn't as much of an issue if its not flaking. On the outside it is flaking alot, as well as on lots of the doorways and window frames but most of the walls of bead board are not flaking and i *think* only have one layer of paints so i might try chemical stripper on the flaking areas (using stripper does seem expensive though).

I have a heat gun, does anyone know about face masks that can protect against those fumes (I have masks for "leaded dust" but i doubt those would help with gases.

cheers

-Gaiko

[bigjim]