Don't have the money to hire someone to come out and take care of this for me.I'm just looking for the quickest, safest, and cleanest way of removing the old flakeing paint so that i can repaint.I also have a 3 year old boy at home and dont want to cause him and problems.Its all exterior.Any ideas would be greatly helpful.
2006-10-02 13:34:58 · 9 answers · asked by smokeybono 1 in Home & Garden ➔ Do It Yourself (DIY)
Depending on the state you live in, you may be able to just catch the flakes in a dropcloth and dispose of in the trash. I know that Massachusetts recently relaxed the law to allow that because people were painting over loose paint to avoid all the hazardous waste issues. This caused more polution in peoples yards, so they figured it would be better to have it all in a landfill than in peoples flower beds.
Just check with the local building dept. or the environmental agency in your state.
2006-10-02 13:48:32 · answer #1 · answered by normobrian 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Can you test for lead paint? - Yes. Most hardware type store have lead kits that you can cheaply get.
Will it detect lead paint? - Yes/No. Yes it will detect lead paint in the sample that you provide. That's the problem, unless you sample every bit of paint on your house you can't be positive that it doesn't have lead paint.
Does your house have lead paint? - Probably. Lead was used as an additive to stop mold as was prevelent during the years your house was built.
The only way lead paint is dangerous to your 3 year old is ingestion. A lot of people suggested vaccuming which in your case wouldn't work because you stated its exterior only. So you have to choices scraping or preasure washing. All you need to do is take off the loose chips and then paint over. Sounds easy huh? The hard part is you have to ensure you remove all paint chips from the ground so that you child can't eat them.
2006-10-02 14:51:00 · answer #2 · answered by fred s 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Gloom and doom. The Romans drank and ate from lead containers, it took 1000 years for Rome to fall. Don't eat the paint, lead or not, and you will be fine. I was born in 1944, my dad and I used to scrape and paint houses. He died at 77 from pneumonia, I am 62, and in good health. Take a good look at the number of Baby Boomers living today. We all lived in houses painted with lead, inside and out. In 60 years they will find that latex is toxic, no wait, in 60 years the world will be destroyed because of global warming.
2006-10-02 16:50:08 · answer #3 · answered by T C 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I am positive, without a test kit, that you are dealing with lead based paint. Oil based paints, especially white, up to 1978 contained varying amounts of lead. Lead paint is particularly hazardous when scraped or sanded off. The fine lead dust gets into your system faster, and your body can not dispose of it. TOXIC. You will be putting yourself and your family at risk if you don't know what you are doing. State laws vary on the lead paint issue. Check with the local building commissioner.
2006-10-02 14:33:08 · answer #4 · answered by uncle bob 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Get a lead paint test kit at the hardware store. They might have a few ideas there on how to get rid of the flaking paint, like using a shop vac to suck it up while you scrape, and the rest you can paint over and seal it away.
2006-10-02 13:44:04 · answer #5 · answered by Jerry L 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
no question, it is lead based. latex wasn't even thought of back then. you have no choice but to scrape off all you can and then paint over it. oh wait. somebody has prob repainted since then haven't they. well there will be lead paint down there somewhere as there are multiple layers i would think.. get your vacum cleaner out and suck it up as you scrape. then you won't have anything to worry about and the neighbors won't either. [don't pick a windy day ]
2006-10-02 14:00:06 · answer #6 · answered by La-z Ike 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If you don't have the money to remove it, remove the loose flakes with a wire brush...and paint over it with a latex paint.
2006-10-02 16:48:49 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Don't eat the paint chips and all will be good!
2006-10-02 13:52:23 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
get money by inventing stuff and selling em
2006-10-02 14:26:05 · answer #9 · answered by Lisan Hasan 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋