Lead Paint In Older Homes

Lead was in household paint in Australia for most of the twentieth century, at high concentrations early on and in reducing amounts until it was effectively phased out.

Which means a house built or painted before about 1970 very likely has lead paint somewhere, usually under later coats. Left alone and intact, it is not doing much. Disturbed, it is a genuine health risk, and children are the ones affected.

The risk is in the dust, not the paint

Intact paint, sealed under later layers, is largely inert.

The risk appears when it is sanded, scraped, burnt, blasted or power washed, because all of those turn a coating into dust or fumes that can be inhaled or swallowed. Which makes paint preparation the hazardous activity rather than the paint itself.

It also appears where paint is deteriorating on its own: flaking, chalking or powdering surfaces shed lead into the soil and onto surfaces where it gets handled.

Where it turns up

Windows and doors, which were almost always enamelled, and which generate dust every time they rub in the frame. The highest risk location in a house because of that friction.

Skirtings, architraves and sills, for the same reason, and because they sit at child height.

External weatherboards and trim, often with many layers and often chalking.

Ceilings and walls in older rooms.

Soil around the perimeter of an older house, where decades of flaking exterior paint have accumulated.

Metalwork, including railings, gates and roofing, where the primer rather than the topcoat carries it.

How it is confirmed

Not by looking at it. The options are a laboratory test on a paint sample, a field testing kit for an indication, or an assessment by somebody competent.

For most residential maintenance, the practical approach is to assume lead is present in any pre-1970 paint and work accordingly, because the controls are not onerous and testing every element is not proportionate. On a large job, or where the work will generate a lot of dust, a test is worth having because it changes the method and the cost.

The controls that matter

Do not dry sand. This is the single most important rule. Dry sanding lead paint produces fine dust that travels through the house and settles on everything.

Wet methods instead, wet sanding or wet scraping, which keeps the dust down and captures it.

No heat guns, no blow torches, no abrasive blasting, all of which produce fumes or airborne particles.

Sheet and seal the work area, with plastic on the floor and over openings, so the dust that is generated is contained to one room rather than distributed.

Switch off the air conditioning, because a ducted system will move the dust through the whole house in minutes. Which is a step that is almost never taken and is the reason contamination spreads so far, and it sits alongside the general point about ducted systems in [split system servicing, what goes wrong](/blog/split-system-servicing-what-goes-wrong).

Clean up properly, with a vacuum fitted with the right filtration and a wet wipe down afterwards. A domestic vacuum passes the fine particles straight through and out the exhaust.

Keep children, pregnant occupants and pets out of the work area and off the paths where dust might have travelled, for the duration and until the clean up is confirmed.

Dispose of the waste as the regulations require rather than in the household bin.

The option that is usually better: leave it in place

Removing lead paint is the most expensive and highest risk way to deal with it.

Which is why encapsulation is frequently the right answer: prepare the surface with wet methods to a sound, stable condition, then seal it under a coating designed to bond over it. The lead stays where it is, bound under a new film, and the hazard is removed without generating the dust.

That only works on a sound substrate, and the preparation discipline is the same as in [painting over a failed surface](/blog/painting-over-a-failed-surface), with the wet methods substituted for sanding.

Where an element cannot be encapsulated, because it is a friction surface or because it is too far gone, replacement of the component is often less costly and safer than stripping it. A window sash that binds and sheds dust every time it is opened is a candidate for replacement rather than repainting, which connects to [sliding doors and window hardware that stick](/blog/sliding-doors-and-window-hardware-that-stick).

Where it changes a job

Any repaint of a pre-1970 property, which is the main one, and the reason the preparation line on the quote is larger than people expect.

Window and door repairs, because the work is at the friction surface.

Removing or replacing skirtings and architraves, per [skirtings, architraves and the damage that shows](/blog/skirtings-architraves-and-the-damage-that-shows).

Any renovation in an older home, where demolition disturbs painted surfaces.

Heritage work, where the paint cannot simply be removed and the approach has to respect the fabric, which is the territory of [heritage terraces, what changes about a trade job](/blog/heritage-terraces-what-changes-about-a-trade-job).

How we handle it

The age of the building is the first question on any painting or carpentry scope, and anything pre-1970 is scoped with wet methods, containment and a proper clean up in the price rather than added later.

Which means the quote is higher than one that assumed dry sanding, and the job does not contaminate the property. Where lead is confirmed and the extent is significant, the work is sequenced so one team handles the containment, the preparation, the repair and the finish rather than four trades each generating dust in turn.

Our building work. Talk to us about a property.