Identifying lead paint
 

I have a new client with a 4 unit apt. complex in serious need of maintenance. The owner is amiable and seems to think I know a thing or two.

The door on the unit now vacant, and the one directly above it have badly degraded paint. They are in the path of the sun much more than the other two. She is determined to follow EPA lead abatement rules on this and I guess she's right.

I'm not even certain it's lead paint. Might be, it's an old building but the door is not yet rotting and plenty of bare wood is showing under the peeled paint. Point being the paint might not be that old.

I have a bunch of the loose chips. Home Depot has a test kit for about $30, word is they may or may not work. Anybody tried it?

I thought HD had a kit for $10. Anyway they work perfectly unless it is red paint. The depth and speed of the red resulting color is proportional to the amount of lead in the paint. But with red paint, it can get confusing. Those kits from HD are the same thing an epa certified contractor would use.

Crap, it is red paint. What are the odds?

I've been researching and this site more or less says that I can use a heat gun that operates below 1100F (mine has two settings - 750 and 1000F) and be in compliance. Not sure what to do with the goo. Well wrapped in the trash?

Thinking perhaps to use orange oil based paint remover on the surface when done to loosen any residue, and then use the antidote for that, mineral spirits is what I often read does it.

A genuine EPA approved HEPA vacuum is like $400 plus. Would need that if I sand.

Knock out the hinge pins, yank the door, take it to someone who will refinish it :) Let the paint be their problemo.

That doesn't pay me as much and she wouldn't like the deal as well methinks. My reading says 1000F heat softening and a carbon filter mask and I'm good.

What are the rules concerning painting over with regular paint? The only real hazard to old lead paint is if you eat it, or sand it making lots of dust.

Peel Away
 

Use Peel Away paint remover. It consists of a lye based paste that breaks down the paint and encapsulates it in a paper film that is then peeled off and can be disposed of as the resulting paste is less than .005 PPM Lead Phosphate and is acceptable or landfill or garbage.

It is an EPA Acceptable Product and is used by many Lead Abatement firms and is available to the general public. All you need to do is wear gloves and eye protection during application/removal.

http://dumondchemicals.com

Technically, you need to be epa certified if you are doing the work for someone else. Use chemical removal like methylene chloride (yikes!) or peel away. Double bag any remnants. The epa won't do anything even if someone complains about your lack of certification, so no actual risk there. Don't breathe the fumes and don't expose kids or pregnant women to the lead.

Put on a Tyvek suit with a hood and respirator just so that your client thinks you are taking the issue seriously. Lay down plastic to catch and chips or dust and bag it. Lead based paint hazard is overrated as far as I can tell. I wouldn't encourage a regular diet of lead paint chips though.

My experience has been lead paint rules are the most ignored EPA standards in the country.

^ That has been my take as well. Perhaps I've been too slack about it. This landlady is interesting, she's kind of a cheapskate but not excessively so and treats me well. She was hit with a double-permit fee for trying to rebuild a stairway on the place with no permit before I met her. She says the EPA fines are pretty steep - I seem to recall something like $30K.

That's what I've seen done in older houses when the lead paint was still intact. On both of these doors, about half is peeling away and hanging in pieces. Just brushing it with your hand results in a lot of pieces falling off.

The other advice all good and thank you. Hadn't heard of peel-away remover. I'll look into that. They have hazardous disposal locations here and there - paint, brake fluid, etc. - I'll call them and see if they have any protocol for removed goo.

Theres all kinds of notification rules if i recall, like you have to send mailers to everyone on the block and tell them you are dealing with lead paint. I have yet to see anyone do this, or set up all the exterior BS thats supposedly required.

Guy i hired to do the outside of a house said he scrapes only, then vacuums up the chips, and calls it a day. Hes supposed to be laying out 500 yards of tarps, and all kinds of other rules that are a big enough pain that no one ever bothers to follow or enforce them.

Its a shame really that the rules are so top heavy.

I scraped and painted over a lead painted apartment recently, i just wore a respirator and never sanded.

I did see a painting company follow all the nonsense rules when scraping the exterior of a brick building recently. It made no sense to me. How many people have elevated lead levels from working with are being in the vicinity of lead paint?