Historic homes were built when materials and building codes were different than they are now. Some of those changes were made because of hazards found in the “old’ ways of doing things. One of those things is lead based paint. I want to discuss that today. (I’m discussing it as a real estate agent, not a hazmat professional. I will refer to them for the best info.)

Lead based paint is a paint that has lead in it. We have learned over time that lead poisoning is not a good thing because lead is bad for our bodies. I saw a home a couple years ago that was painted with lead based paint in the 1950s and the paint was still pristine. It was amazing and made me realize why this type of paint was popular - it was long lasting and thus money saving.

Fortunately human health and welfare is more important than the lasting quality of the paint on our walls so laws in the country changed. As of 1978, lead based paint was not longer legal to use in homes in the United States. If you purchase a home that was built prior to 1978, there is a chance that there is lead based paint somewhere in the home. It’s likely that it’s buried under layers and layers of paint by now, but you need to know that it could exist.

My understanding is that it becomes dangerous to you if it is allowed to enter your body. This could happen if you are eating paint chips (not recommended), sanding off old paint to expose woodwork, or removing flaking paint to prepare a surface for new paint. When doing this you need to make sure that you are not inhaling any of the dust created from the sanding. And if you are working on the exterior of the home, you need to catch any paint chips that come off the house. You cannot allow lead based paint to get onto the ground because it could get into the ground water and contaminate it.

You can have a home tested for lead based paint anytime - you can even do it as part of your home inspection if you want. I believe you can buy kits to test it yourself and some hardware stores too. I think it’s most important to test before you do a project that could expose the paint to make sure you keep yourself and others safe.

For more info from a more reputable source than me, I’m going to attach a pamphlet that the EPA has published about Protecting yourself from lead based paint.