Hello Fellow BPers!

So my wife and I just purchased our first property (woo) and started rehabbing the kitchen.

It has wallpaper all over, so we are trying to take them off. However, since the house is built in 1947, and in the sellers disclosure, the sellers weren't sure if the paint contained lead, we are assuming it does. Which means when taking off the wallpaper, we are likely to encounter lead paint.

While we were scraping the wallpaper off, we started to wonder about the lead paint underneath...

How strictly do you follow the guidelines for lead paint when removing wallpaper? We are thinking about buying respirators, but would it be enough? We don't have any children.

Let me know what you think or do!

Thanks!

Buy lead tests. If it changes to red, it's lead.  White paint has 50 times more lead.

Take it seriously.  You need to do research.

Isolation, wet work,  respirators, PPE, block vents, etc. 

It can still affect you.  The body confuses lead with iron, it is stored in your bones.

It's not hard,  just be careful, research,  think,  be smart.  Read about lead encapsulation (paint). EPA allows you to remove lead up to a certain SF without permits.  

In IL, if you test,  you must disclose . It's up to you what documentation and paper trail you want to have.  I wouldn't reach out to inspectors. 

Call a few contractors for quotes and get ideas

Hello Koki!  Laws are different from state to state,. I've worked on many residential remodeling projects for about 30 years in Texas and what I've experienced like in your case I would first talk to your local head City inspector to see what he expects based on your knowledge and to know what they are or will be looking for.  

The wallpaper and paint work probably would have to be done by a qualified contractor. Scraping that wallpaper off and disturbing the paint underneath is probably a big no-no.  They would allow covering it up which might be doable with a heavy residential or commercial wallpaper but repainting by a quality and qualified contractor would probably be too expensive. 

You might not have planned wallpaper cover up before but might be the cheapest source to deal with that problem.  I would recommend you speak to a local City building inspector before going any farther on that until you talk to them and see what they would expect.  

They tend to expect a difficult and expensive solution to keep their butts out of legal disruption.  They tend to suggest a "cover up" solution that does not include any disruption of the existing paint, especially any wall repair where lead paint exists.

They will not care about you having any kids or not.  Common sense will probably not be used here.  Safety and security will. If you are going to be doing the same stuff around there you will be spending much time down there.so get use to doing that and building a relationship with them.

The better you get to know them, you'll be treated better.  This all is based on my Dallas experience.  I have spent much of my time in their office trying to find out how to do many things and keep them off of my back.

Good luck to both of y'all!

@Koki Agata

You really should follow them very strictly. Just a bit, eg few flakes as I recall, and you’ll have high lead levels. When the lead dust transfers on your clothes, you’ll be tracking it around everywhere which will only sicken everybody else. Then whomever moves in will get sick..

Don’t assume, test. Not every old home has lead paint.

@Koki Agata

Common-sense precautions go a long way when DIYing lead abatement. Read this:

https://www.epa.gov/lead/renovation-repair-and-painting-program-do-it-yourselfers

You'll be fine. Every house built before the 1970s can be expected to have lead paint in it.