Is there lead in my paint, and how do I strip it safely?

Where lead paint sits

The Lead Alert guide lists where white lead, the main white pigment in most housepaints for many years, went: topcoats on structural timbers, weatherboards, window and door frames, cement rendering on homes, and fences and railings, blended into pastel and mid-strength colours. Undercoats matter as much. A mix of red and white lead pigments, known as pink primer, went on interior and exterior timbers, trowelled plaster walls and cement-rendered surfaces, and acted as the top coat on external weatherboards.

A fence is one more place to check: the Lead Alert guide notes that galvanised iron fences built from recycled roof iron often carry red lead paint on their overlapping laps.

SA Health’s lead paint pages are blunt about the limit of your eyes: it is not possible to know whether paint has lead in it by its appearance alone. The same pages add that a newer house, shed or fence is not automatically in the clear, because old lead-based paint can sit under coats added since, and jobs like removing walls or replacing ceilings, flooring and carpets can mobilise dust or flakes left behind by an earlier renovation.

The dust is the reason the paint’s age matters at all. The Lead Alert guide explains that children take lead in when they touch contaminated dust or soil and then put their fingers or toys in their mouths, and it records that children can absorb up to 60 per cent of the lead they swallow, where adults absorb about one tenth. If you suspect that you or someone else has been exposed to lead, NSW Health says to see a doctor, or to contact a local public health unit on 1300 066 055.

Testing before you disturb it

Before you strip, scrape or sand anything, find out whether lead is there: NSW EPA’s lead safety page says to test the surfaces you suspect with lead test kits sold at major hardware retailers. The Lead Alert guide adds a caution about those kits: they can give false negative and false positive results, and the colour change is hard to detect on dark paint.

SA Health’s testing pages set out the other routes. Colour-change kits are relatively cheap and quick to use but limited in their accuracy, and it is important to test all layers of paint, not just the top coat, which may mean cutting through all of them. Laboratory testing is the most reliable method, though it can be expensive: samples are scraped off, each layer may need testing, and you can collect and send your own samples to a laboratory accredited by the National Association of Testing Authorities. A portable x-ray fluorescence device reads the presence and level of lead without damaging the surface, but the service is not readily available to the public.

If a test is not possible, NSW EPA’s position is to treat paint, soil or dust as contaminated. And where a contractor will do the work, the Lead Alert guide notes that only laboratory analysis can determine whether it is “lead risk work”, which contractors must notify the state or territory safe work authority about in advance.

Stripping and sanding safely

The first rule is a prohibition, and the Lead Alert guide states it without hedging: do not rub paint down with dry sandpaper, and above all not with an ordinary power sander, because that releases lead-rich dust into the air and through the home. The same guide rules out dry abrasive blast cleaning and dry mechanical sanding.

The guide explains why the line is drawn there. Blasting, burning, dry scraping, dry sanding and power-tool cleaning create the most serious dangers, because the particles are small enough to be inhaled or to settle on furnishings and carpets, which makes complete removal of lead contamination very difficult.

Heat gets the same treatment. The Lead Alert guide warns that open-flame torches and high-temperature heat guns can be especially dangerous, because the fumes they make contain lead and other poisons, and it sets a ceiling for heat gun work: the nozzle temperature should stay below 370°C, the point above which lead fumes form. NSW EPA’s renovation guide goes further, putting open-flame torches and heat guns on its do-not list for the same reason, the fumes.

What to do instead leans on one idea: keep the dust down, or take the paint off the home. NSW EPA’s renovation guide says to use wet sanding and wet scraping. SA Health lists the dust-minimising methods as wet scraping, wet sanding, on and off-site chemical stripping, or replacing the item completely, naming doors, window sills and skirtings as the kind of thing worth replacing. One caution lands on part of that list: NSW EPA advises against methylene chloride paint strippers.

Set-up carries as much weight as method. The Lead Alert guide’s guidance is to produce as little dust and residue as you can, catch as much of it as possible, and cover or seal off everything around the job so the other areas stay clean. Carpet, it notes, is difficult to clean even with a HEPA vacuum, so secure a cover over it or remove it for the duration.

Some people should not be in the house while the work happens, and the Lead Alert guide names them. Pregnant or breastfeeding women and women wishing to conceive, young children and pets should leave the home whenever paint containing lead is disturbed, and stay away until all the dust and debris has been cleared. NSW Health says not to allow children, pregnant women or breast-feeding mothers in a house or area where lead-based paint is being disturbed, and the Lead Alert guide suggests a further step for families: where a pre-1970 home has paint in good condition and pre-school aged children or a pregnant or breastfeeding woman live there, consider delaying the work until the home can be vacant or the children are older.

For your own protection, NSW EPA’s renovation guide says to get disposable coveralls and a respirator approved under AS 1716 with a P1 or P2 filter, and warns that a simple paper mask can fit poorly and gives no protection from fine dust. NSW Health sets the same standard: protective clothing and a respirator meeting AS 1716 when the work might involve lead-bearing dust or fumes.

Neighbours are part of the job. NSW EPA asks that you warn the neighbours, so that they can protect themselves if any of the dust drifts their way, and the Lead Alert guide’s instruction is in the same spirit: anyone painting a house or doing maintenance that could disturb paint containing lead should avoid exposing their family, neighbours and pets to its hazards.

If walls, not just trim, are being opened up, the question of who does the work sharpens. The Lead Alert guide recommends a contractor with lead paint management training for any work that disturbs surfaces with paint containing lead, and, in its 2016 edition, names the nationally recognised qualification for lead paint removal: “Implement Safe Lead Paint and Asbestos Work Practices”. NSW EPA’s renovation guide says the same in plainer words: if lead is present, hire a professional trained and qualified for lead-safe work.

Cleanup and disposal

Cleaning is where good intentions do damage. The Lead Alert guide’s instructions are blunt: do not use a broom, because it spreads the dust, and do not use a vacuum cleaner without a HEPA filter, because it will spread the fine dust containing lead around the home. NSW Health repeats the pair in its own words: do not sweep or vacuum up dust that may contain lead, and use a vacuum fitted with a HEPA filter instead. Where the room itself needs clearing, NSW EPA’s renovation guide suggests arranging for the area to be professionally cleaned with a HEPA-filtered vacuum.

The waste has its own path. Do not burn timber coated with paint containing lead, or any other wastes contaminated with lead, the Lead Alert guide says. Lead paint waste can be classified as hazardous waste, which must be disposed of in accordance with state, territory or local government requirements; the same guide, in its 2016 edition, records that all states and territories allowed disposal of small quantities of waste containing lead with normal household garbage, and asks you to contact your local council first for guidance.

Leaving the paint in place

Stripping is not the only safe ending. SA Health groups the options by the condition of the paint: paint that is not flaking, cracking, chalking, chipping or peeling is a low exposure risk, and it can be left in place, but it must be monitored at least once every two years, or annually on high-impact surfaces such as window frames, door frames and skirting boards.

SA Health’s middle option covers small areas with minor deterioration, which can be stabilised with a modern topcoat paint or an encapsulant. It defines a small area as up to 0.2 square metres in an interior room, under 2 square metres on outdoor surfaces, or 10 per cent of the surface of an item such as a windowsill, and says the sealing topcoat should be compatible with the paint already there. Encapsulants are specialised coatings, and they should not be used on high-impact areas such as window frames, skirting boards and stairs. Whatever is stabilised carries the same monitoring routine afterwards: at least every two years, or annually where impact is high.

Where the deterioration is major or the area is larger, SA Health recommends removal of the paint or permanent enclosure of the surface, with removal done by a qualified painting contractor, because careless removal is itself a dust source. Where a surface is enclosed, a label warning of the presence of lead-based paint should be fixed to it first, so the next renovator knows what is behind the board.

The lead in paint, by date

The dates below are the Lead Alert guide’s own history of lead in house paint, from the booklet’s 5th edition (2016). Each step changes what went into the paint on a wall, and together they explain why the year a home was built still matters when you pick up a scraper.

1. Before 1950. Some of the paint that went inside and outside Australian homes carried as much as 50 per cent lead.
2. Until the late 1960s. Paint carrying more than 1 per cent lead was still in use.
3. By 1970. The guide’s rule of thumb dates the 1 per cent limit on the lead content of paint to 1970, and warns that homes built after 1970 might still contain paint with more than 1 per cent lead, particularly if old paint, industrial paints or marine paints have been used.
4. Well into the 1970s. Timber window sills and exposed timber were still getting red-lead primer.
5. Well into the 1980s. Calcium plumbate, one of the lead compounds used in house paints, went into imported metal roofing paints.

Where the lead band ends

The lead band on the year line ends at 1970, because that is where the national guide dates its 1 per cent limit, but the end of the band is not one settled year. The state health pages sit around the same line: NSW Health lists renovating a house built before 1970 where lead paints were used among the activities that may expose you to lead, Queensland Health says paints with high levels of lead went into many Australian houses before 1970, and Victoria’s Better Health Channel describes lead paint as used in many Australian homes prior to 1970, noting that homes built more recently may still have it.

SA Health draws the line later, and this is the reading to sit beside the 1970 end of the band: its lead paint pages put the homes most at risk at those built before the mid-1970s, and particularly before 1940, and its six-step renovation guidance is addressed to homes built before 1980.

Taken together, the readings do not settle on a single year, and the band should not be read as one. The 1970 limit marks where the lead content of paint was pulled down, not where lead paint stopped: red-lead primer went on well into the 1970s, calcium plumbate into the 1980s, and the national guide itself warns that a home built after 1970 can still contain paint with more than 1 per cent lead. Treat 1970 as the band’s end on the year line, with SA Health’s later reading noted beside it.

The Asbestos and Silica Safety and Eradication Agency notes that a home built or renovated before 1990 might contain asbestos as well. That question has its own guide: Could my house have asbestos?