Lead Paint: What You Should Know
Lead paint brings to mind images of paint peeling off walls and paint chips being eaten, but these images are from decades past, right? I mean, lead paint isn’t something you need to worry about today, is it? Don’t be so sure.
Lead Paint Banned but Still There…
There is a misconception that since the banning of lead in household paints in 1978, lead paint is no longer a concern. I’m here to tell you that that isn’t the case.
With the 1978 banning of lead in household paints, people felt at ease. Homes were safe once again. The truth is, though, that while banning the use of lead in household paint to be used in the future, the 1978 law didn’t make the removal of lead-based paint in existing homes mandatory.
Sure, there is Residential Lead-Based Paint Disclosure Program requiring potential renters and buyers of houses built before 1978 to be provided with information about lead and lead hazards in the home before rent or purchase. Does that mean that these homes can’t be rented or sold with hazardous levels of lead paint, though? No. Homes with lead paint can still be sold as-is with the proper disclosures. This means that renters or buyers with no other option for housing are left with lead-paint filled homes. It means that your home could have lead paint.
Now, I’ve done a little digging into what to do when your home has lead paint. The safest solution is to get the offending paint removed. It’s definitely not something that you should do by yourself because removing the paint can be just as dangerous as living with it (sometimes more dangerous!) But how does the price of lead paint removal measure up to the savings on homes that have lead paint in them?
The Cost of Lead Paint Removal
The actual process of taking care of lead paint is called lead paint abatement. Lead paint abatement is the elimination of lead-based paint in your home rather than the renovation, repair, and painting of your home to cover up the lead paint. The difference? One gets rid of lead paint permanently and the other covers it up but still leaves the risk of lead poisoning since the paint is still present. So, when you’re looking to resolve your lead paint problems abatement should be the only option.
Yes, RRP is a cheaper solution, but it’s really not a solution if it leaves behind the poison, is it? So just how expensive is lead paint abatement? The answer to that question really depends on who you turn to. There are a million and one lead paint abatement companies out there but who you choose will influence the price you pay as well as the quality of the work that they provide.
I looked into some lead abatement services up here in Ohio to get an idea of just how much lead abatement would cost versus how much you can save by buying a home with lead paint. As it turns out, the difference in pricing between different lead paint abatement companies is ridiculous. There are companies out there who want your firstborn to make your home a safer place to live! That said, there are a few companies who were very reasonable with their pricing and who had a reputation to back them up. One such company was SafeAir.
As a company, SafeAir has been providing environmental services like lead paint abatement for 29 years (It’s always best to look for a company like this that has been around for a while and hasn’t just popped up overnight.) Their prices weren’t the lowest (going with the lowest bidder for any type of safety service is never a good idea), but they were more than reasonable compared to their competitors and considering that they’ve been in business for so long. SafeAir doesn’t just work on lead abatement either, so if your new-to-you home has other concerns like mold or asbestos, they can take care of that as well. I know what you’re thinking, who would buy a home with lead paint, mold, and asbestos?! You’d be surprised. Many families can only afford older homes that are frequently linked with these maladies and others choose to buy them to overhaul and resell. Fortunately, companies like SafeAir make it possible for whoever invests in these types of homes to turn them into safer places to live.