Lead Paint in Homes: What You Need to Know in Denver Metro, CO
When you’re thinking about doing any sort of remodeling and the sort of remodeling that you’re looking to do will involve the paint that you have on your walls and the possibility of the removal of that paint, you need to be aware in advance if there is lead paint in your home — and if there is, what steps you should take in order to stay safe.
You see, even though lead paint is no longer on the market and cannot be legally sold, this doesn’t mean that it’s not still out there in homes — after all, there was no mandate made to remove the lead paint from homes that were already out there with it as that would have been next to impossible to enforce.
Let’s have a look now at lead paint in homes and what you need to know in Denver Metro, CO.
The Age Of Your Home
One thing that you should know is the age of your home – because depending on the age of your home, you can determine the extent to which you are at risk of having lead paint in the home.
If your home was built before 1978, there is a possibility that there is lead paint somewhere in the house – even if it means that the lead paint is laying underneath a few coats of newer paint.
The thing that you need to know is that you shouldn’t assume just because there’s new paint on the surface of your walls that it means that any and all lead paint was removed from the house.
With a house of that age you can reasonably believe that there is a possibility that the paint is there — and if you are going to be doing any sort of renovations where you will be drilling into the walls, it’s something that you have to know for sure before you start the work.
You may think that this means that if your home is newer than 1978 you necessarily do not have any lead paint and of course this would be a wonderful thing, but it’s not always so.
After all, if you think about it someone could have had the house built after 1978 and for some reason, they just happened to have a few buckets of paint that were purchased before the ban on lead paint was put into effect, and rather than properly disposing of the paint, they just went with the paint that they had on hand.
Of course, if your home was just built last year you can reasonably assume that there’s almost no chance that there is lead paint to be found.
Get Samples
The next thing that you should do if you suspect that there is lead paint to be found in your home is to take samples – and you are going to likely have to take a number of samples from different parts of your home in order to get a good idea of if there is lead paint in your home.
Once you have a few of these samples, you’re going to want to send them to a proper testing laboratory where they will test the samples and then tell you if they have detected any lead in them.
The Risks
Lastly, it’s worth knowing about some of the risks associated with lead in the paint in your home and why you have to be particularly careful to remove any and all lead paint that may be in your home.
Lead paint can lead to extreme damage to the brain and other organs, such as the kidneys – and it can also be quite harmful to the blood and the nerves.
This is especially the case if the person who was poisoned by the lead paint was young – so if you think there’s any possibility of lead paint, you need to get it tested before you do any work in your home.
Don’t settle for just any painter when you can get the attention to detail and professionalism from Imhoff Fine Residential Painting in Denver Metro, CO. Call us today to speak with one of our professional color consultants.
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