In this episode of Thoughts from the Crawl Space, Jamie dives into the real story behind lead paint in homes built before 1978, and what buyers, agents, and investors absolutely need to know. Spoiler: finding lead-based paint doesn’t automatically mean a home is dangerous. The real concern is the condition of that paint.

From peeling corners, chipping trim, and chalky residue, Jamie breaks down how to spot red flags before they become expensive problems. Whether you’re eyeing a charming old fixer-upper or guiding clients through a purchase, this episode arms you with the knowledge to make smart, safe decisions about older homes.

Episode Highlights

• Learn why the presence of lead paint doesn’t automatically make a home unsafe.
• Key signs to watch for during inspections: peeling, chipping, and chalking paint.
• Practical strategies for managing and remediating lead hazards safely.
• The importance of consulting certified professionals for testing and remediation.

Welcome to Thoughts from the Crawl Space, a podcast where our goal as home inspection experts is to support and serve our community.

Whether you're a homeowner, home buyer, real estate agent or investor, we believe everyone deserves solutions to their homeownership challenges and inspiration along the way. Your path to success starts here. Welcome back to another episode of Thoughts from the Crawl Space Today, lead paint and old homes.

What you need to know before you panic. So kind of continuing with the theme of old houses or older houses.

So we're going to look at what you might expect in a house that's in the 70s or earlier with regard to lead based paint. So buying a charming old home with all that vintage character, great choice.

It can be found on windows, trim, railings, porches, and even exterior siding. You know, the problem really isn't the paint itself, it's the dust and the chips.

That's kind of like saying it's not really the person that's the problem, it's their personality. Right? Well, that's part of it. The dust and the chips when it deteriorates or gets disturbed. So you don't always see lead.

Chalking occurs mostly on friction surfaces like window sashes or door frames.

So you have those older style windows, especially the ones with the counterweights and the ropes, and you lift them up and down and if you look on those on the sides of those that those window, the trim, the window jam more or less is frequently has deteriorated lead based paint. And that's where the constant movement it's going to create dust, it's going to chip off things.

And you can just tell by looking at sometimes oh, we got lead based paint here.

Now I mentioned before, you can't really tell by the color but if you look at lead based paper paint and the way it dries, it dries in rectangles, could almost look like squares sometimes. So latex paint, the more modern types of paint will, will be in strips and you can just kind of peel it off.

Whereas lead base, it's harder, it's thicker and it just, it cracks. You can just see a very distinct cracking as it dries out. Look like rectangles or squares.

So that's what we're going to look look for on windows or door frames. You can see it on sometimes old soffits fascia under the porch. Just a lot of exterior areas that use it. Again like asbestos.

It was a good product, it helped things last. It just created health problems and that is what got noticed over time. So we're going to look at dust buildup around baseboards or window sills.

Remember we talked about chalking paint. Well, that creates dust and creates buildup around baseboards or window sills. Fresh paint covering old trim or windows in older homes.

Sometimes a sign of encapsulation, sometimes just a quick fix. So what do you do about it? We'll get more into that in the next segment. But if you have that older lead based paint, there's really only two options.

Totally remove it or paint over it. Those are your two options. And so if we see I mentioned you can see the rectangles and squares as it dries out.

If you paint over that, depending on how bad the situation is, you can probably still see that under the new layer of paint. So, so we can tell, oh, they just covered over lead based paint. Which to my point I just mentioned, that's one of the options that you can do.

But it has to be in good shape when you do that. So it's just like asbestos is, is it sealed in place, is it in good shape or is it loose and flaking and torn and all that jazz.

So we're looking for again peeling, chipping, chalking paint, dust buildup, fresh paint, covered old trim or the condition of the exterior paint, especially if it's flaking near soil or gardens. In most cases with an FHA or a VA loan, any kind of peeling paint will be Flagged, not just lead based paint.

So certainly if you have an older home, which seems to be more commonly what goes through with an FHA or a VA loan, you have any chipping or peeling paint, you're going to have to remediate that before an appraiser is going to sign off on that. What's an inspector going to do if they see that?

Well, we're going to mention that you have the potential for lead based paint and recommend further testing on it.

So I'm not going to do a lead test during a home inspection automatically, but if I see deterior paint in an older home, I'm definitely going to flag it as a potential and recommend testing. So lead can't be confirmed visually, not intact lead anyhow, only with lab testing or xrf, which is an X ray fluorescent equipment.

Now these are specialized cameras that you can buy, oh for the small price of 25 to $27,000. And what these will do is basically analyze every layer of paint that you might have on a house. Unfortunately, we do not have one of these cameras.

I'd love to, but we just don't get enough call for it to make it worthwhile financially. Another thing you could do is home test kits. Can get those from a hardware store or Lowe's.

It's basically looks like a little tube that you break internally. You shake it up and then you rub it right on the surface and it'll turn a color.

If you have lead based paint, but those are somewhat negligible as to their exactness and their accuracy. And then the most best thing to do is certified lead inspectors or professional testing.

And we are not certified lead testers, but we as a home inspection company are trained on how to collect samples to send to a lab that is certified in lead paint testing. So we will take a sample.

If it's paint you want it tested, it's going to be approximately a 1 by 1 inch square at least of wherever you want it sampled. If you want outside trim, you want outside siding, you want inside paint, inside trim, whatever.

And the cost is going to be roughly 100 to $200 per sample. And so if we do especially inside sampling, we're going to need the permission of the seller because it is somewhat destructive.

You are taking paint off the wall and in many cases several layers of it. You're cutting into potentially the drywall or trim or whatever. And so we're going to need permission from the seller to do that.

And if we don't get it, we're not going to do it so you're a homeowner. You'Re buying a home. One pro tip. First ask your inspector or realtor if there's a lead disclosure available.

This is probably speaking more to outside surfaces, but it can apply to the inside as well. Clean regularly with a HEPA vacuum or damp cloth to control dust. So as paint flakes off. Honestly I probably wipe it down and just paint over it.

Latex paint is not going to flake or, you know, create that dust like lead paint. Would hire EPA certified contractors for any renovation, repair or painting. So here's some don'ts. That was a pause for drama.

Don't sand scrape or dry. Remove old paint. Don't power wash or aggressively clean flaking areas. And don't ignore small chips. Lead dust spreads easily.

So a lot of lead exposed closure comes from people trying to fix the problems the wrong way.

I was a teacher formerly in my life before home inspecting at an elementary school and we were in an inner city and there were a lot of old houses run down, not maintained. And we had a high degree of kids that had lead paint poisoning or lead poisoning from lead paint. They would eat the chips that fall on the floor.

I mean that's just what babies do. They eat stuff that falls on the floor and maybe they gnaw on a windowsill or something. Seems crazy, but kids chew anything, right?

And so all those things contributed as well, probably as lead in the water to lead poisoning and a decrease in academics, decrease in mental ability until that can get cleaned somewhat out of the body and so forth. So a lot of lead exposure comes from people trying to fix the problem the wrong way. The presence of lead based paint doesn't mean a home is unsafe.

The condition is the key. So encapsulation, painting over it with approved materials is often an acceptable use. Lead issues can be managed.

It's not a deal breaker, but it is something an inspector should report. So you know what you got. We don't want you tearing into a wall and sanding it unprepared.

We want you to know that there's a possibility based on the age of the home. Think of it like asbestos. It's dangerous when disturbed, not when it's sitting quietly under 10 cones of paint. Kind of like a bull in the pasture.

As long as it's Quiet and undisturbed, everything's safe, right? But if you go try to rile it up or remove it, you're in for a world of hurt. So what do you do about it?

Cost and Remediation Lead inspection costs vary. Depends how much you want tested. 3 to 700. If you're going to get the X ray guns out, it's going to be in the thousands probably to analyze it.

Remediation or abatement depends just on the size and severity. It can range from a few hundred, can be several thousands of dollars in many cases.

In some cases, in extreme cases they just flat out have to remove all the paint from a house, which is is thousands and thousands of dollars. So for full removal, Federal and state grants sometimes exist for lead hazard control in older homes.

And you saw oh, 10 years ago in Flint, Michigan where they had all the pipes, the problem with lead and the water lines and all the remediation they had to do on that. And we can still do that on paint as well.

So in closing, older homes have a story to tell and sometimes those stories come with a few extra layers of paint. Lead based paint isn't something to fear, it's something to respect. Awareness, good maintenance and the right professionals make all the difference.

If you have any questions on lead based paint or any other thing in your house, please don't hesitate to give us a call.

We'd love to help you out, give you advice, guide you in the right direction, give you testing, whatever you might need to make sure that you have peace of mind about your house going forward. Talk to you next time. Thank you for listening.

This week you can catch up on the latest episode of the Thoughts from the Crawl Space podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube. For more information about Gold Key Inspection services, go to goldkeyinspect.com.