Or take any other safety precautions? I’m aerating the room well, the wife is out of town, I’m keeping the dog out of the room and Shopvac’ing it very frequently.
The house is from the 1940s, and it’s the original door. I’m scrapping through a few paint layers and the bottom two or three have to be really old.
I guess I should ask too - am I dump for removing the old paint manually? Should I have put a solution on there first to make the scrapping easier? Should I have just sanded it off? (I’d do this outside of course)
My new rule of thumb is that anytime there is something particulate in the air, it is a good idea to wear a mask. Cancer-causing or not, it is a lung and sinus irritant. Keep that shit out of your body whenever you can.
Chemical stripper would be better. Do not sand. I’d wear a mask for SCRAPING.
Just don’t gnaw it off the door. The vac actually puts lead particles in the air unless it is specially filtered. It really isn’t that hazardous unless you do it for a living. If it was I would already be dead (100 yr old house).
I’d definitely use chemical strippers or an infared lamp stripper and scrape. Be sure to have adequate ventilation. Wear a mask if and when you sand. Sanding after you strip is probably necessary for a smooth finish. I’d probably wear a mask for that too.
G-darn Home Depot just told me I was crazy to try and take it down to the wood, and that I should just surface sand it to smooth/level it out and then prime/paint.
Well I’m not listening to them! (it wasn’t the 3-4 people there that I really trust, so I wouldn’t have listened to him anyways)
Anyone recommend a particular chemical stripper? I’m 99% sure it is all really old lead/oil paint. I’m going to scrape as much of it by hand as is relatively easy, then go to a chemical stripper.
Site recommends Peel Away and Smart Strip. Both appear to encapsulate the lead to keep it from being able to disperse.
Use one of these types of products and you should be okay. The major risk is to children and pregnant women. So, keep them away and you should be fine.
Oh I definitely try to avoid kids and pregnant chicks!
Interesting that the lead paint chemical strippers include lime, when I’ve been scrapping the paint off the door it has smelled just like Countrytime lemonade mix! So lead equals fake lemonade.
x2 on Peel Away. They’ve got two different varieties, as I recall. One of them, which you can buy just about anywhere, will remove thick stuff pretty effectively and allow for a fresh-looking painted surface. Other variety costs about 3x more and might have to be special-ordered, but will actually let you apply an oil or varnish finish when you’re done. I used it in my house to remove a super-thick layer of blue paint from the bannister, then oil it afterwards.
It’s not quite as easy as their advertising makes it out to be - you’ll still have to scrape off some of the residue.
Upgrade the filter on your shopvac to one that is rated for drywall sanding residue. I really have no idea if it will help keep the stuff out of the air in the room, but it’s good enough to keep the vacuum internals dust free, so it must be catching more of the dust. I’m sure others can speak to this a bit better than I can.
yes, but don’t wear a paper mask. You need a dual cartridge respirator to filter the particulate. I practice toxic tort litigation focused on asbestos, but have learned to stay away from any form of fine particulate in the air, even the stuff you can’t see.