Paint applied to joinery and metalwork before around 1960 can contain lead, often buried under decades of later coats. The main risk is not the paint sitting still — it is turning it into fine dust through aggressive sanding, so our method changes on suspected lead-painted surfaces rather than the finish.
You cannot tell by looking. Age is the best indicator — anything from before around 1960 is worth treating with caution, and a test kit or lab sample can confirm it.
We avoid dry power sanding and use wet or chemical methods instead, which are slower but keep dust to a minimum.
For brief, well-contained tasks it is often unnecessary, but for extensive stripping, particularly around children, we discuss timing so the household is not in the room during the work.
Dry power sanding is avoided on old paintwork where lead is a realistic possibility. Wet sanding, chemical stripping or careful hand scraping keep dust down, and any debris is contained and bagged rather than left to be swept up loose at the end of the day.
Where children or pregnant occupants use a room being prepared, we discuss timing with the client and consider whether the household needs to be out of that space while work is underway, particularly if any localised stripping is involved.
On heavily built-up old joinery where extensive stripping is needed, we sometimes suggest a lead test before committing to a method, since the answer changes how much dust control and disposal care the job actually needs.
Tell us the age of your property and we will confirm the preparation method for the joinery involved.
Old lead paint is managed by controlling dust at the source, not by avoiding the joinery altogether.
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