are old houses poisonous?

[splade]

Hello,
Im thinking of buying an older house (pre 1930's) for my PPOR. The home im looking at needs renovating, I dont think it has had any work for a number of years. Currently I dont have any children but will need to start that side of life within the next couple of years. I dont think I will be able to afford to renovate the home with any speed. Ill probably have to do most of it myself over the course of ten years or so. Which means that I will be exposed, and more importantly my children will be exposed to a partially renovated home.

I'm not sure if this should be a real concern or if im just being paranoid, so if anyone can let me know of any danger issues with old houses that I should be aware of before purchasing that would be great. are there people that can come into the home and conduct tests on the air, soil, etc to determine how toxic it is?

Things that I was thinking might be a problem are

lead paint (what if my children lick the walls...)
dust
asbestos
contaminated soil (is there anything that in the old days people thought was safe to dump in the garden but since then we know can cause disease?)
water pipes contaminating the water.


Thanks to anyone who replies

 

[wylie]

Depending on what you find in whatever house you buy I would suggest the following -

Lead paint - don't sand it, paint over it. If you must sand it (eg outside is in bad condition and needs sanding as part of preparation) you can pay someone to sand it with a vacuum bag attached. We did this to protect our kids, and then the old duck next door had hers done and it all came through our house

Asbestos - get a licenced person in to remove.

Water pipes - in a house that old you may well be looking at replacing the old galv pipes anyway. We generally have done so.

 

[kaf]

I thought Asbestos was a post-war era issue? Pre-war was mainly timber (at least here in Qld) and yes, led paint. I remember hearing that in many cities some post-war built areas were built on rubbish dumps so I don't think the era your house was built in is going to tell you whether your soil is contaminated unless you can find out what was there before.

Given our life expectancy is steadily going up (unless we shorten it ourselves by being too fat and don't exercise), on a population level environmental toxins haven't been too much of a problem - thinking about it that way works for my SANF, might not work for other people though.

kaf

 

[lizzie]

ah well, i've renovated so many old houses without realising the potential downsides (asbestos etc) that i figure i've either got it or not, and there's not point worrying ...

 

[tiger]

Everything is poisonous, hence the ridiculous rate of cancer everywhere these days.
The air you breathe would be more poisonous than any house.