What to do with existing lead paint?

G'day! Have an old cheapie that needs some cleaning. The house is about 90 years old and it quite likely has lead paint. A few areas are peeling which is concerning me. Currently is it not tenanted and is empty.

From what I've been told (and my own research), a professional painter needs to do the job due to the health hazards involved with it. I don't want to spend a lot of this because I plan on getting rid of the house in about 6 months.

Any ideas on what I should do here? Would wall paper be more cost-effective to paste-over walls instead of going through the whole process of encapsulation and painting?

Appreciate your feedback :)
 
What do mean by getting rid of the house in 6months? Demo and rebuilt or sell the property?

If you suggest wallpapering over, it must be internal? What is the wall lining - fc sheet, containing asbestos?

The reason I ask is that removal by chemical stripping by a pro is incredibly expensive/labour intensive.. It's prob more cost effective removing the wall lining.
 
The house is about 90 years old and it quite likely has lead paint.

Lead paint was available to 1970, so it'll have lead paint for sure.

Just wear dust masks and wash everything down carefully. Scrape carefully, don't sand it off and create a lot of fine particles.
 
Thanks for the replies. Yes looking to demo and rebuild in about 6 months if the number work. Otherwise will look to sell.

To be honest, I don't know what the wall lining is but I've never seen walls like it before. The top half is embossed metal and the bottom half is timber. And yes, I'm referring to the internal walls. I just want to get it to a standard where I can lease it out as the PM seems to think it won't rent without a fresh coat of paint.

I was reading that painting over is ok in the short term. I'll do it myself as I'm struggling to find a painter at this time of the year. Will avoid sanding.

Would a water based paint be suitable to encapsulate?

The other option is to just rent it out at a lower weekly rate and avoid the hassle of all of this because its short term and really, its just bad colours (blue, green and pink!). The walls themselves looked ok in terms of condition.
 
The other option is to just rent it out at a lower weekly rate and avoid the hassle of all of this because its short term and really, its just bad colours (blue, green and pink!). The walls themselves looked ok in terms of condition.

For just six months, this is what I would do, without a doubt.
 
Back
Top