Have I mentioned lately how much I love our new house? Because I really do. I practically float around my kitchen making dinner and snacks for my family.
One thing has been nagging at me since we moved in though. Well, since we had to remove the lead pipes in the bathroom really. Lead poisoning. I've been seeing billboards for lead safe St. Louis around town and so a few days ago I thought I'd look up the web site. Most of me thinks, this is silly. Our home is fine. I have no reason to worry. Part of me though thinks, we live in an older home. Our bathroom plumbing was lead. Some of the paint on the window sills is cracking. What if it's lead?
Turns out you can get lead testing done for free here in St. Louis because of the high number of lead poisonings that are found in the older homes in this area. So I called to schedule an inspection. At least that will let me stop worrying about our house is slowly killing us.
5 comments:
I'm no expert - but the lead paint danger is mainly for any exposed lead paint. It's probably covered up by now.
And cracking paint... if the pattern in the cracking resembles alligator skin - then it's probably lead. If not, it's just cracking paint.
I don't know anything about pipes. But you're right to do an inspection. Get that done before you paint everything else.
But be careful, it could get expensive - I think if you just leave it alone you won't have any problems. It's when you start removing and replacing that you have to follow all the codes and then it gets expensive.
Can't wait to see pictures of the house now that you're in!
Yeah, as far as I can tell, as long as it's sealed (painted over) then it's OK. I'm just worried about some of the paint around the windows where there's like four layers which are all cracking so I can't really see the cracking pattern of the bottom layer, but it still could be coming up.
The expense of perhaps fixing it did scare me for a while. Then I realized that my family's health is way more important than that. Now I'm just going to sit tight and wait for the exam.
maggie it is brooke from freshman year! i am so glad that i stumbled upon both you and heather's blogs today! looks like things are going great for you - i LOVE old houses, it is so fun to watch your transformation. anyway, just know i'll be blog stalking you in the future!
Brooke-Stalk away!
GREAT IDEA to have an expert check out your house. My friend who is the water manager for the City of Chenny said to always run your water awhile befor you drink it. He also said your water inspection should be free.
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