My house was built before 1978. What do I need to know about lead paint before refinishing wood?
Short answer
Assume any painted wood on a pre-1978 home may contain lead until it is tested. Sanding, scraping or heat-stripping lead paint creates dust that is hazardous, especially to children and pregnant women. Federal law under the EPA Lead Renovation, Repair and Painting Rule requires firms paid to disturb painted surfaces in pre-1978 housing to be EPA certified and to follow lead-safe work practices. Homeowners doing their own work are not covered by that rule but should follow the same practices. Start at epa.gov/lead.
Why 1978 is the line
Lead was added to house paint for color and durability until the federal government banned it in residential paint in 1978. A house built before that year may have lead paint on any surface that was painted during its early life, even if it has been repainted many times since. The newer layers sit on top of the old ones, and the moment someone sands, scrapes or strips through them, the old lead paint becomes dust.
Carlsbad's older neighborhoods, the Barrio, Olde Carlsbad, parts of the Village and the coastal cottages, along with older homes across Oceanside, Vista, Encinitas and Escondido, include plenty of pre-1978 housing. Painted wood trim, fascia, porch posts, window sash, doors and older fences on those homes are exactly the surfaces that get refinished.
What the EPA rule actually says
The Environmental Protection Agency's Lead Renovation, Repair and Painting Rule, usually called RRP, applies to anyone who is paid to perform work that disturbs painted surfaces in housing built before 1978, with limited exceptions for very small areas. Under the rule, the firm must be EPA certified, the work must be supervised by a certified renovator, the firm must give the owner the EPA pamphlet on lead before starting, and the work must follow lead-safe practices: containing the work area, minimizing dust, avoiding prohibited methods such as open-flame burning and high-heat guns, and cleaning up thoroughly with verification.
California also has its own lead program through the Department of Public Health, with certification for lead-related construction work. The details and current requirements are on the EPA and CDPH websites, and we would point anyone to those rather than repeat them from memory. This is general consumer information, not legal advice.
What it means for you as a homeowner is simple. If you hire someone to refinish painted wood on a pre-1978 house, you are entitled to ask whether they are EPA RRP certified and how they will contain dust. If the answer is a shrug, keep looking.
Homeowners doing their own work
The RRP rule covers paid work. A homeowner working on their own home is not required to be certified. That does not make the dust any less hazardous. Lead dust settles into soil, carpet and window wells and is especially harmful to young children. The EPA publishes lead-safe guidance for do-it-yourselfers, and the core of it is the same as the professional practice: test first, wet methods, no dry sanding, no heat guns above the low-temperature setting, contain the area with plastic, keep children and pets away, and clean with a HEPA vacuum and wet wiping rather than sweeping.
Testing before you decide
You can find out whether a surface has lead paint before anyone touches it. EPA-recognized test kits are sold at hardware stores and give a quick color-change result on a small exposed cross-section of the paint layers. For a more complete answer, a certified lead inspector or risk assessor can test with an XRF instrument or lab samples. Testing is cheap compared with the alternative of finding out after a weekend of sanding.
If a surface tests negative, normal refinishing methods apply. If it tests positive or you choose not to test, treat it as lead and plan the job accordingly.
How this changes a refinishing plan
Lead paint does not necessarily mean the wood cannot be refinished. It changes the method.
- Encapsulation: if the paint is sound, cleaning, light wet scuffing and repainting over it is often the safest and simplest path. The lead stays sealed under new paint.
- Chemical stripping: wet, low-dust, and workable on doors and trim that are to be returned to natural wood. Waste is handled as lead-containing.
- Wet scraping and wet sanding with HEPA-equipped tools inside containment, for areas that must come down to bare wood.
- Replacement: for badly deteriorated painted trim or fence boards, replacing the piece and disposing of the old one properly can be less work than stripping it.
- Never: dry sanding, power sanding without HEPA shrouds, open flame, or high-heat stripping. These are prohibited under RRP for good reason.
Our approach
When we are asked to refinish painted wood on an older North County home, the first question is the year the house was built, and the second is whether the paint has been tested. We will not sand or scrape untested paint on a pre-1978 house as if it were new work. If the paint tests positive, we talk through the options above, point you to the EPA resources, and scope the job so that it is done safely or refer it to a certified lead firm when the work is beyond what we take on.
Related questions
Does the rule apply to a fence or a pergola?
RRP applies to painted surfaces on pre-1978 housing and child-occupied facilities, including exterior components. A painted fence or patio cover original to a pre-1978 home can have lead paint. A structure built later with newer paint does not fall under the same concern, but test if you are unsure of its age.
Is stained or varnished wood a lead concern?
Clear finishes and stains generally did not contain lead pigment the way paint did. The concern is painted surfaces. If a stained door was painted at some point in its life and later stripped back, old paint in the grain and profiles could still be present.
Where do I find certified lead firms and inspectors?
The EPA maintains a searchable list of RRP-certified firms, and California's Department of Public Health lists state-certified lead professionals. Both are linked from the EPA lead pages.
Sources and further reading
- U.S. EPA: Lead (www.epa.gov)
- U.S. EPA: Lead Renovation, Repair and Painting Program (www.epa.gov)