You Have Lead Paint: A Homeowner’s Action Plan
Finding out your home has lead-based paint is unsettling, but it rarely means you have to move out or gut the house. Lead paint is dangerous mainly when it deteriorates into dust and chips that people can breathe or swallow. Paint that is intact and well maintained can usually be managed in place. What you actually do next comes down to two things: the condition of the paint, and whether a young child or pregnant person lives in the home.
Roughly 30 to 35 million U.S. homes still contain lead-based paint, according to HUD, and most residents live in them without harm. Lead was banned from residential paint in 1978, so the risk concentrates in homes built before then. If yours is one of them, here is the sequence that matters.
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First, look at the paint’s condition
Before spending a dollar on testing or abatement, walk the house and assess whether the paint is intact or failing. Intact paint that is not on a friction or impact surface is low priority. The paint that generates hazard is paint that is chipping, peeling, chalking, or rubbing against another surface every day.
The highest-risk spots in almost every pre-1978 home are the same:
- Windows. Sashes grinding in painted channels shed lead dust that collects on the sill and trough every time the window opens.
- Doors and jambs. Friction at the latch edge and hinge side wears paint into dust.
- Stair treads, railings, and porches. Impact and foot traffic chip paint loose.
- Baseboards and trim at a toddler’s height. Chewable edges and reachable chips.
- Exterior siding and soil at the drip line. Weathered exterior paint sheds into the top inch of soil, which tracks back indoors on shoes.
What to do this week, before anyone tests anything
Several habits cut lead-dust exposure immediately and cost almost nothing. They matter most in homes with young children, but they help everyone:
- Wet-clean weekly. Damp-mop floors and wipe window sills with a disposable wet cloth or paper towel. Lead dust binds to moisture; dry sweeping and dry dusting just launch it back into the air.
- Wash hands often. Before every meal and before bed, especially for children who put hands and toys in their mouths.
- Use a HEPA vacuum. Standard household vacuums pass fine lead particles straight through the filter and back into the room.
- Take shoes off at the door to keep leaded exterior soil out.
- Cover bare soil near the foundation with mulch, grass, or ground cover, and keep children’s play areas away from the drip line.
- Do not sand, scrape, or dry-strip old paint yourself. A weekend of DIY scraping can contaminate a room worse than years of ordinary wear.
Get children tested
If a child under six or a pregnant person lives in the home, the single most important step is a blood test, not a paint test. Children absorb lead far more readily than adults, and it damages the developing brain at exposures that cause no visible symptoms. A simple blood-lead test tells you whether exposure is actually happening.
The CDC’s current blood-lead reference value is 3.5 micrograms per deciliter. A result at or above that level flags a child in the top 2.5 percent of exposure and triggers follow-up. The CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend screening at ages 1 and 2 for children in pre-1978 housing; ask your pediatrician, and check whether your state Medicaid program covers it (most do, at no cost). Our overview of lead poisoning screening walks through how the blood draw and follow-up work. There is no safe blood-lead level, so early detection is the whole point.
When to test the paint, and how
Test the paint when you plan to renovate, when a child has an elevated blood-lead result, or when you want to know exactly what you own before deciding on remediation. You have three levels of testing:
- DIY swab kits (under $25) give a quick yes/no on a specific surface. They are prone to false results and only tell you about the exact spot you swab.
- A certified lead inspector with an XRF analyzer reads paint through multiple layers, non-destructively, surface by surface across the whole house.
- A certified risk assessor adds dust-wipe and soil sampling and delivers a written report ranking each hazard, which is what you want if a child has already tested high.
For the practical details of each method, see how to test for lead paint. Dust-wipe results are judged against EPA’s 2024 clearance levels: 5 µg/ft² on floors, 40 µg/ft² on interior window sills, and 100 µg/ft² on window troughs. EPA’s 2024 residential soil screening level is 200 ppm of lead in bare soil.
If you are renovating: the RRP rule protects you
Ordinary renovation is where most adult lead exposure begins, because cutting, sanding, and demolition turn stable paint into airborne dust in minutes. Federal law addresses this. Under EPA’s Renovation, Repair and Painting (RRP) Rule, any contractor disturbing more than 6 square feet of interior or 20 square feet of exterior paint in a pre-1978 home (or replacing a window) must be an EPA-certified firm using lead-safe work practices: plastic containment, wet methods, and HEPA cleanup. Certain methods are banned outright, including open-flame burning and heat guns operating above 1100°F.
Your job as the homeowner is short: hire only an EPA Lead-Safe Certified firm, and confirm you received the EPA “Renovate Right” pamphlet before work starts. You can verify a firm’s certification in EPA’s lookup tool. A contractor who dismisses lead-safe practices as unnecessary is the clearest signal to hire someone else.
Deciding between control and removal
You do not have to strip lead paint from your home. The realistic options run from cheapest to most permanent:
- Interim controls — stabilize peeling paint, fix the moisture that caused it, treat friction surfaces, and keep up wet-cleaning. Effective, but requires ongoing upkeep.
- Encapsulation — a specialized bonding coating (not ordinary paint) sealed over intact surfaces. Fails if the paint underneath is already loose.
- Enclosure — cover the surface with drywall, paneling, or new siding.
- Component replacement — swap out the worst offenders. Replacing original single-pane windows is often the highest-value move, since it removes the biggest dust source and improves the home at the same time.
- Full abatement — permanent removal by a certified abatement contractor. The most expensive path, and the one to reserve for confirmed hazards.
Match the option to how long you will stay, your budget, and whether a young child is exposed. A family staying fifteen years with a toddler and a high blood-lead result should prioritize replacing hazard windows and abating chewable trim. An older couple in a well-kept home may simply maintain intact paint and re-check it each year.
Buying or selling a pre-1978 home
Federal disclosure law applies to nearly all pre-1978 housing sales and rentals. Sellers and landlords must hand over the EPA pamphlet “Protect Your Family from Lead in Your Home,” disclose known lead hazards and any testing records, and give buyers a 10-day window to conduct their own lead inspection or risk assessment. A clean disclosure means the seller knows of no hazards, not that the home is lead-free, so buyers who want certainty should use the inspection window. Our guide on when a lead-based paint disclosure is required covers the exceptions. Along the Colorado Front Range, where much of the older housing stock in Denver, Boulder, and the historic mining towns predates 1978, this disclosure comes up on a large share of resales.
A positive test is information, not an emergency. Most homes with lead paint are lived in safely once the dust is controlled and children are screened. This page summarizes current EPA, CDC, and HUD guidance; consult a certified professional before testing or abatement, and your physician for any symptom or blood-lead concern.
Lead paint test kits
Instant swab kits flag lead on painted surfaces in minutes — useful before a renovation in any pre-1978 home.
| Product | Why | Buy |
|---|---|---|
 3M LeadCheck Swabs | EPA-recognized instant swabs. | Amazon — $199.00 |
 Lead Test Kit (lab-based) | Mail-in for a documented result. | Amazon — $150.00 |