Lead based paint

[Justme]

I need a little advice, please. My son has been given a dinning table that my Grandfather built and my father grew up eating off of. Because of its age we decided to get a test kit and unfortunately it tested positive. While the table isn't anything spectacular-it's just a basic plank table the personal history of it is greatly valued by my son and me. So any advice on refinishing? I know we need to strip it and not dry sand it. We want to take it back to bare wood and then clear coat it. Is there some coating that would be better than others at containing any remaining lead after stripping? Does lead absorb into to the wood or does it remain in the paint?
Thanks for any help you can give.

 

[Joel_BC]

Maybe somebody who has done just the job you describe will come on here and tell you just how to go. Myself, I've never done that - though I can understand perfectly what you're asking. And I'm clear on the fact there's a health issue involved. Everything would be straightforward if the old paint didn't contain lead.

So I thought, what would I do if I were Justme? I'd look for a forum devoted to wood furniture refinishing, and then join and put the question on there. So I used Google, and put in these search terms:
diy wood furniture refinishing forum

If you search with those, you come up with numerous possibilities, and this seems a good one:
http://www.doityourself.com/forum/furniture-wood-cabinetry-finishing-35/

I'd sign up, get a forum membership, and describe the project just the way you did in your OP on this thread. Because there's a forum on that site that's specific to wood-furniture DIY, probably you'll get replies from several people who have dealt with the situation, hence can speak from experience. Good luck.

 

[txcanoegirl]

I live in a 100 year old farmhouse, so I understand the issues and risks of lead paint. My first question is whether the paint is tightly adhered to the surface of the wood, or if it is flaking or peeling. If it is firmly adhered, there is no risk, unless you have small children chewing on the table legs. If you wish, you could paint over the surface, which would encapsulate it. They even make special pain for encapsulating lead paint, but it is expensive, thick, and because of it's thickness, may obscure fine details in the woodwork. If the paint is well bonded, it doesn't need to be removed. Even if you are refinishing, it isn't necessary to remove all traces of the lead paint. Get any rough or loose surfaces smooth, then prime and repaint.

If the paint is flaking or peeling and you need to/or still want to completely strip and refinish it, you can use gel or soy based removers and scrape up the gummy residue (taking care to dispose of it properly), but those types of strippers create a huge mess. There are furniture strippers who will dip the article and strip it. The table would need to be dismantled to do that, and the method of dip stripping can damage the joints or raise the grain in the wood. Not desirable in my opinion.

You can also use a heat gun, which softens the paint and you can scrape off the gummy residue. That is my favorite. Just be careful using the heat gun, and don't heat over a certain temperature (lead fumes are released at certain temperatures)--at the moment I don't recall at what temperature the lead fumes are released by heat, whether it was 600 or 1000 degrees. Many heat guns don't get that hot, so you are safe if you follow instructions. If you have a lot of detail that has to be stripped, the heat gun is more difficult, but can be done with the right small tools to get in crevices and small places.

You can even sand lead paint, but you will have to damp mop the floors, damp wipe the surfaces, vacuum with a hepa filter, and take proper precautions. Always wear a mask rated for lead paint (not just a dust mask). Wet sanding has been mentioned for dealing with lead paint, but it will just raise the grain in the wood and will make damage to your surface easier to accomplish. Not what you want.


When I am working on my kitchen (beadboard being stripped), I close all the doors, lock up the pets out of the area, wear gloves, mask, and disposable booties over my shoes. I do not eat or drink while wearing the clothes I am working in, nor do I eat or drink while working. If you are a smoker, don't smoke while working with lead paint so you don't breathe in the lead dust.

A good source for information is www.wavyglass.org.
This is a group of like-minded old house owners who are more than willing to share their information, expertise and experience. That forum is fairly new, being created because the other forum we all gathered at got inundated with spam that the old forum owners couldn't or wouldn't deal with effectively.

The old forum, Old House Web, is located at http://www.oldhouseweb.com/forums/index.php
There is a TON of information there, and by that, I mean years and years of information in the forums there, just waiting for you to search. You don't have to be a member or register in order to search or read old posts. Seriously, the topic of lead paint has come up many, many times before.

Again, unless you have small children, or the paint is flaking, don't worry about it all that much. Most of us grew up in houses with lead paint. Another place in the home where lead paint should be dealt with would be old wood windows, because the friction of opening and closing the windows will release lead dust. No need to replace old windows...those 100 year old windows are better than vinyl or aluminum replacements...and will last longer, but the lead paint should be corrected there. Professional window restores build a steam box for removing paint from old windows, using a simple Jiffy steam clothing steamer. The steam loosens the paint and the sludge can be scraped off, much like with the heat gun. Steam heat raises the chance of raising the grain, though, increasing chances of gouging the wood or otherwise damaging it.

Hope this helps...

Jill

 

[Justme]

Thanks for the replies. Yes I have been searching other sites but most I have run across deal with houses or in the case of furniture not with the lead paint and i thought i would also check out the wisdom to be found here. Furniture refinishing is nothing new to me. Only the lead paint part is. Thanks for those web links though. I had not run across those yet.
The paint while adhering well in some spots is flaking over most of it or at least the top coat is. Added to the flaking is the fact that my son wants the wood to show in the end. So stripping we are doing. We worked on it some yesterday with a gel stripper and it is going well. Now to decide on what type of finish that would contain any remaining lead in the wood but keep the character of the wood. He is also thinking of something fairly thick for the top which will level some of the scratches and between the slight cracks in the boards. Right now he is thinking of something like bar top epoxy.
We will see. It does have some pretty wood underneath the paint. And square head nails throughout.