Replacing sash cord - lead paint?

[thesmithy]

Hi, my name is Ashley & I'm new to the site; my husband and I are in the process of purchasing a 1920's Colonial revival. I think it has original windows, but most of them are tough to open due to many layers of paint. Often the sash cords are painted, and a few have broken cords. Anyway, I've looked at a few tutorials on replacing the cords and fixing up old windows, and it looks like something I can do. The only thing I'm concerned about is lead paint. We haven't done any tests, but most likely there's lead paint on the windows, and while I know that lead paint is fine if it's in good condition and undisturbed, I'm sure there will be quite a mess replacing the cord. I'm sure even just opening and closing windows will loosen the paint as well.

So does anyone have experience with this? Do you refinish windows yourself when it involves lead paint, or do you have someone else do them? What's the best way to remove the paint, or would I need to remove it all the way? From the research I've done, it looks like I would need to seal off the area I'm working on, use a ventilator, wet down the paint in question, etc. while I remove whatever is loose, like it says starting at page 13 here: http://www.hud.gov/offices/lead/training/LBPguide.pdf

Somewhat related, my real estate agent said that most often lead paint was used on wood rather than walls, do you find that to be true?

We have a 1 year old and I hope I'm not too crazy buying a house with lead paint, asbestos, and borderline radon levels in the basement.

ETA: Somewhat unrelated, but thought I'd ask in the same thread. We have one room with wallpaper that's been painted over and looks horrible. Best way to get it off?

[Jeepnstein]

1920's, it's got lead. It's a fairly simple process to work safely with the stuff. The publication you referenced is a good start. Use the three bucket process, control your dust, and encapsulate if possible. Just watch your kids during the process. The test for lead levels is much simpler now than it used to be. Make sure your pediatrician checks it often.

[phil]

ETA: Somewhat unrelated, but thought I'd ask in the same thread. We have one room with wallpaper that's been painted over and looks horrible. Best way to get it off?
rent a steamer from home depot, clear the room and go for it , once the steam gets under the paper it'll come off, you can score the paper with a knife if you want. You may find some cracked plaster or even calcimine paint ( water soluble paint) so do a test first, you can use a boiling kettle for a test.
there is a knife for that with a long handle and sharp replaceable blades. you use this knife to get up under the paper and at the same time get the steam under, once the steam gets between the paper and the wall itll come off.

often they didn't like the cracked plaster so they put wallpaper over it and painted. When you see that you may think they wanted wallpaper then the next person wanted paint and then so they painted the wallpaper because they were lazy.. but often wallpaper was done to cover cracked plaster. its like a band aid.

you can then try to fix all the cracks in the plaster, or you can deal with the whole mess by taking a hammer and in a day you can easily knock all the plaster to the floor and then drywall. now some will cringe and if you are worried about dust from the sashe cord rope you haven't seen anything yet.. with a wee one you probably don't wan to go there.

Don't expect to see pristine uncracked plaster walls under that wallpaper , if you take it off you can expect you'll see some issues wiht the plaster to fix next and so on it goes.. and if you find paint layers then test and see if it calcimine paint.. just rub the paint wit a wet finger if it comes off its another thing to deal with, You might be in for some surprises,, it might be easiest to paint the wallpaper over once again and live with it until you are prepared for a huge project.

if it is a 1920s hose you probably also have no insulation in the walls, if you open the exterior walls you can insulate too, many here will cringe at you smashing the plaster or using drywal, you really need to know where you are going or trust me the projest will get bigger, you might restore those walls and then say oh but now I want insulation and you have two ways to get in there from the innner walls being open or by removing siding.

you can drywall over your plaster wals but then window sills and trim won't line up, sometimes interior walls have no windows and in certain cases that is practical.

the other way is to hire it out a crew can easily break all the plaster out insulate redrywall and you will be left with clean crisp walls that aren't cracked, they will use corner bead in the corners, you can remove the plaster from the ceiling too..

Im not saying you should go one way or another but if you want insulation you don't wan tto restore the plaster. if the room is finished and nice wheather it is plaster or drywall it will look almost the same but some houses have pretty uneven walls as the plaster isn't always as flat as drywall. Plaster rooms have harder walls so they echo more. You can learn some by just laying your hand on the walls on a cold day or a hot day to feel how much heat or cold is coming through your walls.

try not to bite off more than you can chew, if you find calcimine paint it will be the layer against the plaster. its not particularly hazardous it just doesn't really bond well. if you use hot water and a mop you can wash it off and there are paints that will kinda stick to whatever you can't mop off. you'd have to get to that layer right agains the plaster to check for that.
try to tink about the end result that you are wishing to achieve before you start in or removing wallpaper might just be the tip of the iceberg. no point in scraping paper f you don't wan the plaster there for example. If the place was a special heritage building like a museum then I wouldn't break the plaster, if you want a warm comfortable house it might be best to reach for a hammer and go for it rather than scraping paper. that way you can have insulation too.

now another question , how is the electrical is it old knob and tube wiring or is it new wire? obviously the easiest way to get new wires in is to open the walls but electricians can fish wires in through your uninsulated walls without destroying too much, but there again know where you are going, if you want to upgrade the electrical how will you gain acess, if you are opening up walls you might get the wiring in at the same time. If you have old cloth knob and tube wiring t might be basically ok or it might have splices done mid way through wire runs with crappy tape over the wires and nothing soldered in other words you could have a fire waiting to happen. Insurance might be hard to get for old knob and tube wiring and you may or may not be in a position to want to rewire the whole house, consult an electrician he may be able to at least put any knob and tube runs on ground fault breakers at least.

of course when you go to plug things in if you have knob and tube you will have no ground terminals , and you can't just go adding gounded type sockets without the ground wire being run in the wall, well you can but it won't meet electrical code. do you have or want new wiring? is the panel you have big enough? sometimes old houses have very minimal wiring to the poles and the electrical box may not be adequate if you wan tthings like a suite or electric heat or maybe a pool or hot tub, so you need to assess what your requirements are..

try to figure out where you are going and get agreement to see how many projects you want, how big you want them, over what time at what cost, how much labor can you spare? will this take time away from family and friends or your relationship... think about the end results before you dig in and open everything up. that painted wall paper might not be such a bad thing. all that will take second fiddle if your sewer plugs up or the roof leaks.

[Sashguy]

Here we go again. Assuming that just because it's old that it has lead paint. I test everything that I do, and in my area, only 1 in 65 test positive. TEST IT, and quit assuming. You are just giving those who would love to tear down our historic homes another reason to justify doing so.

[thesmithy]

1920's, it's got lead. It's a fairly simple process to work safely with the stuff. The publication you referenced is a good start. Use the three bucket process, control your dust, and encapsulate if possible. Just watch your kids during the process. The test for lead levels is much simpler now than it used to be. Make sure your pediatrician checks it often.

Jeepnsteing - Thanks, that's reassuring. Good idea to test often.

Phil, thanks for the advice. I don't plan on any demo work right now, so yeah, it might be more than I can chew right now. I wouldn't mind just putting different wallpaper on the plaster once the current stuff is removed. The issue is just that currently the wallpaper had started bubbling and coming away from the wall at the seams, and then someone painted over it. So it's not flush. I can live with it, but it might be nice to redo it.
The house was remodeled in the 60's (and they added some knotty pine in some rooms & aluminum siding) I'm not sure what was replaced at that time. I know that the electric was updated from tube and knob, it's 100 amp. The basement was partially finished more recently and there are few grounded outlets down there, but adding ground to some of the rest of the house is something we have planned.

We were also thinking of adding insulation to the walls from the exterior, but we'll see how things are when we move in.

Here we go again. Assuming that just because it's old that it has lead paint. I test everything that I do, and in my area, only 1 in 65 test positive. TEST IT, and quit assuming. You are just giving those who would love to tear down our historic homes another reason to justify doing so.

Well, according to everything I've heard, yes, I'm assuming. I do plan on testing, and it would be wonderful if it didn't have lead paint. I would just like to plan for the worst case scenario and figure out how much work it would be. It will help me determine if the windows are something I tackle immediately, or if it's something where I need to wait and do later when I have enough resources/knowledge. Your negativity is unhelpful and unwelcoming. So by buying an old house and asking questions about it's care I'm encouraging others to tear them down?

[Gothichome]

Apeeling, welcome to wavy glass. Lead paint is not the big disaster that it's made out to be. Test, if there is just take reasonable precautions, nothing to get overly concerned about or requires an environmental lock down of your home. Most of us here deal (or have dealt) with your situation.
Tell us more about your home looks in really good shape over all. Oh and for us who are hard of hearing post pictures, we all like pictures.

[heartwood]

ditto what gothic said--WELCOME and don't buy into the fear factor around lead paint!!...use common sense...anyone born prior to 1978 grew up with lead paint in their homes and that includes the wright brothers, the beatles, ella fitzgerald, Robert frost, martin luther king and a bunch of other people who turned out just fine....vinyl, hot stoves, GMO foods, cleaning products, staircases and a ride in the car pose more dangerous...again, common sense goes a long way in keeping you and your family safe...

we're here to help and dispel myths......
...jade (heartwood window restoration)

[mattswabb]

Welcome to wavyglass. Test and be cautious. Here's a little write up I did on sash cord replacement. No measuring and it's been right for me every time. I just did 12 weights tonight.

Scroll down a little on this topic:
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=441&p=3635

[thesmithy]

Thanks everyone! Good point about how many other dangers we face today.

I don't think my house is particularly exciting compared to the other homes here. It's pretty simple, but the basement is dry and the floors are quite level compared to other homes we looked at. The main and upper floors are about 1400 sq ft, the house has 3 bedrooms and 1.5 baths. I think the half bath on the main floor was added in the 60's. There's a screened porch that goes from the kitchen to the side of the living room (I also think the curved part was added later), and there are two fireplaces.

https://goo.gl/photos/VZM7PJJ1HvYzPGDZ9

Welcome to wavyglass. Test and be cautious. Here's a little write up I did on sash cord replacement. No measuring and it's been right for me every time. I just did 12 weights tonight.

Scroll down a little on this topic:
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=441&p=3635

Great reference, thanks!

[Don M]

Welcome, your home looks very nice & well cared for. I like the pine paneling & built-ins too. The curved porch is an interesting touch!