Dog Community

lead paint???

Posted : 3/16/2006 11:06:12 AM

My husband and I are thinking of moving one more time before buying our own home and the house we are looking at is NOT deleaded. We are currently living on the top floor of a 2 family without a fenced in yard and have 2 large dogs! Needless to say it's a pain. This place is a whole house with a HUGE fenced in yard, but the catch is the lead paint.

I've called their vet who said as long as they don't eat it it should be fine, but now I'm worried. They don't eat the walls or wood trims, but who knows...
Also, I should note that our current place is an old house and I have no idea if it's deleaded.

Any thoughts??? We're moving for them, and I would hate to do it and put them in harms way.

tashakota

Posted : 3/16/2006 12:56:20 PM

Yeah, as long as they dont' eat the paint, they should be ok. Just fix any chipping paint and don't let them chew on drywall!

gradyupmybutt

Posted : 3/16/2006 1:59:10 PM

As long as your dogs are not chewers you should be okay. If you're worried about chips, all you need to do is either strip the paint (not recommended - it's costly to do it properly) or paint over the woodwork. That should stabilize the paint for a little bit.

jeano

Posted : 3/16/2006 2:14:41 PM

Paint the place. Cover it all with a layer of new paint and you'll be fine.

Lead tastes sweet, and unless your dogs go for sweet stuff, it's unlikely they'd chew it anyway. However, to be on the safe side, if you paint over it, you would be able to rest much easier.

And it's amazing how wonderfully new a place can look with new paint! Maybe you can even get the landlord to buy you the paint, given that there is a lead hazard anyway. Maybe the health department would have something to say about that, too.

fuzzy_dogs_mom

Posted : 3/16/2006 3:59:02 PM

Excellent advice, Jeano. If it's actually lead based paint, the health dept. would in all probability make the landlord/owner take care of the problem at his expense.

sooner

Posted : 3/16/2006 4:55:43 PM

Not to be alarmist but this might be something to think about:

"The most common cause of lead poisoning in pets is ingestion of lead-based paint. Although lead-based paint is no longer available in the United States, it was used in buildings for many years. When these buildings are renovated or become weathered, the lead-based paint can contaminate the soil. Pets digging in the soil can become exposed to the lead paint, and then self-grooming or other methods of ingestion can occur."

[linkhttp://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&C=189&A=1648&S=0]http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&C=189&A=1648&S=0[/link]

2 Is Enough

Posted : 3/16/2006 7:58:07 PM

I think that on any house built before the early 70s there is going to be a question whether or not lead paint was used, automatically, same with asbestos. Its a CYA thing for the seller.

Idealy see if the landlord will pay for the paint and knock off some rent for labor, worst case, just make sure he is allright with you painting (and your color choices) and take the cost of the paint yourself. You wouldnt want to have him not like your colors and then keep your deposit in order to repaint the place after you leave.