This recently completed housing, which is now lead-safe, could become re-contaminated from lead if safe conditions are not maintained. Damp mopping floor surfaces and regular dusting to keep the house clean will ensure its continuing safety. Photo: NPS files.

Accessible, projecting, mouthable surfaces. Accessible, chewable surfaces that can be mouthed by small children need not be removed entirely, as some health guidelines recommend. These accessible surfaces are listed as projecting surfaces within a child's reach, including window sills, banister railings, chair rails, and door edges. In many cases, the projecting edges can have all paint removed using wet sanding, a heat gun or chemical strippers, prior to repainting the feature. If the homeowner feels that there is no evidence of unsupervised mouthing of surfaces, a regular paint may be adequate once painted surfaces have been stabilized. An encapsulant paint that adhesively bonds existing paint layers onto the substrate extends durability. While encapsulant paint systems are difficult to remove from a surface in the future, they permit retention of the historic feature itself. If encapsulant paint is used on molded or decorative woodwork, it should be applied in several thin coats to prevent the architectural detail from being obscured by the heavy paint.

Impact Surfaces. Painted surfaces near doorways and along corridors tend to become chipped and scraped simply because of their location. This is particularly true of baseboards, which were designed to protect wall surfaces, and also for doorjambs. Owners should avoid hitting painted impact surfaces with vacuums, brooms, baby carriages, or wheeled toys. Adding new shoe moldings can give greater protection to some baseboards. In most cases, stabilizing loose paint and repainting with a high quality interior paint will provide a durable surface. Clear panels or shields can be installed at narrow doorways, if abrasion continues, or these areas can be stripped of paint and repainted. Features in poor condition may need to be replaced with new, matching materials.

Other surfaces showing age or deterioration/ walls and ceilings. Many flat wall surfaces and ceilings were not painted with lead-based paint, so will need to be tested for its presence prior to any treatment. Flat surfaces that contain deteriorating lead-based paint should be repaired following the responsible approach previously cited (i.e., removing loose paint to a sound substrate, then repairing damaged plaster using a skim coat or wet plaster repair. Drywall is used only when deterioration is too great to warrant plaster repair. If walls and ceilings have a high lead content, and extensive paint removal is not feasible, there are systems available that use elastomeric paints with special fabric liners to stabilize older, though intact, wall surfaces.

If a new drywall surface needs to be applied, care should be taken that the historic relationship of wall to trim is not lost. Also, if there are significant features, such as crown moldings or ceiling medallions, they should always be retained and repaired.