Lead Paint, Lead Lines & Your Water

Why 1978 is the line

Lead-based paint was banned for residential use in the U.S. in 1978. A large share of the houses in this region were built well before that, which means the safe assumption for an older Pittsburgh house is that lead paint is in there somewhere — usually buried under decades of later coats.

Here's the part that changes how you should think about it: intact, painted-over lead paint is generally not the emergency. A wall that's sound and covered isn't poisoning anybody. What poisons people is dust — what friction and disturbance generate. Window sashes grinding in their tracks, doors rubbing their jambs, painted stair treads, and above all sanding, scraping, and demolition. That dust settles on floors and sills, and it is invisible.

Most at risk are young children — closer to the floor, hands in mouths, absorbing more of what they ingest — and pregnant women. That's the practical logic behind everything below.

The rule that matters if you're renovating

Contractors working on pre-1978 housing generally must be EPA Lead-Safe certified and follow specific containment and cleanup practices — the RRP rule, for Renovation, Repair and Painting. Some project types are treated differently, so verify how it applies to yours, but the homeowner-facing version is simple:

• Ask to see the certification before work starts, in writing, alongside the registration and insurance checks in our hiring a contractor guide.
• A contractor who scoffs at it is telling you something. Not about lead — about how they'll handle every other rule on your job.
• Containment is visible. Plastic sheeting, sealed openings, HEPA vacuums, wet cleanup, and a genuine cleaning at the end. If a crew is dry-sanding old trim in an open room, that's not a judgment call, it's a stop-work moment.

Doing it yourself? Never dry-sand or dry-scrape old painted surfaces, and don't take a high-temperature heat gun to them — heat vaporizes lead into the air you're standing in. Wet methods, HEPA-filtered vacuums (a shop vac spreads dust rather than capturing it), plastic containment, and a thorough wet cleanup afterward. Honestly, this is one of the strongest candidates in the whole house for hiring out; our DIY-or-pro guide covers where that line usually falls.

Testing: the house, and the more important test

Home lead test swabs are cheap and can confirm lead is present, but a negative swab isn't proof of much — it depends on where you tested and how many layers down the lead sits. For an answer you can rely on, certified lead inspectors and risk assessors do this properly, with instruments and a written report.

The more important test isn't of the house at all. It's a child's blood lead level, done through a pediatrician. Allegheny County has childhood lead screening guidance, and screening requirements exist in Pennsylvania — search for the current Allegheny County Health Department guidance, and ask your doctor. That's a medical conversation, not a home-repair one, and this page is not the place for it. If you have young children in an older house, raise it at the next visit.

Water and lead service lines

Lead in drinking water usually comes from the plumbing, not the source water: the service line running from the street to your house, older solder at pipe joints, and brass fixtures that legally contained lead for a long time. Older neighborhoods are likelier to have lead service lines, and plenty of houses have never had the line identified either way.

• In the city: Pittsburgh Water — formerly PWSA — has run a large lead service line replacement program and publishes guidance, line-material information, and testing details. Search “Pittsburgh Water lead” or start at pgh2o.com.
• Outside the city: ask your own water authority. Water systems have been required to inventory service line materials, so yours may already know what feeds your address.
• Renters can ask too. You don't have to own the house to ask about the line serving it.

What to do while you sort it out

• Boiling does not remove lead — it concentrates it. Water leaves as steam; the lead stays behind. This is the single most commonly misunderstood fact about lead in water, and it points people exactly the wrong way.
• Flush before you drink. After water has sat in the pipes for hours — first thing in the morning, or home from work — run the tap until it turns noticeably cold before drinking or cooking with it.
• Cold water only for consumption. Hot water leaches more from plumbing. Never cook with, or make formula from, water out of the hot tap.
• Use a filter certified for lead reduction. Look specifically for the NSF/ANSI 53 lead claim on the package — not just the word “filter” — and replace the cartridge on schedule. An expired filter is a false sense of security.
• Clean the faucet aerators. Particles collect in that screen. Unscrew and rinse them periodically, especially after work on the water main or nearby street.

Renovating an old house well

The long game is straightforward. Encapsulate rather than strip wherever you reasonably can — a sound, properly coated surface is a solved problem, and stripping is what creates the hazard. Replace the friction surfaces: old windows are the classic offender, and replacing or properly rebuilding them removes the dust source instead of managing it forever. Meanwhile, wet-wipe sills, wells, and floors regularly, especially where small children spend time. Damp cloth, not a broom — a broom just relaunches the dust.

This is old-house territory, most of what our sister company Integrated Contracting & Renovations works on around Pittsburgh. For lead work, though, the certification question above matters more than the company name — ask whoever you hire, including us.