Gorgeous old windows with lead concerns
I live in an old craftsman bungalow in Oakland with gorgeous old windows. The wood frames are in decent shape. But the paint is peeling, and it's pretty much guaranteed that there are lead issues with them, given the age, and they don't seal well. I'm looking for advice about repair, lead remediation, and/or window replacement. I do have an infant, so the lead concerns are more present than they would be otherwise. Options I'm curious about:
-- Replacing the windows. There are about 10 fairly large double hung windows. But the ones we have are just lovely.
-- Getting them stripped and repainted in a lead safe way. A carpenter friend has said that they should not be painted all the way down: instead they get waxed on the surfaces that slide in. Is this a thing I can get someone to do? I've never seen it done this way.
-- Plus, of course, any options I haven't thought of.
I'd love to hear pretty much anything about your experiences addressing similar issues. Whom did you work with? How much did it cost? How long did it take, and did you need to be out of the house while the work was done? We are moderately price sensitive (I would spend $5k on this without blinking, but not $35k.)
Parent Replies
With a $5K budget, replacing ten windows is off the table, so that makes the first decision easy! I would look for someone skilled in tuning up old windows--there are some recommended folks on Yelp and BPN, but since I've never personally used any of them I can't name anyone specifically. Hopefully others can. We have a 100-year-old bungalow too and did this work ourselves pre-kids using the book Working Windows (which is a terrific resource even if you are hiring someone). In general for lead-based paint, you don't necessarily need to remove it--you just need to ensure it's not chipping or grinding into dust. How feasible that is for your windows will depend on how they've been painted in the past (and with what). We were fortunate that ours had, for the most part, been properly painted, so we were able to repaint and then insulate them (we used spring bronze weather stripping but there are many options), fix a few broken ropes, and wax the areas of the sash that met one another with beeswax to get them moving smoothly. While you could strip the paint, I suspect that's moving you quickly towards the price point of new windows, since labor costs are a big factor in this area and you need someone lead-certified for that work. You could definitely put a clean intact layer of paint on, though (ideally removing the windows first). I'd start by getting someone out who is experienced working with wood window restoration and see what they say. We did opt to replace a few windows strategically where we wanted better sound insulation or where the window was in very poor condition, but for the most part kept the original windows and have been happy with that decision. The insulation made a huge difference; while the house certainly isn't airtight as it might be with all new windows, it isn't drafty anymore, and when we had an energy audit at the time, windows were not near the top of the list of recommended improvements for our particular home, so we prioritized investments in other areas.