I need to start painting window trim, window sills and baseboards around my house and I'm 99.99% certain the paint has lead in it as the house was built in 1951.

Can I wet sand it as I go? I'm not trying to get the all old paint off, just want to clean up some nicks and do patching of holes left by old curtain hardware, and roughen the glossy oil-based paint to be able to encapsulate with 2-3 good coats of a white trim paint.

Do I use just a good quality paint designed for trim? Or do I get this special "encapsulation" paint I see out there? And what kind? Latex? Acrylic?

The paint was white but has yellowed and/or faded a bit over the years.

I've got two young kids in the house (1 and 3) I don't want to poison them here and before I get any lectures on buying a house full of lead paint, I knew what we were getting into as we bought this house as-is in a private estate sale. I know you just can't start sanding this stuff and kicking up dust.

I'm very careful about not letting these kids touch the windowsills or any other woodwork.

I’d first get a lead testing kit to make sure. Easy purchasable at Lowe’s or HD.

If it’s definite it’s present I’d use a lead encapsulation primer prior to painting

I’d recommend against sanding

If you don’t want to Prime... most top of the line products are designed to adhere to old oil paintsnow

Google , HUD guidelines for Evaluation and Control of Lead Based Paint in Residential Dwellings.
Every thing you would ever want to know, probably way more

Just let your kids chew it off like we did in the old days!

quote:

Originally posted by Patriot:
Just let your kids chew it off like we did in the old days!

It was delicious, though!

Don't know if this applies to your and/or if this is a Fed law but:

https://www.houselogic.com/rem.../lead-paint-removal/

Kind of scary is the uber costs.
Sounds like if there is a lot of sf involved then you aren't supposed to do unless your are authorized by God.

Good Luck.

Wouldn't recommend ANY kind of sanding with kids in house. Get a GOOD ( Sandvik) carbide scraper. They are like $25...and replacement blades are $10. They are very sharp and can knock down edges. Still use caution...just don't want airborne particulates. Then prime and paint with a good paint. Enough of that....If your kids pick up some trace amounts, they will not be irreparably brain damaged. Zero exposure is ideal, but the real horror stories a primarily completely unsupervised toddlers eating mouthful of large paint chips off the floor in some dump.

Hopefully Arc will come along and offer his advice. If anyone here knows what to do with this, it's him.

An alternative is to take the trim off and replace it. Not hard to do. Easier than sanding or stripping. Plus you may choose a different style that you like if you don't like what you have.