Sanding and painting with a baby at home? Safe?

[Myanna]

I need to do a fair bit of sanding (eg stairs, bannisters) and painting.
I'm on mat leave with a 3 month old baby so have some time while she's napping or content.

But, is it impossible to do it myself? I'm concerned about dust and particularly lead in old paint. (can I test for this myself or do I need a professional?)

Is there anything I can do to make the process safe enough or do I need to pay out for others to do it and take her out the house?

Thanks

If you used Annie Sloan chalk paint you wouldn't need to sand and it's very low in VOC. Not sure how long it'd last on stairs, I'd probably lacquer it to make it stronger.

she's no more vulnerable than you. You wear a dust mask, she's kept out of the room. You get poisoned by lead, so does she.

Plenty of low VOC paints around without the fashion-fart price tag. There's even paint made from milk protein which is great for walls that need to breathe, although you need to add antifungal additive.

www.gov.uk/government/publications/advice-on-lead-paint-in-older-homes

Fine as long as you're mindful. Sounds incredibly patronising, but scenario 1 - you sand without a mask and leave her in a bouncer by your side exposing her to the dust - irresponsible.

Scenario 2 - You leave her in her room with door shut whilst she naps, wear a mak, sand with door/windows open and wipe down with a damp cloth after leaving windows open for ventilation - not irresponsible.

As evenings are getting lighter I would paint at night, smell will have disappeared by morning.

Good luck.

Lead actually is far more of a danger to small children because it interferes with brain development. I have recently done some sanding of old paint in our house and made sure the kids were not in the house at all while doing it- they stayed at grandparents for several days. It also needed a very thorough clean up as the dust gets everywhere. Also plastic sheets over carpets etc. Even the walls needed hoovering afterwards.

You can buy test kits for lead paint- not very expensive but I don't know how accurate they are. I just went with the assumption that there is lead- quite likely given the age of the house.

Thanks. I read an article recently about how lead in paint is very dangerous for kids so I've bought a test kit and will see.

I may wait a but until her naps are a bit more consolidated as it's still totally random at the moment.