Potential lead paint on staircase

[plantingandpotting]

I'm getting a runner laid on the staircase. Lifting the old carpet has revealed a chipped flaky mess.
I'm concerned the cream paint is as old as the house (100+ years) so almost certainly lead-based.
As you can see it's a state, so needs some kind of love, whether it's sanding back or heating and scraping.
Does anyone have any experience of this?
Should I just give it a clean down and paint over the top, even though it won't look all that great...

Thanks!! 👍

(I found Peelaway 1 more effective, house built around 1907).

Thighdentitycrisis
That's fabulous. My two flights of stairs are almost identical to OP's and yours are what I'm aiming for
So far I've tried paint stripper and hot air gun and I'm losing the will to live! So I'll try the peelaway 1 as mine are 150 years of paint layers

Oh another question, will peelaway remove old varnish as well?

@hesbeen2021

Oh another question, will peelaway remove old varnish as well?

I haven’t tried it on varnish but the website describes it as "paint & varnish remover" so it should do. www.peelaway.co.uk/130/1868/peelaway-1

Nitromors is not what it was; I no longer use it. I use one of the eco types, but none of the ones I have used are as good as the old Nitromors was. I think that chemicals we used to use were more effective, but less safe. Peelaway sounds good but I haven't tried it.
Just this last week I tried to get some eco-friendly stuff, wasn't bothered what brand. The only brand my local paint/decorating shop could even order came in 5L only at over £100 per tin. I gather there are (sorry to say the word, but) brexit problems getting a lot of paint components and even the materials for cans, so manufacturers are making the large cans for preference, as they use less materials per litre.
I think the detailed bits of the door in question (fancy stripwood mouldings) which are too fine to sand/hot air strip I will just remove, bin, and replace. Ridiculous, but at least practical, and cheaper than a can of stripper. (Fortunately in my case I can sand/strip the thing outside, so fumes aren't an issue.)

We're currently using Kling Strip paint remover - a bit cheaper than Peelaway & works better on our +100 yr old bannister.

www.stripperspaintremovers.com

We're currently using Kling Strip paint remover
Thanks for that, I've just ordered some

I’ve just used a whole 5kg tub of Peelaway on stripping a single Edwardian cast iron fireplace. It was still a horrible painstaking process that took a lot of work, but it’s done. It had circa 10 layers of paint on it.

If you’re disrupting lead paint at all you need to be wearing an FFP3 mask and isolating any clothes you wear to do it.

If all you’ve got there is a layer of cream paint and a layer of white paint I think it’s incredibly unlikely that it’s lead paint, they can’t only have been painted 2x in the last 100+ years! You can get test kits though like a PP said.

Attached is before and after!

@ZealAndArdour oh wow, looks amazing! Did the Peelaway take some of the wall away with it? Did you have to coat the fireplace multiple times to get it all off?

I had already been able to peel the top white layer of gloss away with a Stanley knife and some other big chunks of properly thick coated painted. Peelaway just applied once, very thickly, left it on about 3 days max. If there’s lots of oil based paint in the layers then it does sort of all disintegrate into a big oily mess which takes a lot of wiping with sugar soap and hot water. The paint is so concentrated and pigmented that it took ages as constantly needing to change the bucket of water because it would get saturated with the pain so quickly and you’d end up wiping it back on.

Once I’d got it wiped up as much as I felt I could do, I used a wire brush for any big loose bits and bought a set of wire brush drill bits of Amazon to finish of the rest.

Wiped it all down with Stovax Grate Polish to finish it off which is a very concentrated graphite paste and the metal absorbs it well. I’ll need a couple of applications of that to get a perfect black finish.

Miraculously peelaway doesn’t damage plaster, it can be applied to plaster coving etc to strip old paint. But be careful if you’ve got any MDF skirting as the moisture will cause that to blow. Where it looks damaged around the edge of the fireplace is where I’ve deliberated peeled plaster off the edge of the cast iron as a previous owner (a plaster) had literally plastered the fireplace into the wall. My decorator has repaired all that and created a nice smooth finish around it.

@Thighdentitycrisis please could I ask you if you'd recommend Peelaway for a cast iron fireplace (that's been painted cream gloss)? I'm so tempted to try after seeing your staircase, but am rubbish with DIY generally so feeling a bit nervous.

@ZealAndArdour that’s fireplace looks lovely! How satisfying is that
@mimos4 see the pics above, I think the answer is yes!

Is there any real difference between Kling Strip and Peelaway? I can't understand the big price difference!

I used the chemical peel away on an original 1930’s built in cupboard. It worked great, but thinking of using the non chemical for door frames which I’ve tested and contain lead.

The chemical stuff I did over the summer so I could keep the doors and windows open. I was massively impressed, even though I used 1.5 x 4.5l tubs. It stunk though, then I had to wash it with water after, then neutralize it (really strong vinegar smell), then test it with litmus paper before rinsing then wet sanding. Took me 3 weeks all together, but I have a bad shoulder and can only do an hour a day.