Would you restore or cover Victorian floorboards with old lead paint?

[BastetBaby]

We live in a Victorian terrace. We have a horrible moth eaten carpet over the original Victorian floorboards. We would like to restore the floorboards, but they had lead paint on them. We are thinking of covering the original floorboards with a new engineered floor. We figured that's the safest option although not the cheapest!

Anyone with experience here?
Would you cover or restore?

Everyone we know seemed to have restored but also done nothing to mitigate risk of lead dust! Apparently people either don't care or don't know!

Perhaps you need to explore the cost of a professional to restore the original floorboards.

Having lived with bare floorboards, it looks great but it was very cold. I've now carpeted/floored must rooms and it's made a huge difference.

We have.
It seems cheaper. BUT the quote didn't factor in taking precautions to prevent lead dust (e.g. dustless sanding or chemical stripping or wet sanding). Finding a contractor willing to do all the extra stuff you have to do to make the lead safe is tricky as most people don't seem to care??

Good to know. I hadn't thought of that.

Another vote for carpet here - we live in a terraced house built around 1900 where a previous owner installed laminate over the original floorboards. I originally thought of removing the laminate and seeing if the floorboards could be restored, but after the first winter here I realised that the house was cold with the laminate, so bare floorboards could be worse. I’d be reluctant to do it now with energy costs going up,

You can paint over the old paint which is actually safer than just popping carpet over as lead paint is only dangerous when it degrades or you create lead dust by sanding. You can then have area rugs for cosiness.

https://www.laoisenterprise.com/

Depends on the quality of the floorboards. Oak - I would try and renovate. Cheap pine with loads of knots - no. Also what are the gaps like between the boards? If wide, and there’s damage, they will need filling and repair. If cheap pine, I’d probably not bother and replace or get carpet.

Are they painted all over ? Definitely lead paint ? My boards had ancient varnish on them which did contain lead in one room and I painted over it. It did get worn eventually though, so that possibly exposed us to lead dust, my house is Georgian so has lots of lead paint (plus asbestos).
You can strip them with a paste that you cover the boards with and then peel off, it’s pretty effective but I would think hard for such a large area. I tried a section on my stairs and it did work well but doing the whole lengthy stairway edges was such a faff that again I overpainted instead. You can turn all the boards if the paint is only on one side. Eg you could seal the lead painted side then turn the boards. Or you can have them all taken up, dipped and then replaced.

Restore if no young children, cover otherwise