Interior House Painting
Walls, ceilings and trim in occupied homes, with furniture moved, floors covered and rooms handed back each evening.
DetailsWall repair & prep
Lead-safe painting for pre-1978 homes in Park Ridge, IL
Most houses around Park Ridge went up before 1978, from 1920s bungalows to the postwar ranches and Cape Cods that fill the suburbs. We paint them using EPA lead-safe work practices so dust stays contained and rooms are clean when we hand them back.
- EPA lead-safe work practices followed
- Plastic containment and wet scraping
- HEPA cleanup and a final check
Short answer
Lead-safe painting is ordinary painting done with containment and cleanup methods that keep lead dust from spreading. In a pre-1978 home that means plastic sheeting, misting before scraping and sanding, no open flame or dry power sanding, HEPA vacuums and a cleaning check at the end. In Park Ridge and the nearby suburbs, the setup typically adds $145 to $385 per room on top of the painting price.
Paint lines we use most, matched to the surface: Benjamin Moore, Sherwin-Williams and PPG for walls and trim, Romabio for limewash, Cabot and Sikkens for wood stain.
Benjamin MooreSherwin-WilliamsPPGBehrValsparFarrow & BallFine Paints of EuropeRomabioCabotSikkensZinsserRust-Oleum
Does a 1950s or 1960s suburban house need lead-safe painting?
Very often, yes. People tend to think of lead paint as a problem for very old city housing, but homes built any time before 1978 may contain lead-based paint. That date takes in the postwar ranches of Niles and Des Plaines, the Cape Cods of Arlington Heights, the split-levels of Mount Prospect and Palatine, and most of the 1920s bungalows in Park Ridge, Berwyn and Elmhurst.
The risk is not paint that sits quietly on the wall. It is the dust and chips created when that paint is disturbed. Scraping trim, sanding doors, cutting into window sills and taking down painted wallpaper all turn old layers into fine dust that settles on floors and sills, where children pick it up on their hands.
The EPA Renovation, Repair and Painting Rule, called the RRP Rule, covers paid work that disturbs more than 6 square feet of painted surface inside a room or more than 20 square feet outside, in pre-1978 homes, child care facilities and schools. A room of doors and trim, or a front porch repaint, usually crosses those lines.
What lead-safe painting looks like inside your home
Before any scraping, plastic sheeting goes down on the floor, taped at the edges and running well past the work area. Doorways get plastic barriers so dust cannot drift into the hall, and the supply and return vents in the room are sealed so the furnace does not carry dust through the house.
Surfaces are misted with water before we scrape or sand. Wet methods keep chips and dust heavy, so they drop onto the plastic instead of floating. We never use open-flame burning or dry power sanding on old painted surfaces, the two methods that throw off the most hazardous dust.
When prep is done, we HEPA vacuum the surfaces and the plastic, mist the plastic and fold it inward, then wet wipe floors and sills. A cleaning check confirms the area is clean before primer and paint go on.
- Plastic sheeting on floors and across doorways
- Furnace supply and return vents sealed
- Misting before every scrape and sand
- No open flame or dry power sanding
- HEPA vacuuming and wet wiping
- Cleaning check before primer goes on
Lead-safe prep on exterior trim, porches and windows
Outside, the concern is chips and dust landing in soil, flower beds, vegetable gardens and the yard next door. We spread plastic on the ground below the work, running out from the foundation, and weight it so wind cannot lift it. If the wind picks up, scraping stops.
On brick ranches and Georgians the old paint is usually on the wood trim, soffits, window frames and front porch columns. On frame and sided houses it can be the whole wall under the aluminum or vinyl. We wet scrape loose paint, collect debris from the plastic each day and bag it before we leave.
Window sashes and sills rub every time the window opens, which makes them a steady source of lead dust. When we scrape and repaint wood windows, we treat both the inside and the outside faces as lead-safe work.
Lead-safe painting across Park Ridge and the older suburbs
Park Ridge, Niles, Morton Grove, Skokie and Des Plaines grew fastest in the 1950s and 1960s, and nearly every house from those decades predates 1978. The paint on the walls may have been redone many times, but the original trim, doors, closet shelves and window frames often still carry the early coats underneath.
Farther out, Evanston, Oak Park, River Forest, Wilmette, Winnetka, Glen Ellyn and Hinsdale have large numbers of homes from before 1930, with painted woodwork, wood windows and porches that have been scraped and recoated for close to a century. Those are the houses where lead-safe prep takes the most care.
Season matters for the outside work. With average October highs near 63F and November near 48F at O'Hare, we try to finish exterior scraping by mid-fall, while it is warm and dry enough to mist, clean up and prime the same day. Interior lead-safe work runs all year.
Signs your paint job should be planned as lead-safe work
If any of these apply, plan the job around lead-safe practices from the start.
Built before 1978
Homes from before 1978 may contain lead paint, and that covers most of the postwar suburbs as well as the older towns.
Alligatored trim or doors
Paint cracked into a scaly pattern usually has many layers under it, often including early lead coats.
Original wood windows
Wood sashes that rub as they open and close can grind old paint layers into dust on the sill.
Young children or pregnancy
Young children and pregnant residents are the most sensitive to lead dust, so containment matters even more.
An older rental between tenants
Owners repainting a pre-1978 rental should plan lead-safe prep to protect the next household.
A bigger remodel coming
Work that touches a lot of painted surface, inside or out, will usually cross the RRP Rule thresholds.
How a lead-safe paint job runs step by step
Review the house and rooms
We note the year built, walk the surfaces to be painted and plan where containment goes and how you will move through the house.
Set up containment
Plastic goes on floors and over doorways, vents are sealed and warning signs go up at the work area.
Wet scrape and hand sand
Painted surfaces are misted and scraped or hand sanded, with debris falling onto the plastic.
Clean up every day
Each evening we HEPA vacuum and collect debris so nothing gets tracked into the kitchen or bedrooms.
Final cleaning and check
Plastic is misted, folded inward and bagged, floors and sills are wet wiped and a cleaning check confirms the area is clean.
Prime and paint
Once the area passes, we prime bare spots and apply finish coats as on any paint job.
What lead-safe painting adds to the cost around Park Ridge
Lead-safe setup is priced per room on top of the regular painting work, since containment and cleanup add hours.
| What is priced | Typical range | Unit |
|---|---|---|
| Lead-safe setup and cleanup | $145 to $385 | per room |
| Interior room walls, 2 coats | $465 to $890 | per room |
| Trim and molding | $1.85 to $4.40 | per linear ft |
| Window sash and frame | $185 to $465 | each |
| Front porch floor, steps and railings | $1,180 to $3,960 | per porch |
These ranges are typical for the area, and the walk-through in your home sets the real number.
Full painting price guideWhat moves the price
- How much painted surface the prep disturbs
- Number of doorways and vents to seal
- Amount of trim, windows and doors in the room
- Furniture and belongings to move or wrap
- Ground cover and wind on exterior work
- Whether the family stays home during the job
Where we do lead-safe painting
We take lead-safe painting jobs in Park Ridge and the suburbs around it. A few of the places we work most:
Lead-Safe Painting: common questions
Does a 1960s ranch in Des Plaines or Niles have lead paint?
It may. Homes built before 1978 may contain lead-based paint, and that includes most postwar ranches. Since a test is not always done before painting, we treat painted surfaces in pre-1978 homes with lead-safe practices.
Can my family stay in the house during lead-safe painting?
Usually yes, if you stay out of the contained area. Children and pregnant residents should keep well away from the room until the final cleanup and check are done.
What does the EPA RRP Rule mean for repainting one room?
The RRP Rule covers paid work that disturbs more than 6 square feet of painted surface inside a room in a pre-1978 home. Painting over sound paint without scraping may stay under that line, but most real prep goes over it.
Why not dry sand old trim with a power sander to save time?
Dry power sanding of old painted surfaces throws off fine lead dust that spreads through the house. Lead-safe practice uses misting and hand methods instead, which keeps debris heavy and on the plastic.
Is lead-safe prep needed when repainting a front porch on an older home?
If the porch was painted before 1978 and the work disturbs more than 20 square feet of painted surface, yes. Most porch repaints with real scraping reach that amount.
How do I plan lead-safe painting for a pre-1978 rental house?
Call (312) 579-0481. We walk the house, plan containment around the move-out and move-in dates and include the lead-safe setup in the price from the start.
Work that often goes with this job
Window Sash & Frame Painting
Sashes, frames and sills scraped, reglazed where loose and painted so windows still open and shed water.
DetailsPorch Painting
Front porch floors, steps, ceilings, columns and railings scraped, repaired where soft and coated with porch enamel or stain.
DetailsPlaster Wall Repair
Cracked and bulging plaster on vintage walls reattached, patched and skimmed with materials that move like the original.
DetailsRental Turnover Painting
Fast repaints between tenants in houses, condos and apartments: patching, stain blocking and a full coat so the unit shows on schedule.
DetailsBook a walk-through for lead-safe painting
Call any hour. Someone picks up, takes the details and books a time to walk the job with you.