Lead Paint in Pre-1970 Manningham Homes: Safe Prep Explained

It's one of the least glamorous but most important parts of repainting an older home, and it gets far too little attention: **lead-based paint**. If your Doncaster or Manningham home was built or last painted before about 1970, this is worth understanding before anyone starts scraping and sanding.

Why older homes have it

Lead was added to paint for durability and colour for decades, and it was widely used in Australian homes until it was progressively restricted through the 1970s and beyond. Paint sold today is effectively lead-free, but that doesn't help the older layers already on an older home. So the working assumption for any home built or painted **before about 1970** is that lead-based paint may be present in the older coats until testing shows otherwise.

Manningham's stock is mostly newer than that, but there's period and early post-war housing scattered through Doncaster, Templestowe and the older streets — and those are exactly the homes to be careful with.

Where it hides

Lead paint tends to turn up on:

- **Exterior weatherboards, eaves and fascias** - **Window frames, sills and sashes** — often multiple thick layers - **Doors and door frames** - **Skirting boards, architraves and internal trims** - **Old fences and outbuildings**

High-friction and weathered surfaces — windows that have been opened and closed for decades, sun-beaten weatherboards — are the usual suspects.

The key point: it's only a risk when disturbed

Here's what matters most. Intact, sound lead paint sitting under newer coats is generally not a hazard just by being there. The danger comes when it's **disturbed** — specifically when prep work turns it into dust or fumes:

- **Dry sanding** creates fine lead dust that's easily inhaled and settles into soil and carpet. - **Heat-stripping** without controls produces lead fumes. - **Aggressive scraping** without containment spreads chips and dust.

That dust is the real risk, particularly to young children and pregnant women, and it can contaminate the soil and garden around the home where it settles. This is why the *preparation* is the safety issue on an older repaint — far more than the painting itself.

What lead-safe preparation involves

Done properly, prep on a pre-1970 home follows lead-safe practice broadly aligned with **AS 4361.2** (the Australian Standard for lead paint management) and WorkSafe and EPA guidance:

- **Assume and test.** Treat suspect layers as lead-based; test where it matters. - **Avoid dust and fumes.** No dry mechanical sanding or unprotected heat-stripping of lead layers. - **Contain the work.** Drop sheets to catch chips and dust, and keep the area controlled. - **Wet methods where suitable** to keep dust down during prep. - **Clean up thoroughly.** Collect and dispose of debris properly rather than leaving chips and dust in the soil and around the home.

The goal is simple: prepare the surface for a lasting repaint **without** turning old paint into airborne lead.

A note on licensing

General domestic painting doesn't require a specific painter's licence in Victoria, and we don't claim one. What protects your household on an older home isn't a licence — it's whether the person doing the prep actually treats the lead layers with the care the standard calls for. That's a question worth asking any painter before they start on a pre-1970 home.

The bottom line

Lead paint in an older Manningham home isn't a reason to panic, and it isn't a reason to avoid repainting — a fresh, sound coat actually *seals* old layers in. It's a reason to make sure the prep is done the safe way. If your home predates 1970, ask specifically how the painter will handle it, and don't accept dry sanding of old paint as an answer.