Checking Vintage Furniture for Lead Paint
As a person who frequently buys and repaints vintage furniture, I am always worried about lead paint and whether it was used on the piece I’m about to sand and re-paint. Lead is not something I ever want to mess with, let alone get into my lungs.
When we were at the Haven Conference, 3M was handing out these little packets of Lead Check Swabs and I grabbed a pack. They can detect lead on painted wood, metal, vinyl, plastic and in dust! I know when we bought our old house in NJ, it would have been helpful to have these little suckers – that house hadn’t been repainted since it was built back in the 50’s – long before lead based paints were known to be dangerous and taken off the market in the US. If you would like to know more about lead based paints and the effects they can take on your health, you can visit the US Environmental Protection Agency’s page on Lead Based Paint.
3M Lead Check Swabs
Yesterday, my husband and I were trying to finish up a few projects and one of them was a pair of vintage faux bamboo side tables I found at a thrift store for $15.
vintage bamboo side table before
They were pretty chippy, one was missing the bottom shelf, and both needed a good sanding. However, I wasn’t sure how old they were and if they had been painted with lead paint. Enter 3M Lead Check Swabs!
They were super easy to use.
3M lead check swab pinch here
Just pinch the swab in both the A and the B spots, and shake twice to mix the chemicals inside.
3M Lead Check Swab squeeze
Then gently squeeze the tube until a little of the yellow fluid is visible. Ugh! Don’t mind my dirty hands – I was busy with Wood filling Bondo, paint and sanding all day!
3M Lead Check Swab Rub 30 seconds
Then rub that end on the piece you want to test for 30 seconds. If the tip turns red, then you know you are dealing with lead!
3M Lead Check Swab – no lead detected
Thank goodness that my piece came out clean, although blurry – dang iPhone wouldn’t focus 🙁
Now, if you’re worried that you did the test wrong, you can always test the swab to make sure it wasn’t faulty by using the handy-dandy test paper that 3M includes in the package. Just rub the end of the swab on one of the lead containing dots and wait for it to turn red. If it doesn’t, then you know your test didn’t work as it should and you need to do another test. As you can see, my test worked perfectly!
3M Lead Check Swabs test confirmation card
I will have to pick up a few more (dozen) of these swabs – they are invaluable to a chronic re-purposer like me!
I haven’t painted the side tables yet, but when I do, I’ll post how they turned out. I’m still trying to decide on the best color for them – and where they would go in my house. I was thinking on our back porch, but I’m not sure yet. Would you go with just plain white? Or pick a bold and fun color?
Have you tried these yet?
Thanks so much for stopping by!
Eliesa
Disclaimer: 3M provided me with this sample pack at Haven – but like everything that I review and post about on Pinterest Addict, all ideas, opinions and statements are my own. I wouldn’t recommend a product if I didn’t truly believe it was fantastic.
UPDATE: In case you were wondering, this is how the side tables ended up. 🙂
Love how these turned out!
kirby carespodi says
I need some of these! I am sure this old house of mine is FULL of lead paint!
Peachylady says
My husband uses these. A piece of my Mama’s furniture was coated with lead paint. She still says that I’m overreacting and that Rick can just use a face mask to sand. No! I am gonna print the EPA page you referenced and show her concrete proof. Thanks for publicizing these, they are a life saver.
Michael Taft says
I just bought a package of these to test a sligh bedset I bought for my daughter. It tested positive on 3 of 5 pieces tested. Back it shall go to my buddy’s auction house. At least I hope that’s how this ends . . . . .One thing that I found using this exact test kit is that you have to test down to the wood and the directions say to use a clean knife to scrape a 1/4″ gash in the paint and use that as your test area. Also, the confirmation card should have the liquid dropped onto it as opposed to actually rubbing the swab over the area.
A Pinterest Addict says
Hi Michael – thanks for stopping by AND leaving a comment 🙂 One question about scraping down to the wood… I thought that we were testing the paint for lead?? Although I guess that if it had multiple coats that would make sense. Either way, I’ll be sure to do that next time.
Michael Taft says
That is exactly right – you need to expose the previous coats of paint underneath the top coat. In our case I think the varnish on top was more recent and therefore lead free. Seems like a bit of an inexact science but I know that when my wife tested the surface sans the scratch it tested negative. So for 5 minutes we were relieved. Then I read the directions and hoped for the best. Then I had to tell my 4 yr old her princess bed might not work out.
No princess bed = many tears.
Deb says
Isn’t the paper strip you tested a shade of red? It sure looks like it on my IPad! That’s what I am running into with the heirloom pieces I was about to refinish. The strips are not TRUE red. But definitely a pinkish maroon color. I took that to mean a positive lead test. Right?
A Pinterest Addict says
The strip of paper is the way to check that the test is working correctly. It is treated with something that will react like lead when you touch the stick to it. If it didn’t turn red on the paper, you know there is something wrong with the test itself. When I rubbed it on my piece of furniture, the end of the stick didn’t get red – no lead. The paper is to test the test – not the furniture. Does that make sense? Because I know it sounds weird to test the test…
Jane says
Where can you buy these and how much are they?
A Pinterest Addict says
I saw them a couple weeks ago in Home Depot. I didn’t pay attention to how much they cost, sorry.