I don't see any way in which laboriously stripping paint from those cabinets is better or safer than tearing them out and starting new. Follow proper procedures for disturbing lead paint and get them out of there asap.

TY

Was the presence of lead determined by a home kit, an inspector, sent to a lab? Its been many years but i remember reading about home kit false positives and id want to be 100% certain before deciding on such a big project.

eta: your kitchen is adorable and i think losing the cabinets altogether would be/will be a sad thing. I hope you dont have to.

It was a 3M test. Two tests were done.

Check with your local health authority for their recommended steps for testing and management. Lead paint doesnt freak me out. if the health authority recommends proper encapsulation id feel fine with that. But there are no little kids around here chewing on a cabinet doors either. So YMMV.

I'd just take them out, particularly if you have young kids who may live in or visit the home in the future. We did this when we renovated and just hired a lead-safe demo company that came in and had everything out in a day. Pretty painless.

TY

Encapsulating leaves you with ugly bumpy cabinets from the ugly bumpy paint underneath. They still might flake down the road and expose you to lead. It is a lot of money for a ”maybe” solution that is ugly.

Replacement is ripping off the bandaid and really fixing the problem.

Thanks!

Ripping out would obviously be safest but i’d also be fine living with them if fresgly painted/not chipping. just depends on how much money you have to spend… most of my house has lead paint anyway so i wouldn’t lose any sleep over it. i stripped my ironing board cabinet doors and it was miserable - i certainly wouldn’t sign up for a whole kitchen! i only did it because they were lumpy, not for the lead paint (didn’t test but i’m sure was there.

Thanks. We are worried about the children but may do a combo of stripping and painting over.

Stripping is going to be much higher risk than encapsulating (or just making sure they are well painted and monitoring for chipping). Both are going to be pricey to do properly so I would seriously consider replacement. You may be able to send the doors and drawer fronts off site for stripping and then just have the boxes to contend with...but that assumes the insides are not painted. If they are, I would replace them if there will be young kids in the house, because you will constantly be dinging the interior paint surface (and honestly the exterior too if your kids are anything like mine!) with use.

Lead testing can be a tricky thing. Make sure you precleaned the surfaces thoroughly! before testing. INSL-X makes a decent encapsulating paint that acts as a primer for topcoating. Just whatever you do don't power sand . In the real world ( outside of known lead hazard areas) dust in the #1 ingestible form of lead. That should get you by till you save for a new kitchen one day.