Last updated: September 2026
If your house was built before 1970, assume any old paint could contain lead until you test it or a professional does. The danger isn't the paint sitting still, it's the dust and fumes from disturbing it: dry sanding, dry scraping and heat guns are the methods that turn old paint into an airborne hazard, and children and pregnant women are most at risk from it.
The numbers that matter
- Paint with more than 1% lead was still legally sold up until the rule-of-thumb cutoff of 1970, and some homes built after that date can still carry it, particularly with old, industrial or marine paints.
- Children can absorb up to 60% of the lead they swallow. Adults absorb roughly a tenth of that.
- The national blood lead recommendation, set by the National Health and Medical Research Council, is below 10 micrograms per decilitre for everyone.
- An electric heat gun used on lead paint has to stay under 370°C (700°F). Lead fumes start forming above that.
- Small quantities of lead-contaminated waste are allowed in normal household garbage in every Australian state and territory, but every source says the same thing: check with your council first.
How do you know if your paint contains lead?
Age is the first clue. Homes built before 1970 are the ones most likely to carry lead-based paint. A house built after that isn't automatically clear either, old, industrial or marine paints kept more than 1% lead in them for longer than ordinary house paint did.
You can't tell by looking. A colour-change test kit ($25 to $100 from hardware stores) will give you an answer, but the colour change is hard to see on dark paint and the kits can throw false negatives as well as false positives. A laboratory sample, taken by you or a professional, is the more reliable option. If you haven't tested it, the safest approach is to assume the paint, dust or soil is contaminated and act accordingly.
Why dry sanding and heat guns are the wrong tools, and what to use instead
This is the part most DIY guides skip, and it's the one that actually causes exposure. Removing paint by dry scraping, dry sanding, power-tool sanding, abrasive blasting or burning creates the most serious risk, because those methods produce particles fine enough to be inhaled or to settle into carpets and furnishings, and once that happens it's genuinely difficult to get a home fully clean again. An ordinary power sander used dry on old paint releases lead-rich dust into the air and through the rest of the house.
Heat guns aren't automatically safe either. Open-flame torches and high-temperature heat guns are especially dangerous, because the fumes they produce contain lead and other chemicals that are poisonous to inhale. If a heat gun is used at all, the nozzle has to stay below 370°C, and it can't be held close to the surface, doing either releases more fumes and can scorch the paint.
The safer methods, in the order the Australian Government's own renovator guide recommends them: cover the paint if it's in good condition rather than disturb it at all; remove and replace the painted component entirely where that's practical (skirting boards and architraves are the easiest); wet scrape, by wetting the surface first and scraping the softened paint onto a drop sheet; or wet sand, using wet-and-dry sandpaper and a spray bottle, never dry paper and never an ordinary sander. A respirator meeting Australian Standard 1716 and disposable coveralls are the minimum for any of these.
When it's a job for a licensed specialist, not a weekend job
The Australian Government's own preference order puts hiring a suitably qualified, experienced contractor above every DIY method, and for good reason: dry power sanding with a HEPA-filtered vacuum, which sounds like the safe version of sanding, is explicitly not recommended for the home handy person and is only safe in the hands of a trained, experienced contractor.
There's a regulatory reason DIY has a ceiling here too. Removing lead-based paint is one of the activities SafeWork NSW classes as lead work, and if it's likely to raise someone's blood lead level over the threshold, it becomes "lead risk work", which has to be notified to SafeWork NSW in writing before it starts. If it's unclear whether a job crosses that line, the guidance is to assume it does.
Old painted doors, window frames, weatherboards, fencing and furniture, and general renovation or demolition debris, are exactly what a normal Paul's Rubbish Removal clearance takes away.
Cleaning up lead dust safely
Once paint has been disturbed, however carefully, some dust is inevitable. Never sweep it with a broom, that spreads it further, and never vacuum it with an ordinary household vacuum: only a vacuum fitted with a genuine HEPA filter is safe to use, because anything else pushes the fine dust straight back out through its own exhaust.
Wash affected surfaces, windowsills, floors and skirting boards with a damp cloth or mop rather than dry-dusting them, and rinse cloths and mop heads often so you're not just spreading contaminated water around. That water matters too: don't pour it down a drain or onto the garden. It needs to go into a strong, sealed container and be disposed of the way your council advises.
How to dispose of lead paint waste in NSW
This is the part that actually matters for a rubbish removal site, and it depends on what you've got and how much of it.
Small quantities of contaminated waste (bagged dust, paint chips, a few drop sheets from a small DIY job) are allowed in normal household garbage in every Australian state and territory. Every source agrees on the same caveat: contact your council first for guidance before you do it.
Larger quantities need to go through the hazardous waste system properly. Lead paint waste can be classified as hazardous waste, and your council or the NSW EPA can tell you who's licensed to take it.
Leftover paint tins and paint-related products, as opposed to contaminated debris, have their own free route: a Household Chemical CleanOut event. These are free, drive-through events held across NSW, and they'll take up to 100 litres of paint in 20-litre containers, though it's worth checking the exact limit with your council first. CleanOut events are for household quantities only, business and commercial quantities, including trade or renovation-contractor volumes, aren't accepted there.
Never burn it. Burning timber coated in lead paint, or any other lead-contaminated waste, isn't allowed, whatever else is going on the fire with it.
For the general debris, old doors, frames, furniture, weatherboards, fencing, and the ordinary waste from a reno or demolition, Paul's Rubbish Removal collects it as part of a standard clearance and takes it to a licensed facility. Booked before midday, that's usually a same-day job.
Children and pregnant women: the risk is real, and it's not evenly spread
This is where the safety case is clearest. Children under five are particularly vulnerable to lead exposure: they put their hands and objects in their mouths constantly, they absorb and retain more of the lead they take in than adults do, and their developing brains are more sensitive to its effects. Even low-level exposure in children can cause permanent harm, including decreased intelligence, impaired development, and reduced growth and hearing. Children with pica, the tendency to eat non-food items like paint flakes or soil, carry extra risk again.
Pregnant women face a separate danger: lead in the mother's blood crosses the placenta, and high exposure has been linked to premature birth, low birth weight, miscarriage and stillbirth. Breastfeeding mothers can pass lead on through breastmilk too.
The practical instruction from the Australian Government's own renovator guide is unambiguous: pregnant or breastfeeding women, women trying to conceive, young children and pets should leave the home whenever lead paint is being disturbed, and shouldn't come back until all the dust and debris has been properly cleared away.
