XRF Testing For Historical Buildings: Preserving The Past, Ensuring A Safe Future

Ensuring A Safe Future In Historic American Landmarks

There sometimes comes a conflict between preserving America’s glorious past for future generations of Americans by retaining the distinctive architecture of a historic landmark, which identifies with the style of a by-gone era, the work of a specific specialized craftsman, or gives recognition of the artistic value of the period home while doing a condition assessment of the historic building’s exterior and interior surfaces for lead.

 Yes, from the ‘white washing’ of fences as depicted in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by author Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) to those glistening white pillars of the Mt. Vernon plantation of George Washington, much of the painted exterior and interior surfaces of 18th, 19th, and early 20th century America were composed of some element of lead-based paint. The painted surfaces included the wooden exterior and interior trim of window sashes, frames, baseboards, wainscoting, doors, and  door frames, and the high-gloss walls of kitchens and bathrooms. Lead compounds were used as driers and window glazing putty. Varnished wood most often contained lead, and almost all painted metals were primed with red lead or lead-based paint.

Removing the historic architecture would mean losing or modifying the original history of the landmark for the sake of a safe, lead-free environment. A preferred approach, and in agreement with the Secretary of The Interior, is permitting lead-based paint to remain if a lead-paint hazard does not exist because of noticeable deterioration of a painted surface — such deterioration shown by paint chips and lead dust. Discovering lead hazards requires performing an elemental analysis of historical materials and a risk assessment of the historic landmark building.