Drilling a Hole in Lead Paint
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Drilling a Hole in Lead Paint
You want to hang a picture or a tchotchke on your wall and your wall has lead paint. What do you do?
If you’re not going to use Velcro or Command strips to hang pictures on your wall and you have chosen to sink an anchor, there’s the proper way to do this without spreading a ton of lead dust all around.
Drilling a Hole in Lead Paint
First, take a one-gallon Ziplock bag and tape it to the wall. I taped the corners in to make sure the bag will stay open.
Wear gloves as you don’t want lead dust on your hands.
Use a damp paper towel to help catch any debris and drill a new hole. These walls are cement so I’m unable to just tap a nail in… it will destroy the wall.
Drop the paper towel into the bag. Use another damp paper towel to wipe the wall where you just drilled the hole and make sure all the dust is removed. Carefully clean off the drill bit with the wet paper towel.
Drop this paper towel into the bag.
Remove your gloves and drop them into the bag. Remove the tape and drop the tape into the bag. Seal the bag and throw it away.
Set the anchor carefully with a hammer, drill in the screw, and hang your picture. All done!