Built Before 1978? Lead Paint Could Still Be in Your Walls

Oct 21, 2026

Part 1 of 5 in our National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week series, October 25 to 31, 2026

You’re at the kitchen table with a listing printout, looking up the year your home was built. On the floor, a toddler is driving a toy truck into the baseboard. The walls look fine, and you’re about to decide whether that’s enough.

Often, it isn’t.

This week is National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week, and this year’s theme is Keep Kids Safe from Lead. EPA, CDC and HUD are asking families to do three things: get the facts, get your child tested, and get your home tested. This post starts with the house, and the one detail that shapes everything else: when it was built.

When was lead paint banned, and why it still matters

Lead paint was banned for residential use in 1978. The ban stopped new lead paint going onto walls. It did nothing about the layers already there.

EPA estimates that about three-quarters of U.S. homes built before 1978 still contain some lead-based paint.
About 3.3 million American households with children under six have lead hazards from deteriorated paint, dust or soil.

If your home dates from before 1978, treat old paint as a real possibility, even under fresh coats and even when every wall looks perfect. Renters can ask the same question. The age of the building is just as useful to you as it is to an owner.

How lead gets from walls to children

There is no safe level of lead in a child’s blood. Most exposure doesn’t come from paint chips you can see. It comes from fine dust, created when old paint wears down or when someone sands, scrapes or cuts into it.

Toddlers crawl, touch everything and put their hands in their mouths. Dust on a floor or windowsill ends up on their fingers, and then inside them. A new coat of paint doesn’t remove the risk underneath. It hides it until the next project disturbs it.

That’s why the build year matters most before work starts, not after the dust has settled.

What “get your home tested” can mean

Home testing covers a few different steps, and the right one depends on the question you have:

Ask what’s already known. Sellers and landlords of pre-1978 housing must disclose any lead paint they know about, so ask for past reports.
Screen a surface before you disturb it. If you’re about to sand trim or replace a window, a paint test on that component tells you what you’re working with.
Call a certified professional for the full picture. A lead inspection or risk assessment looks at paint, dust and soil across the whole property.

LeadCheck is made for the second step. Swab the surface you plan to work on and you’ll have an answer in minutes, before any dust is made.

What a LeadCheck swab can and can’t tell you

It screens the paint on one surface you choose: wood, ferrous metal, drywall or plaster.
A negative result is the reliable one. EPA recognition means the kit rarely misses regulated lead paint that is there.
A positive result means treat that surface as lead paint, or have a certified professional confirm it.
It is not a blood test, a dust test or a clearance for the whole home.

Start with the year

The toddler is still on the floor, and the build year is either before 1978 or it isn’t. If it is, decide what testing means for your home before the next scrape or remodel. Take any concerns about your child’s health to your pediatrician, and bring in a certified professional when the question is bigger than one surface.

Find out how to test paint before you disturb it at leadcheck.com or luxfermagtech.com, or call 800-503-4483.