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Roof Restoration

Roof Restoration · Six guides · Sheet 5

Lead · NSW Health and the NCC

Lead and older roofs

On an older roof, lead can be in the flashings, in the washers under roofing screws and in old paint, and NSW Health warns that the ceiling space below can gather large amounts of dust. NSW Health advises against collecting rainwater from roofs with uncoated lead flashing, lead washers or high-lead paint, and the National Construction Code allows no lead materials on a roof that forms part of a drinking water catchment.

General information, not medical advice. If you think you or someone in your family has been exposed to lead, NSW Health’s advice is to contact your doctor or your local Public Health Unit; its lead fact sheet is the place to read more.

1 · Where it is

Four places to look

Four places lead can be found on and under an older roof A roof in section. A chimney rises through the roof with a soft flashing dressed around its base. A roofing screw with a washer holds the sheet. Part of the roof surface carries an old flaking coat of paint. Below, in the ceiling space, a layer of dust lies on top of the ceiling. 1 2 3 4
Drawing not to scale, numbered to match the four places below.
1 · Flashings

Soft flashing around chimneys and walls

NSW Health advises against collecting rainwater from roofs with uncoated lead flashing, and says existing lead flashing can be painted as a precaution. Its rainwater page suggests replacing lead flashing with a non-lead alternative such as aluminium, or painting over it where it cannot be replaced.

2 · Washers

The washers under roofing screws

Roofing screws with lead washers should be replaced with non-lead alternatives such as plastic washers, NSW Health says.

3 · Paint

Old paint on the roof

NSW Health names lead-based household paints used before 1970 as a source of lead, and says not to collect rainwater from a roof painted with high-lead products, giving pre-1970s paint as the example. Your Home’s rainwater advice uses a later date: avoid collecting drinking water from roofs painted with pre-1980 paint.

4 · Dust

The ceiling space below

NSW Health asks people to take care when going into ceiling spaces and wall cavities, because they can gather large amounts of dust, and household dust can carry lead from old paint or contaminated soil.

2 · Why it matters

What NSW Health says lead does

Lead gets into the body when people breathe in dust or fumes, or eat or drink something that contains it, and it can affect almost every organ and system in the body.

  • In children, exposure even at low levels can be harmful, affecting physical and mental development.
  • In adults, it can raise blood pressure and affect how the kidneys and the brain work.
  • At high levels of exposure, lead can cause seizures, coma and death.
  • People with raised blood lead levels may show no symptoms at all.
3 · Before and during work

NSW Health’s list for the home

NSW Health counts renovating a house built before 1970, where lead paints were used, as one of the activities that expose people to lead, and work that sands, scrapes, abrasively blasts or welds lead-based paint among the jobs that do. Its list of ways to reduce exposure at home, in plain words and complete except for one item about imported products:

  1. Before you eat, drink or smoke, wash your hands and face and give your nails a scrub.
  2. When renovating, take steps to keep lead dust down.
  3. Go carefully into ceiling spaces and wall cavities, where a lot of dust can build up.
  4. While lead-based paint is being disturbed, children, pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers should stay out of the house or area where it is happening.
  5. Clean floors with a wet mop, and use a damp cloth on furniture, windowsills and any other surface that collects dust.
  6. Use a vacuum cleaner with a HEPA filter on carpets, curtains, furniture and upholstery, and empty the dust into the bin rather than onto the garden.
  7. Use door mats and leave shoes outside, to keep dust from coming in.
  8. Eat regular, well-balanced meals, which NSW Health says can help lower the amount of lead absorbed, especially in children.

For anyone doing this as paid work, NSW Health’s list for work goes further. All eight of its steps, in its order and in plain words, from its lead fact sheet:

  1. Use exhaust ventilation or wet methods to reduce exposure to lead dust.
  2. Keep lead contamination confined to designated lead process areas.
  3. Where the work could involve dust or fumes that carry lead, wear protective clothing (coveralls, booties, a hat and gloves) and a respirator that meets Australian Standard 1716.
  4. Keep both the area right around the job and the lead process area clean and tidy.
  5. Have food and drinks in set-aside areas that are kept free of lead.
  6. Before you eat, drink or smoke, wash your hands and face and give your nails a scrub.
  7. Before going home from high lead risk work, shower and discard contaminated clothing, then change clothes in designated clean areas.
  8. Don’t sweep up dust that may contain lead, or vacuum it with an ordinary vacuum cleaner; use one fitted with a HEPA filter.
4 · Tank and taps

Lead and the water you drink

NSW Health lists rainwater from tanks among the ways people are exposed, when dust containing lead has contaminated the roof or guttering, along with water from old household pipes soldered with lead. Its rainwater page says removing sources of chemical contamination such as lead flashings from the catchment should manage the chemical risks without the need for testing.

  • Use only the cold tap for drinking and cooking: hot water systems can hold more dissolved minerals and metals.
  • After water has stood for a long time, flush the cold tap for 2 to 3 minutes before drinking or cooking with it; that first water can still go on plants or the washing up.
  • Plumbing fittings and pipes should comply with AS/NZS 4020 and/or WaterMark.

More on the catchment itself is in rainwater from a roof.

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