 Lead is present in nearly every historic home. I'm going to show you a simple test you can use to immediately find out if you have lead contamination. There are many products for doing home lead testing. I think that this 3M lead tester is one of the easiest and fastest to use. Inside this paper liner you'll find a glass vial with two chambers and an applicator on one end. All you have to do is crush the vial making sure to crush both chambers and shake which mixes the two chemicals. Tilt the tester down and squeeze till some of the liquid comes out. It'll be an orange color. Touch the applicator to any place you want to test. As long as the applicator stays orange, you're lead free. If you get red, you have lead. As long as you're getting a negative test, you can reuse the same vial. Keep squeezing. There'll be enough liquid to test many places. I wanted to give you an example of what it looks like when you get a positive lead test. In this area, I'm still orange, but in this area, I believe I have lead. And there we go. If it turns red, you've got lead. These little guys are kind of expensive in the two or the four pack, but when you buy them in bulk, they're really pretty affordable. I buy them in eight packs and I find myself using them all the time. There's a link in the blog if you want to get an eight pack for yourself. Here's one important tip. Lead is not always present in the top layer of your test area. Look for an area where many layers are exposed. If you're testing a painted area, look for a place where the paint is chipped back to the wood or the metal underneath. This should let you test every layer. I'll often take a razor blade and make a cut down to the bottom material. Please understand, renovations can create hazards. People and especially children can swallow lead dust or paint chips and get poisoned. Lead poisoning has serious health consequences. Don't begin work or let a contractor begin work without understanding how to protect yourself and your family. If you get a positive test, don't freak out. That's normal for a historic home. Now you know. Make sure to check out my video on lead safety. We'll go through the EPA strategies on how to work around lead and make your home safe. If you have a story about lead in your home, please feel free to share it in the comments section. A few years ago, I started reaching out to neighbors to help them with various issues relating to our historic homes. As I took notes and spoke to local experts, I began to think about how to best share what I know. The result has become VallejoHistoricHomesSupport.com. It's a video blog series that's meant to encourage local preservation and increase our enjoyment of living in historic Vallejo. It's been a tremendous labor of love and I'm excited to share it with you. I'm Chris Jacobsen, a local Vallejo Realtor, and I love our historic homes. Your comments and questions are important to me. Tell me your story about lead in your historic home. I read every comment and I hope to hear from you there. Don't edit this in. This is a blooper.