Paint in the home: Asbestos?
 

1970s building in the countryside, old fashioned Hungarian made bricks with what looks a lot like a lime based mortar render over the top.

Now, befroe we moved in we had my Brother in Law (builder) do some basic renovations. The issue here is that the house was repainted with modern paint. I am sure you can imagine the results! Yes, walls can't breathe and there is a damp problem.

So was planning to strip back the paint to the old paint surface and use whitewash on external facing internal walls and everywhere else. Should solve the problem. Somebody though has mentioned if it is Soviet paint it will be full of asbestos? This house is out in the countryside and the plumber who was here when it was built and installed the "modern" plumbing 20 or so years ago said nothing about that, never came up in the survey, builder family members and other trades said nothing. Is this actually likely to be a thing? Or would this have just been the local materials and probably all just lime based traditional whitewash based paints? Wife has never heard of asbestos in paint. She doesn't remember her Brother mentioning it either and he does a lot of renovation work around Budapest.

Just seems an odd thing really.

Re: Paint in the home: Asbestos?
 

Paint could contain asbestos. Asbestos was used a filler in some paints from about late 1940s up to 1980(ish). The problem is that you just don't know.

Most paint in Hungary is sold as breathable so find out what was used and read the label. If the previous paint used was a limewash was the limewash sealed properly first?

There are lots of reasons for damp in a house and sometimes it is difficult to differentiate between damp walls and condensation. Does your house have a DPC? When you say old fashioned Hungarian made bricks do you mean fired clay bricks? How long have you been in the house and was the house empty for some time before you bought it? Have you recently had new windows and doors? What are the symptoms of the damp and where are they occurring?