Does the EPA Lead Paint Rule Affect You?

Are you considering window replacement or replacement siding?  If your home was built before 1978 the EPA rule will affect you.

On April 22nd, this year, the EPA’s Renovation, Repair, and Painting Rule (RRP) became law. For individuals who are not familiar with this rule, it is the culmination of nearly twenty years of labor the EPA put into remedying lead poisoning in children. Although contact with lead is also harmful to grown ups, research has shown that kids younger than 6 or carried by women that are pregnant are highly susceptible to birth defects or learning disabilities.

As a result, the Environmental Protection Agency required landlords, realators as well as contractors to distribute a lead warning pamphlet to tenants, house buyers, or owners of homes built pre-1978 for some time now. Environmental as well as child advocacy groups, to alleviate lead poisoning and contact with lead, continually pressured the EPA to move forward with measures to get rid of lead dangers. On June 23 of 08 the EPA released a final guideline under their authority from the Poisonous Substances Manage Act to address paint dangers created by renovation, repair, and painting activities that disrupt lead-based paint with a focus on homes as well as kid occupied facilities.

So exactly what does this mean to homeowners and property owners who wish to upgrade their homes and properties and for the installers that carry out these types of renovations?

First, the rule affects any kind of compensated renovator that works in any pre-1978 housing or child-occupied facility, such as –

•    Renovation contractors
•    Maintenance workers within multi-family property
•    Painters along with other trades such as plumbers, flooring contractors, heating system & air conditioning installers and much more

Essentially, any service provider receiving payment to do work in any of these properties that disturbs six square feet (two x three) associated with interior surface or 20 square feet (4 by 5) associated with outside area has to be certified or face a fine up up to $37,500 per incident. It has been estimated that about 50% of the homes constructed pre-1978 has lead containing paint. That’s a lot of homes which will be affected by the rule.

Exactly what does this imply with regard to property owners? Property owners ought to realize that it is important to verify that the contractor they are thinking about employing who may be disturbing any kind of painted surface, is actually certified as per the RRP. The EPA has written clear guidelines on safety, containment, clean-up, as well as documentation that trained certified installers must closely follow.

Hiring a non-certified service provider may put your family or even neighbors at risk by allowing lead dust in to your house or even surrounding neighbors property. Subjecting neighbors to lead dust by hiring a non-certified contractor opens the door wide open to a liability lawsuit against you, the property owner.

Depending on the type of project, homeowners ought to anticipate costs for protective steps as well as barriers, pre and post lead paint tests, clean-up along with HEAP filter vacuums as well as wipe down products, protective clothes for workers entering and leaving the job area, disposal, and administrative costs related to notification pamphlets, area documentation, as well as report management required by the EPA.

Installers needed to find training companies within their markets and obtain their field staff and company certification. As of the effective date, any contractor carrying out work on any pre-1978 home is in violation of the guideline and could receive large fines. The EPA has certified numerous trainers across the country to provide training for accreditation. The firm needs certification from the EPA ($300) and individual workers need certification, this may cost as much as $550 to $700 for certification training.

You must realize that if the contractor is working on multiple projects which fall under the rule, each task must have a certified renovator on-site.  This means when the house where the contractor is replacing windows was built in 1968 as well as the home he or she is residing had been built in 1973 and each possess lead paint, a certified renovator must be on site for each. Installers have modified their estimates to include the costs which are associated with compliance to the rule.

Examples of these expenses would include:

•    Rolls of poly and tape
•    Zip doors and walls
•    Protective booties
•    Protective suits and head gear
•    HEPA vacuums
•    HEPA filter replacements
•    Wiping items recommended by training companies
•    Lead test kits
•    Signs, pamphlets, forms, record books, etc.
•    Heavy duty garbage bags
•    Heating vent covers
•    Additional labor for the set up of safety materials, cleanup and tear down
•    Additional liability insurance costs

Additional supplies and work may be required depending on the project. Some other issues contractors are going to have to overcome include the education of field staff, other trades, suppliers, and their own customers on lead safe work practices.

We, at Window World MN, are committed to following the rule as written to keep both our workers and customers as safe as possible.  The management team, the sales staff, the production department and at least one person on each install crew have been trained and are now EPA Certified Renovators.  We are continually working at seeking ways to complete the work according to EPA established protocal at the lowest price possible.

We continue to strive to give our customers “Simply the Best for Less”.