Musings Of The New Lead Paint Renovation Program (Part 1)

Today I was sitting down and once again reading over the new Renovation Repair and Painting Rule (RRP).  As a contractor I was doing some checking into something that I heard about last week and it really made be concerned about the legal issues with this law.  I began to think about all the parts of the law and the requirements of the containment process when working on a home that was built prior to 1978 that had lead paint detection  test completed on it and they were found to be positive. 

The new law has provided for some very specific items that must be done when lead is found in a residential dwelling that has made my head spin.  Some of the items I have trouble understanding is:

1- The protection of items in the renovation area:  If you are doing a window replacement everything that can be removed from the room is to be removed.  However if it can not be removed it is to be wrapped like a Christmas gift and then around the bottom of the item it is to be taped to the floor so that no dust can get on the item and be a hazard.  However the law requires during the clean up procedure that we are only responsible for horizontal surfaces and not vertical surfaces.  Does this mean that the dust can only travel upwards around certain items and land on the flat surface of this item and yet there is no concerns about other vertical surfaces in the room?

2- The amount of dust that is dangerous: I have read in several places that the amount of lead dust that can be found in a sugar packet is enough to contaminate an area as large as a football stadium.  This raises a flag to me because I wonder if this is the case,  Why do I Only need to tarp of a 10' x 10' area in front of the window or door area that I am working on.  Once this dust travels out of the 10' x 10' area, Is it no longer dangerous?

3- Safety: The EPA obviously has not sat down next to our good friends at the Occupational, Safety and Health Administration (O.S.H.A.) and discussed what kind of dangerous situations they are creating.  I was reading about the fact that all area inside and outside need to be tarped with heavy plastic in order to catch any paint chips that can fly away from the work area.  I was thinking about the safety of laying a plastic tarp down on the ground and then setting a ladder on top of it to reach your work area.  Does this sound a little dangerous to you?

4- Disposal of the trash:  The law states that if I am removing any trash from within a house that I need to bag it and goose neck tie the top of the bag before walking through the house to take it outside.   I find this as crazy on so many levels.  I believe the point that I find the craziest of all of this is the fact that We have now taken a item that is biodegradable when placed in a landfill and now wrapped it in plastic,  Our government speaks about going green, What happened here?  This is the best part: We are removing this so hazardous item from our homes and then we can place it outside on the curb for local trash pick up or if the contractor removes it from the work site he or she will most likely pitch it into a landfill.  Now I am not a scientist here but does this not cause a problem for groundwater when the lead leaches off of the trash into the water supply? 

In closing it seems to me that no one person has stopped and stood back and looked at the crazy law that has been put forward here.  I urge you that you sit back and look at this law if you are a contractor.  Make sure that you are following the law and make sure that you use a lead test kit on  every home that you are going to work on if you believe there is even a slight chance of lead being present.

For now I am moving on and will soon write another edition of Musings of the Lead Paint Renovation Program soon.   

What Does the Lead Safe Work Practices Mean to Small Business Owners?

The world of the small home improvement contractor has been rocked with the financial instability of the country.  Most homeowners are struggling just to make ends meet and pay their bills with the thought that their biggest purchase of their lifetime is being neglected, yes, I am talking about their home. 

As a homeowner myself I believe I am like many other people that try to make at least one improvement to your home each year.  Usually this improvement is to make the time that you spend in your home more pleasant.  But, with the changing times we have begun to focus less on the big screen television, the huge deck in the back of the house, or even the new kitchen.  With all of these items you are looking at making your down time more pleasurable but as a responsible homeowner most people are looking at trying to make their house more energy efficient by spending their hard earned dollars on new energy efficient windows, doors, and insulating products to try and save money.

This past summer many home owners had a new phrase introduced to them called, The Renovation Repair and Painting Rule (RRP) that was kindly brought to us by the (EPA).  The RRP rule is the law that deals with how renovations are performed when there is lead paint detection in any dwelling built before 1978.  The new RRP rule is not actually that new.  However, in April of this year (2010) it became a major headache for the general homeowner.  In the past this law only had to be followed in Houses that were being funded by the Housing and Urban Development Administration (HUD) or in a child occupied facility (schools, daycares, etc.)

Now as you sit back and think about this:

1-  The law states that any house built prior to 1978 must be tested for the toxic substance of lead before most types of work can start.  If lead is found the Lead Safe Work Practices must be followed or the contractor could face very steep fines (these fines start in the low thirty thousand ranges per opening / per day.  At the current time there is only one lead swab test available on the market that is considered to be acceptable for use within this law for testing.  This swab is the Lead Check lead test kit.  When the law first came into effect it was challenging at its best to try and locate these for sale which delayed the business owner as well as the owner trying to get work completed and there were many companies selling these at a highly elevated price which created an opportunity for many people to be taken advantage of.

2-      The EPA has come up with an estimated cost of forty six dollars per window or door to cover the cost of the lead safe work practices.  I know in my area I see billboards and print advertising all the time that show any window can be installed in your home including the window for one hundred ninety nine dollars.  Has the average homeowner added the forty six dollars per opening to cover the cost when trying to figure out what the renovation will involve?  Has the homeowner looked over the quality of the product or the quality of the installation they will receive?  In many cases we have seen that this advertising ploy takes advantage of older people and people who have not even looked at the product they are having installed until it is too late.  I believe that many people are settling for less quality of work and a lesser quality product just to get the job done at what they believe is a good price and regret their purchase shortly thereafter.  I believe because of the cost involved with this work in pre 1978 homes many contractors will stop doing work on these homes because of the profitability which will create a problem for many homeowners.   Also, don’t forget the materials needed to actually perform the work at hand to comply with the law are to be supplies for the Forty six dollars.  This point brings the questions of how many people will hire contractors under the radar so to speak to do the work without following the lead safe work practices and the homeowner will most likely receive less than satisfactory work and will once again give the independent contractor another black eye?  When pondering the thought that the same group of people who came up with this cost to cover this law also paid seven hundred dollars for a toilet seat in the Pentagon…….

3-      While no serious homeowner or parent would want to trade the health of their children to save money is understood.  However, we need to question the timing of this law going into effect.  Our country is coming off of the worst economic crunch is many years and this is only going to create a drag on changing the status of the economy.  You hear many of the government spokes people on the news everyday saying that the backbone of the financial community is small business and that small business is what will bring the country out of the funk that we are experiencing now.  This law, be it very important is also a creating a strangle hold on the smaller independent contractor and will continue to do so.  I believe that any contractor will tell you that this law is a deciding factor when a homeowner is contemplating starting a project in their home.  Should the law have been pushed back for a while until the country was ready for this?

4-      My last point would be to look at the financial impact for the government and the small contractor.  All business owners had to look for a class to take to be certified with a cost of around three hundred dollars.  After taking the class it meant nothing until you registered with the EPA which then cost an additional three hundred dollars (ponder that every company was paying a minimal amount of three hundred dollars (and much more in some cases) to the EPA – how much money has this raised?).  Now you are thinking well this is the cost of doing business, correct it is but also keep in mind this was all happening in the spring when the average small contractor is just struggling to stay in business in the best times.  I believe to make this competitive the cost to cover this extra expense and time would need to be around one hundred twenty five dollars per opening considering a two person crew on a job site.

The lead safe work practices are very important but you need to ask yourself one question:  Is it a safe way of doing work in certain situations or is it a back door to raise revenue?  At this point people that are buying houses trying to start out on their journeys in life and create families need to be aware of the laws and how they will affect them when it comes to having work done on their newly acquired home.  Catching that great deal on that beautiful row home in a metro area may not be the deal that you think!  

If you need supplies for RRP renovation projects or Leadcheck lead test kits visit our site LEADPAINTEPASUPPLIES.COM