Red tape requisition forms in triplicate
In 1978 the EPA decided lead-based paint was bad and banned its use in residential construction. In 1994 the EPA decided to require people to be certified to work around lead-based paint. It took them until April of 2008 to write a law setting forth standards for mitigating the hazards of lead-based paint. The law went into effect April 22 of this year. I sent in my $300 and the form on which I attest that I will follow the law. (Yes, that is all that is necessary for my business to be licensed.) They also require that the foreman of each job be trained and certified (about $200 more) by an EPA approved facility. Since the EPA estimated that some two hundred thousand contractors would need to be certified they set up a minimum number of training facilities and hired a minimum number of people to process applications. I took the first available training date today, when I learned that even though the law is currently "in effect", they will not be policing (or prosecuting non-compliance) before September 30th. Due to the sudden influx of applications from the nearly 2 million remodeling contractors that are actually in the country they estimate the backlog to be at least 94 days, and are therefore giving us a grace period.
If your house was built before 1978, hurry up and get your remodeling done by a non-EPA-certified contractor while it's still cheap! The regulations add a minimum of $100 in supplies and record-keeping to even the smallest jobs and could easily add thousands to larger jobs.
And whatever you do, don't run out of the form that you use to order replacement forms!
If your house was built before 1978, hurry up and get your remodeling done by a non-EPA-certified contractor while it's still cheap! The regulations add a minimum of $100 in supplies and record-keeping to even the smallest jobs and could easily add thousands to larger jobs.
And whatever you do, don't run out of the form that you use to order replacement forms!