The Exclusions to the RRP Rule (and Why Most of Them Won’t Get You Out of It)

Every class, somewhere in Module 2, somebody is sitting there hoping I am about to tell them the rule does not apply to them. So let me lay out the exclusions the way I do in class, and then let me tell you the part people do not want to hear: most of these are a lot narrower than they sound.

First, the basics. The EPA Renovation, Repair and Painting Rule applies to work that disturbs painted surfaces in housing built before 1978 (remember that term, target housing) and in child-occupied facilities. If you are not lead-safe certified and you disturb just six square feet, it can cost you big. Up until OSHA changed its fine structure in 2015, this was the most aggressive fine structure out there. So it is not something to take lightly. The rule is not complicated, but you do have to know when you are in it and when you are out of it.

Here is the list.

1. The Paint Does Not Contain Lead

If the components you are disturbing do not contain lead-based paint, the rule does not apply to that work. You find that out one of two ways: an EPA-recognized test kit, or a paint chip sample sent to an accredited lab. A certified inspector or risk assessor can also declare a house lead-free.

The federal definition of lead-based paint is one milligram per square centimeter or more than 0.5 percent by weight. Remember the 0.5 percent, because on your test they will try to throw you off with 5 percent.

Now here is my caveat. Let’s say you collect a paint chip sample off a wall and the lab comes back at 0.3 percent. Technically you are under the federal definition and the rule does not apply. Does that mean you go work like it is 1965 with a broom and a shop vac? No. You only know that about a two-centimeter by two-centimeter spot on the wall. You do not know it is under the definition all the way across. As a renovator, we just want to know whether lead is present. We do not care how much.

Where testing does help you is isolating the work. If your customer is good with it, test every surface you are going to disturb. If the door casing is positive and the two walls next to it are negative, do the door first or last and only set up lead-safe for the door. That can save you a lot of time and a lot of money.

2. Minor Repair and Maintenance

Small disturbances are excluded. Under the EPA rule that means less than six square feet of painted surface per room on the interior, or less than twenty square feet on the exterior.

Three things never count as minor, no matter how small: window replacement, demolition, and anything involving a prohibited practice. If you are pulling a window, you are in the rule.

And do not carry the EPA numbers onto a HUD project. HUD’s thresholds are smaller: two square feet or ten percent of a component on the interior, and twenty square feet on the exterior with that same ten percent rule applied.

3. Emergency Renovations

If a pipe bursts or a tree comes through the roof, you are not expected to wait seven days for a certified-mail receipt on the Renovate Right pamphlet before you stop the water. Emergency renovations are excused from the up-front notification and setup timing so you can deal with the emergency.

What they are not excused from is the back end. You still have to clean up and you still have to do cleaning verification. And on a HUD project, once you have mitigated the emergency, hand out the Renovate Right pamphlet and then keep working.

4. Abatement Is a Different Program

This is not an abatement course, and abatement work is not renovation work. Lead abatement is when you go to a property, test every surface, and develop a plan to permanently remove the lead. What we do is go in, identify the surfaces we are going to disturb, and either presume lead is there and work lead-safe, or test with the customer’s blessing and work according to the results.

Could you abate lead by accident? Sure. Say your scope is to replace a garage door, and it turns out that door was the only thing on the whole property with lead-based paint. Technically you abated it. But that was not your intent. Your intent was to replace a garage door, and that is renovation.

Where this bites people is when a kid in the house has tested positive for lead. Any time a medical provider finds lead in a child, they notify the health department. The health department sends out a risk assessor. The risk assessor may allow the work as a renovation, or they may specify that an abatement contractor has to do it. If they specify abatement, you cannot do the job. I have had contractors tell me they got started, and a couple of days in the health department was knocking on the door saying, wait a minute, you are not an abatement contractor. It is the only time I will ever tell you to call the government before you call us. If the parents tell you their kids tested positive, check with the health department before you start.

5. Zero-Bedroom Dwellings

Studio apartments, efficiencies, dorm rooms. If the living area and the sleeping area are the same room, it is excluded from the definition of target housing.

6. Housing Designated for the Elderly or the Disabled

This is the one everybody tries to use. Here is the scenario I run in class. Autumn Maple Street, a 1976 ranch, all the windows being replaced, lead-based paint present on the windows. The 70-year-old owner has no children, but he watches his grandkids after school until their parents get home, about two and a half hours a day. He feels like he is elderly and the RRP rule does not apply to him.

Sorry, buddy. Two problems. First, the exclusion is for housing that was designated specifically for the elderly or disabled, like a retirement community. It is not for an elderly person living in a single-family house. Second, even if it were, his grandkids are going to be in that house about twelve and a half hours a week. A child under six who is in a building three hours in a day, six hours in a week, or sixty hours in a year makes it a child-occupied facility. So now it is a child-occupied facility with lead-based paint on the windows, and we are working lead-safe.

Note the “and no children under six reside or are expected to reside there” part of that exclusion. It is written into the rule for exactly this reason.

7. Homeowners Working on Their Own House

A homeowner doing the work themselves in their own home is not covered. The minute they hire you to do it, you are.

The One Exclusion That Actually Helps You

There is one exclusion I actually like, and it is not in the decision-logic chart. On residential projects we have a hazardous waste exclusion. Demolition debris, paint chips, sludge from paint stripping, respirator and HEPA filters, and anything you have to reclaim from using water are all considered hazardous waste. But on a residential job, as long as you wrap it in six mil plastic, gooseneck it, seal it, and clean it off, you do not have to pay to dispose of it as hazardous waste.

The way you lose that is water. Hoses, pressure washers, mop buckets, anything where you have to reclaim the water and dispose of it. Wet sand and scrape all you want, but use only enough water that it evaporates before it runs off your plastic. You can do almost all of these jobs without ever having to reclaim water, and that means you never pay to get rid of your waste. Get into a commercial building that is also a child-occupied facility and cross 220 pounds of waste, and now you are paying, so call the dump first and ask what a couple thousand pounds of clean, bagged lead waste is going to cost you.

Check With the State and Your Building Department

None of this is the last word. Some states run their own programs (Wisconsin and Illinois do; Ohio, Indiana and Michigan do not), and more and more local building departments and city governments are writing their own lead rules that can supersede what the EPA requires. Call your building department, even in the city you live in, and ask whether they have any rules for contractors working on houses built before 1978. Hopefully they say, what are you talking about. If they do have something, they will point you to the right person.

The Short Version

Before you lean on an exclusion, run the questions the way the decision-logic chart does. Is the work abatement? Is it only minor repair and maintenance? Has the housing been determined to be free of lead-based paint? Is it a zero-bedroom dwelling? Is it housing designated for the elderly or disabled with no kids under six? Is it an emergency? Is a risk assessor involved because of a child with an elevated blood lead level?

If you honestly answer no to all of those, you are in the rule. Educate the owner and residents, figure out whether lead is present, and figure out whether EPA, HUD, both, or neither applies. That is the whole job of planning the renovation, and it is a lot cheaper than finding out the hard way.

If it has been a while since your last class, or you want your crew to hear this in person, we run EPA RRP Initial and Refresher courses across more than thirty states.