Why We Have Lead-Safe Certification from the EPA
If your home was built before 1978, there’s a chance it may contain lead paint. Whether or not that will affect you and your family depends on several factors. If any children under the age of six reside in your home, you should read this information from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on how to stay lead-safe.
Lead Safety and Replacement Windows and Doors
What does all this have to do with getting your windows or doors replaced? Well, when contractors of any kind cut into the walls of your pre-1978 home, they may stir up dust or paint chips—which may contain lead.
In order to do work correctly and safely in a home that may contain lead, a firm needs to have special training. This training leads to Lead-Safe Certification from the EPA. Potomac View Energy is an EPA Lead-Safe Certified Firm.
What does this mean for you? When we are planning to do work that “disturbs” more than six square feet of the interior of your home, or 20 square feet of the exterior, we will test for lead. If no lead is detected, we perform the job as we normally would. If lead is detected, we will use lead-safe work practices that include:
- Minimizing dust
- Setting up dust-containment equipment
- Cleaning up, collecting, and safely disposing of potentially contaminated waste
- Posting warning signs around the project site
- Maintaining a record of the job
- Giving you, the homeowner, informational materials about lead in homes from the EPA
All of this is done to ensure your family’s safety.
Why Lead Safety Is Important
Any steps you can take to make your home safer is worth doing. If you have, or plan to have, children, it’s a good idea to get your home tested for lead. Exposure to dust from lead-based paint is the most common way to get lead poisoning.
If your home was built before 1978, and you are hiring a contractor of any kind to work on your home, ask them if they have EPA Lead-Safe Certification. It’s the only way to guarantee that the work will be done safely.