A town with a long paint history
Logan was first settled in the spring of 1859 by three groups of Mormon pioneers, the David Reese, John P. Wright and Ralph Smith companies. That says nothing about any particular house, and you should never assume a building's age from the town's. What it does mean is that the question "when was this house built?" is worth answering before anyone picks up a scraper. The answer decides which rules apply to the work.
Who runs the lead rules in Utah
EPA runs the RRP program in states it has not authorized; Alabama, Delaware, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Massachusetts, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin run their own EPA-authorized programs.
In Utah, that program sits with the Division of Air Quality. Utah's Division of Air Quality runs the state lead-based paint program for renovation, repair and painting in housing built before 1978; its renovation recordkeeping requirements took effect in Utah on April 7, 2010, and the EPA "Renovate Right" pamphlet must be given to occupants of pre-1978 homes where renovations will take place.
What the pamphlet means for you
If your home was built before 1978 and paid work will disturb painted surfaces, the occupants receive the Renovate Right pamphlet before the work. Read it before the work starts, and keep it handy while the job runs, so you have the agency's own words next to whatever the crew tells you.
If you rent the home out, or someone else lives in it, think about who the occupants are. Everyone living there should know the work is coming and what it involves.
Lead-safe painting, inside
Interior painting disturbs more paint than people expect. Sanding a window stool, scraping a door edge that sticks, or patching around a light switch all make dust. On a lead-safe interior job you can expect:
- The room sealed off. Plastic sheeting over doorways and vents, and furniture moved out or wrapped.
- Floors covered and taped. Drop cloths alone aren't enough; dust works through fabric.
- Wet methods. Misting before scraping and wet sanding instead of dry power sanding.
- Gentle removal. Hand scraping and wet methods rather than torches or high-heat stripping.
- A real cleanup. HEPA vacuuming and wet wiping, with the debris bagged and removed.
Lead-safe painting, outside
Outside, chips are the problem as much as dust. Plastic goes on the ground around the work area and extends well past the wall. Windows and doors nearby stay closed. Scrapings are collected at the end of each day rather than raked into the garden. Pressure washing a wall with old paint can spread chips across a yard, so ask how the painter plans to clean the surface before it's primed.
The prep still has to be right
Lead-safe methods change how prep happens, not whether it happens. Loose paint still has to come off to a sound edge, bare wood still needs primer, and glossy trim still needs scuffing so the new coat can grip. A careful painter does all of that inside the containment. The exterior painting page and the drywall repair and surface preparation guide walk through each step.
Reading a Logan proposal
A written proposal for a pre-1978 home should spell out:
- the rooms or walls included, surface by surface;
- how loose paint will be removed, and how chips and dust will be contained;
- the cleanup at the end of each day and at the end of the job;
- the primer, the topcoat and the number of coats;
- what happens if the painter finds rot, water damage or failing plaster once they start.
You may ask whether the firm holds RRP certification; one clear answer there tells you a lot about how the rest of the job will be run.
If the house was built in 1978 or later, the rule as EPA states it doesn't reach it, but the same habits of containment and cleanup still make for a better job. Either way, our pricing guide explains why prep and containment drive most of the difference between two bids.