Video: Lead-Safe Painting Protocol

OAKLAND — Host, Sarah Rutan: When repainting a home built prior to 1978, proper lead-safe protocol is a must. Today we’re in Oakland with Diamond Certified Expert Contributor Soumil Amin of CertaPro Painters of Berkeley to learn more.

Diamond Certified Expert Contributor, Soumil Amin: Today, we are going to be talking about lead-safe sanding and preparation procedures. Any home that’s built before 1978 has a potential for lead-based paint. It’s a big deal. There’s been a lot of research and developments on the effects of lead-based paint if it gets into your blood stream or if it gets into your environment. So, proper procedures is important to do when you’re preparing your home. Whether you’re doing it yourself or you’re hiring a professional, proper steps you should be taking. First you can check, they have tests that you can buy at the local paint store or hardware store. They can test to see if the house actually has lead-based paint. Most of the time before 1978 you should assume that there is lead-based paint. So, take all the proper precautions.

Professionals need to have certification from the EPA in order to be renovating with lead-based paint surfaces. So, if hiring a contractor, you should in to make sure they have the certification and it’s current. First up, you want to make sure there is a first aid kit on-site, just in case anything was to happen, standard safety procedures. Goggles to protect your eyes. A spray sock which goes over your head. Good quality Tyvek suit basically keeps all the particles away from you. You put spray socks on your shoes. You wrap yourself basically 100 percent so no contaminants can get inside of you as you’re doing any work. As this is going on, we have certain machines that help us do this work. This is a Festool sanding machine, proprietary brand, it’s EPA certified to be able to sand a surface and it’s 99.99 percent able to contain all the dust that comes out.

So, basically when you sand this surface, compared to the sand getting into the air and all the debris getting into the air as with typical sanders, this has a HEPA vacuum attached to it, proper hoses, and connectors to make sure 99.99 percent of all particles get into the properly sealed EPA-certified HEPA bag and is contained inside of the unit. This is also a HEPA vacuum. It’s a certified HEPA filter, certified HEPA vacuum, which again uses the vacuum to bring in any particles or dust into it without anything getting into the environment. It is important to have the right equipment to be working with lead-based paint. A lot of harmful substances are inside your home built a long time ago. These can get into the grounders, they can get into your system, the neighbors, anybody that’s walking down the streets, so having proper equipment on-site and doing the work in a correct manner, proper safety mechanisms for everybody around is a – is a smart way to do the work on your house.

Host, Sarah Rutan: To learn more from local, top rated companies, visit our Diamond Certified Expert Reports at experts.diamondcertified.org.