Ben Franklin Denver leads in lead-safe plumbing practices

Five Tips for Lead-Safe Remodeling & Repair

If you’re remodeling a home built before 1978, be on the alert:

  1. If your project will disturb more than 6 square feet of interior paint or 20 square feet of the exterior, make sure your contractor is EPA certified to employ lead-safe work practices. A record of certification should be posted at the job site.
  2. Make sure your contractors present you with a “renovate Right” EPA phamplet explaining lead hazards before they start the job.
  3. A lead-safe workspace should be covered with plastic sheeting and warning signs. Barriers limiting access to the work area should be installed and the dust and debris should be confined to the protected area.
  4. At the conclusion of the project, your contractors should clean the area with a HEPA-filter vacuum and wipe down the area with wet and then dry cloths to eliminate all lead dust remains.
  5. Consider hiring a lead inspector to perform a clearance test. Such testing involves lab testing of dust samples.

Way ahead of the curve, Ben Franklin Plumbing Denver’s team of dedicated and expert plumbers have earned lead-safe work practices certification—a new requirement for plumbing contractors, along with numerous other home remodeling contractors and repairmen. The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), the agency in charge of providing certification, expected 125,000 contractors nationwide to comply by the April 22, 2010 deadline for the ruling entitled the “Lead Renovation, Repair and Painting Rule.”. That means a huge number of contractors are still without this special training that is mandated to keep children and pregnant women in particular safe from the deadly lead exposure.

Ben Franklin Plumbing Denver, the on-time plumber, was ahead of time on gaining this significant certification. “We insist on being on-time in our business model,” says Owner and Master Plumber Steve Jusseaume. “To that end, we are always on time with all licensing, training and other industry requirements—ahead of the curve of other plumbing contractors in Colorado.”

Certification is valid for 5 years.

Certification is a day-long course designed to train all contractors on the remediation steps to take during remodeling. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) passed a law in 1977 reducing the level of lead in consumer paints to 0.06%, down from 0.5% previously.

Lead poisoning happens when a person has dangerous levels of lead in his or her blood stream. Lead poisoning can cause:

  • brain damage
  • behavioral problems
  • mental retardation
  • learning disabilities
  • growth problems
  • hearing and visual impairments
  • death

Children under the age of 6 are at the greatest risk for getting lead poisoning because much of the growth and development of the brain occurs by the time the child turns 6. Most often, children are exposed to lead by eating chipped and peeling paint. Pregnant women and their fetuses also face health risks from exposure to high levels of lead. Imported pottery was once discovered to contain large amounts of lead, poisoning people that ate off of the lead-infused dishware.

Today the concern for Ben Franklin Plumbing Denver is performing plumbing work in a home that is old enough to contain lead-based paint. While making repairs of any sort including plumbing that runs through walls, floors and cabinetry, lead base paint can become exposed. “Our plumbers take every precaution to prevent any lead exposure, following all of the recommended procedures that include removal of all furniture from the work area, creating barriers with plastic sheeting and posting warning signs. Additionally, Ben Franklin Plumbing Denver provides customers living in homes built prior to 1978 with a “Renovate Right” pamphlet describing lead protection procedures.

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