Well, the good ol' government once again threw a curveball to the building industry with the latest and greatest certification beginning on April 20th. The EPA RRP (Lead Paint Renovation, Repair and Painting Rule) kicked into effect last month and of course, there was (and still is) a mad scramble for builders, remodelers and painters to get their certification.
Once they paid their $225 to take the class and then $300 to the EPA (don't we already pay enough in taxes? but I digress...) they were technically certified and as long as they followed the rules, would be exempt from the unreal fines of up to $32,000!
Now comes the bigger question though - if there IS lead based paint in a project, how do you even begin to price out the job? There are so many more hoops, hurdles and roadblocks in the way, that builders and remodelers are finding themselves in a pickle when it comes to how long and how much these jobs are going to cost.
We don't have any fabulous answers yet to this question, but this discussion board on JLConline is great! Take a look and hopefully it will help answer some of those nagging questions, plus make you feel a bit better that you're not the only one stuggling to find answers.
http://forums.jlconline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=51920