EPA Lead Renovator Initial Certification

If you are a contractor or property manager, enrolling in lead certification courses is a crucial step in protecting your clients, your firm, your workers, and yourself. Becoming certified follows the Environmental Protection Agency’s Lead Renovation, Repair and Painting (RRP) rule, which states that if you are paid to perform renovation, repair, or painting work in houses built before 1978, you must be trained to do so.

This rule is aimed towards the use of safe practices and other actions meant to prevent lead poisoning. As lead can be found in dust, paint, water, and soil in or surrounding a house, it is a contractor’s job to become educated on the proper renovation techniques along with necessary precautions to take if lead-based paint is found in the building. Children are most at risk for lead poisoning, so safeguarding the areas they frequent, like housing, schools, and day care centers, is important as well.

Whether you are in charge of any contracting company, partnership, corporation, or sole proprietorship, or you work on your own, lead renovator training is an important part of keeping your business afloat. In fact, performing work on any sort of property where there is lead when you don’t have this certification could result in fines of up to $37,500 per day per infraction.

In order to become certified, you must take a lead renovator certification initial course. For those who have already gone through the lead renovator training once, renovator model refresher training is necessary to renew this certification.

Course Outline

• Why Should I Be Concerned About Lead Paint?
  • Dust is the problem and contractors make dust. By working lead safe, you can make a difference.
• Regulations
  • Know the EPA and HUD Rules. These rules set forth specific and performance-based requirements that must be mastered to achieve compliance.
• Before Beginning Work
  • Plan before you start the work.
• Contain the Dust During Work
  • Keep the dust in the work area and make it easier to clean up.
• During the Work
  • Traditional practices produce dust, while lead safe practices will reduce dust making the renovation, repair, or painting work safer.
• Cleaning Activities and Checking Your Work
  • Do cleanup right. Use wet mops and HEPA vacuums. Traditional methods don’t do the job.
• Recordkeeping
  • Records must be complete, accurate and organized.
• Training Non-Certified Renovation Workers
  • Certified Renovators are responsible for teaching lead-safe work practices to non-certified renovation workers.

Learner Objectives

• Recognize why lead-based paint is a problem during renovations
• Know what EPA regulations are and why they are required
• Define “lead-based paint” in accordance with Federal standards.
• Describe the health risks to children and adults associated with lead.
• List the reasons lead-contaminated dust poses health risks to children and adults.

In-Person Course Requirements

In order to earn CE credit(s) for in-person courses, students must attend the entire course during the time span(s) listed. Credit(s) will not be issued for the following:

• Non-attendance
• Arriving more than 5 minutes after a course has begun
• Leaving before completion of the course
• Leaving the classroom for more than 5 minutes during a course hour
• Non-payment of the course
• Failure to sign-in and/or sign-out

Students must sign-in/sign-out, and be prepared to show their driver’s license or other legal identification with their photo if requested.

A quiz is not required for those attending for Minnesota contractor, building official, and Realtor continuing education, or Wisconsin continuing education. Students attending for International Accreditors for Continuing Education and Training (IACET) CEU(s) must complete a quiz following the course and achieve 70% correct answers.

Credit Info

This course has been approved for eight hours of MN residential contractor, remodeler, and roofer continuing education by the Minnesota Department of Labor & Industry. This course is pending approval for eight hours of WI Dwelling Contractor Qualifier CE by the Wisconsin Dept. of Safety & Professional Services.

If you are eligible to receive continuing education credits, your information will be electronically reported to the appropriate agency within 3 business days of course completion.

Questions and Comments

Questions and comments related to the curriculum for this course may be submitted to the instructor at education@housingfirstmn.org.