It's been years since I posted here, but I'm still alive and have a question regarding lead-based paint inspections in rental dwelling units.

My small town in New Jersey is now requiring all rental units older than 1978 to be inspected for lead based paint and upon a satisfactory inspection and pass by 7/22/24. Failure to comply will resukt in fines up to $1,000 a week. To be specific, my rental unit must be lead compliant as per NJ P.L. 2021, c 182 and are required to obtain a Lead Safe Certification. Participation in this program is MANATORY.

My multi-family house dates back to the early 1900's. The exterior paint for the doors, windows and clapboard siding was in extremely rough shape, but over the years much of the paint work was completely redone by taking the lead based paint down to the wood and repainted with top quality paint and obviously containing NO lead. I only have about 6 more window frames and trim to complete and about 50 feet of soffits. I should meet the deadline although winter is coming making it hard to do the work.

My QYESTION is as follows: I have 3 detached garages on site and a small 2.5 story workshop on the property. None are for tenants and not for living in... The paint is rough and very old and without doubt contain lead. Will the inspection include these structures although 1) they are detached from the multi-family house and 2) None are for living in as well as renting.  This is New Jersey and other states may have different rules as for lead-based paints.

John

New Jersey

The fastest way would be to wall off the out bldgs from the public. I'm pretty sure those laws will be coming to our town as well as the "high lead level" stories are starting to crop up again and the lawyers are revving up their computers.

I never had any "luck" scrapping and repainting. Always traces of lead left behind. What worked for me in the hood was removing the molding. Then run the sides thru a table saw to strip the sides then FLIP the board. Caulk the edge to "hide" the smaller width.

Door jambs and windows were replaced.

Thanks for the replies to all.

Steve [MA], glad to hear from you. The exterior of the out buildings have serious lead-based paint lifting on the trim for the windows and door. I got work on the house to do, but that is under control for the moment.

tyran[MA], from what I read, there can be lead based paint present, but it MUST be covered over with non-lead based paint and in good condition. In otherwords, no need to rip out all the trim completely and replace with new wood. As for the windows themselves, they have all been replaced with new window replacements over the past 20 years.

Well, looks like I better start removing the old peeling paint on the out buildings.......

John

Just putting normal paint over lead paint doesn't keep you from getting a fail from what I have heard. You need to use a paint that encapsulates the lead. Read this as expensive.

Wrapping the outside would be a good solution. Possibly cheaper as well depending on how intricate the trim work is.

Wrapping is not possible on the big garage doors for vehicles. It would be far easier to remove the trim and replace, but the deciding factor is will a good scrapping and repainting with a high quality exterior paint be good enough? This is what I read. Nothing was stated about using a special lead encapsulation type paint. I'll have to dig into this by looking at the specifics under the mandate for NJ P.L. 2021 c 182.

John

I just did one quick search and this is what came up at the top.

Painting over lead paint can be considered a form of “encapsulation,” which is one of the EPA-approved ways to remediate lead paint hazards. However, this requires the use of a special material called an “encapsulant.” Regular store-bought paint by itself is not sufficient to safely encapsulate lead paint.

Check into it. I would hate for you to go through all the work only to find out it didn't bring you into compliance.

@Pat[VA]- Hi Pat. I visit once in a while to read. I think it was back in 2003-2004 when I was in full swing of fixing up things around here. I made many videos that were posted on this site, but I doubt they still exist. It was a fun time. If my memory is correct, I disappeared around 2010 as life changed for me. None the less, I've had a full house here and the rent has paud off my mortgage in 2018. Well, the new bump in the road is the lead base paint issue that I now face and I'll have to go full force to resole it or may be paying fines of up to $1000 a week. Now that winter approaches, it will be tough. Anyway, I hope all is well on your end.

John

Yes we are fine, have 21 rentals, in our 70's, still like it.

Ed---a power planer or "paint eater"??? Only if he wants to contaminate the whole house. Look, lead paint is hazardous when it is ingested. It is ingested either by kids eating flakes of peeling paint or touching lead dust, getting it on their hands, and putting their hands in their mouths. The lead paint HAZARD tests are wipe tests which test for the presence of lead dust. The inspector visually looks for peeling paint.

The LAST thing you want to do is disturb lead paint in such a way as to create any type of chips or dust! Read up on this stuff. Forget about the state requirement, you could face a huge lawsuit if a kid is contaminated and most insurance policies no longer cover the risk.

Just for clarification ... the table saw is set up is OUTSIdE so the lead dust is added to the already lead contaminated soil.

As far as the mess made removing it .... it's the same if your replacing it.

The problem we had getting a lead certificate in the hood is that the inspector used a hand held radar gadget to measure the lead. One told me it was a 100k piece of equipment (probably much cheaper now). Place this thing on the molding, press the button ... wallla! Lead level is shown.

@AllyM - Thanks for your response. I remember you from the old days back when you came onto this forum. You had some very interesting and sometimes unusual posting that were fun and entertaining to read. Glad to meet with you again.

@Steve[MA] - I wish I still had that video, but that was over a decade and a half ago when it was recorded and posted, but a hard drive failure was the cause of a loss of many old videos. Do you remember the Royal Flush video? That was recorded in the very early 2000's for this site and posted here a long time ago. The video showed what can be flushed down an old toilet and was recorded when the low flush toilets were becoming the only available toilet in the day due to the regulations. Many of the first low flush toilets seemed to get clogged very easily. Believe it or not, the video is on YouTube and can be seen by going to Youtube and using the link below. Enjoy.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxMcK4W3fAg

John

Back in 1997, I took care of an entire apartment complex that had lead paint everywhere, on structure was built in 1907 and the second building in 1923. Basically I put over the walls and ceilings 1/4" drywall and butted it up to the baseboards and window frames. Those I covered with textured metal molding custom made to fit over the baseboards/moldings. So there was no lead paint exposed anywhere.

Using an XRF device I got every wall, ceiling, molding and door certified. Oh I covered over the thin 1/4" drywall with mud, orange peal, primer and two coats of paint.

A couple of years ago, during Covid (We still have it in Los Angeles), a squatter was advised by their free legal aid attorney to tear off some of the 1/4" drywall, place their babies bed along that wall and get tested for lead. Of course lead is now found.

I get sued for millions by my squatter and their attorney, free legal aid owned by the City of L.A. I show the judge my video of the encapsulation of the lead and how I had a permit, inspections and certifications. I tell the Judge that he needs to have a finding against the parents, free legal aid, the attorneys and the City.

A drug sniffing dog finds drugs in my car and unless I plead guilty to tenant endangerment, I'm cooked. Good thing I lent that car to the Judge, a friend he had the Sheriff's department go over the car before he parked it in the lot, visitors parking and not his assigned spot.

@Tony[NJ] - Tony, sorry for the delayed response. I was very busy working on lead abatement on one of the windows up on the 3rd floor from start to finish including a very thorough clean up. Since I don't have a ladder long enough to reach, I was actually hanging out of the window frame (window glass was removed) to do all the work. My body 62 year old body is sore, but I'll recover.

I do recall you from the old days, but not sure if we had many conversations on the forum. It would be nice if this forum had backups of all posting going back 20 years that could be searched on. If so, let me know and it would be fun to see what we may have wrote about.

John

I just replaced all the exterior trim around windows on a triple decker with Azek/PVC... was cheaper to hire someone to 'renovate' then to scrape them. Came out great. Tip. Buy slightly larger wide azek planks, cut them down to the correct width. Use the excess as trim moulding around the window.

Same with the sills, used PVC sills.

I'll never have to worry about painting and i DEFINITELY know there is no lead in that trim.

I just replaced all the exterior trim around windows on a triple decker with Azek/PVC... was cheaper to hire someone to 'renovate' then to scrape them. Came out great. Tip. Buy slightly larger wide azek planks, cut them down to the correct width. Use the excess as trim moulding around the window.

Same with the sills, used PVC sills.

I'll never have to worry about painting and i DEFINITELY know there is no lead in that trim.

I just replaced all the exterior trim around windows on a triple decker with Azek/PVC... was cheaper to hire someone to 'renovate' then to scrape them. Came out great. Tip. Buy slightly larger wide azek planks, cut them down to the correct width. Use the excess as trim moulding around the window.

Same with the sills, used PVC sills.

I'll never have to worry about painting and i DEFINITELY know there is no lead in that trim.