How to Choose a Lead Paint Abatement Company

A good lead paint abatement company proves three things before it touches your walls. It holds the right certification for the job you are actually buying, which for permanent removal is a lead abatement firm certificate, not a general remediation license. It puts the scope in writing: which surfaces, which method, how the work area is sealed, how the waste leaves the house. And it expects the finished job to be checked by a clearance test done by someone other than the crew that did the work. If a company can’t give you all three on the phone or in the quote, keep calling.

Most people get tripped up before they ever see a quote, by hiring for the wrong job. Start there.

Abatement or lead-safe renovation: which job are you buying?

This is the question that sorts everything else, so settle it first.

Abatement is work meant to permanently remove or seal off lead paint hazards. EPA describes it as a set of activities designed to permanently eliminate lead-based paint hazards, carried out by certified professionals (EPA, lead abatement, inspection and risk assessment). It comes in three main forms:

• Removal: stripping the paint or taking out the painted part, like an old window sash or a door.
• Enclosure: covering a lead-painted surface with a new solid layer, like drywall or siding.
• Encapsulation: coating lead paint with a special sealant so it can’t flake or dust.

Lead-safe renovation is ordinary remodeling, repair or painting in an older home, done with rules that keep lead dust contained. It is not meant to get rid of the lead. It is meant to keep the job from spreading it. That work falls under EPA’s lead-safe renovation rule, which requires the firm to be certified and to use trained renovators and lead-safe practices (EPA, Renovation, Repair and Painting program).

The two jobs need different certifications. A contractor certified for lead-safe renovation can replace your windows in a 1950s house without making a mess of it. That same certificate does not make them an abatement firm. If your goal is “make this house lead-safe for good,” because a child’s blood test came back high, a local health department ordered it, or you simply want the hazard gone, you want abatement. If your goal is “redo the kitchen without spreading lead dust through the house,” you want a lead-safe certified renovator.

Our position: decide which job you are buying before you call anyone. Then you’ll know which certificate to ask for, and you won’t be sold the wrong one.

Why the company’s label tells you little

Search for lead help and you’ll find environmental firms, restoration companies, remediation shops and home inspectors, often all in one listing. In our directory of 1685 companies in this category nationwide, 615 list mold remediation among their services. That’s the point: being listed here, or calling yourself a remediation company, says nothing about whether a firm does lead work. Many of these businesses are built around water damage and mold, and lead is a separate trade with its own rules.

So don’t pick by the name on the truck. Pick by the certificate and the written scope.

Certification: what to ask for and where to check it

For abatement, ask two things: is the firm certified for lead abatement, and are the people doing the work certified as abatement workers and supervisors? EPA runs the certification program in some states, and in others a state agency runs its own program in its place (EPA, lead abatement, inspection and risk assessment). Either way, there is a record you can look up.

We don’t list each company’s lead certification, so ask for the firm certificate number and check it with the EPA or your state lead program before you sign.

If the work is renovation rather than abatement, the question changes: ask for the firm’s lead-safe renovation certification and the name of the certified renovator who will be on site. A company that answers “we’re licensed” without saying for what has not answered the question.

The written scope: containment, cleanup and disposal

A phone estimate is not a scope. Before you agree to anything, get a written document that says:

• Which surfaces are being treated: every window, door, stair, sill or wall section, by room.
• Which method for each: removal, enclosure or encapsulation, and why.
• Containment: the plastic sheeting and sealed work areas that keep dust from spreading, where they go, and whether you or your family need to be out of the house.
• Cleanup: how the area is cleaned after the work, including vacuuming with a fine-particle (HEPA) filter on the vacuum and wet wiping, not dry sweeping.
• Disposal: how lead waste is bagged, removed and where it goes.
• Clearance: who does the clearance test and what happens if it fails.

The scope is also what drives the price, so compare written quotes line by line instead of comparing totals; our guide to what lead paint removal costs explains what moves the number.

Containment matters because lead dust is the main way paint becomes a hazard at home. EPA points to deteriorating paint and the dust it creates, especially in homes built before 1978, as a leading source of lead exposure for families (EPA, sources of lead in older homes). A crew that is vague about plastic, sealed doorways and cleanup is telling you something. One more rule for you, not just them: don’t scrape or sand suspect paint yourself to “get a head start.” That creates exactly the dust the job is supposed to prevent.

The clearance test, and why someone else should do it

A clearance test is dust samples taken after cleanup to confirm the area is safe to reenter. It is how you know the job was done right, and it is the one step you should not let the crew grade for itself. Ask who will take the samples. The strongest answer is an independent certified inspector or risk assessor you hire, or at least one who doesn’t work for the abatement company. If you haven’t had the house checked yet, start with lead paint testing: a risk assessment, an on-site check of where lead paint is and whether it’s a hazard now, tells you what needs abating in the first place.

Testing firms and abatement crews are often separate businesses, and listings show it. Two examples from different cities, shown only to illustrate what a testing listing looks like and not as companies to call for your job: Lead Safe Resources in Philadelphia has a listing that names lead testing, and Andersen Integrated Services in Los Angeles lists lead testing alongside asbestos, mold and radon testing. Neither listing says anything about doing abatement itself. That split is useful to you: a firm that tests but doesn’t abate has no stake in passing the crew’s work. Look for the same kind of listing near you.

Questions to ask a lead paint abatement company

Print this and use it on every call:

• Is your firm certified for lead abatement, and what is the certificate number? Who issued it, EPA or the state?
• Are the workers and the supervisor on my job individually certified?
• Is this abatement or lead-safe renovation, and why that one for my house?
• Which surfaces will you treat, and by which method: removal, enclosure or encapsulation?
• How will you set up containment, and do we need to leave the house during the work?
• How do you clean up, and do you use a vacuum with a fine-particle filter?
• How is the lead waste bagged and disposed of?
• Who does the clearance test, and are they independent of your crew? What happens if it fails?
• Will you put all of this in a written scope before I sign?
• Is the first visit or estimate free? Only about 15% of companies in our directory say they offer free estimates, so ask before anyone drives out.

A firm that answers every one of these without hedging is worth a quote. A firm that gets annoyed at question one is not.

If your house may have asbestos too

Older houses often have more than one problem material: lead on the trim, asbestos in the pipe wrap, floor tile or old siding. Some companies handle both; 164 in our directory list asbestos removal. Asbestos has its own certifications and its own rules, so run the same check twice. Our guide to hiring an asbestos abatement contractor covers the questions for that side of the job.

Your next step

Go to the city finder to find lead and remediation companies near you, then ask two or three of them to confirm their lead abatement certification and send a written quote. Compare the scopes, check the certificate numbers, and line up your clearance test before the crew starts. That’s the whole method, and it works in any city.