The Contractor Coaching Partnership Blog

Mark, I totally agree and this is not the only problem. Here in the Phoenix Valley, we have the 'illegals' who are working for Licensed Contractors who pay them lower wages while our good Contractors are being outbid. Homeowners only think of the money and the good contractors cannot stay in business. Educating the public on all levels is critical for the health and safety of all. I get numerous calls on another contractor who takes too long, poor quality of workmanship and getting up-charges. EPA set rules and fines but with lack of manpower due to numerous layoffs of Inspectors creates just a facade. You cannot create rules without have the support system to enforce them.

As a homeowner and parent of small children I am appalled at the total lack of concern for the health and safety of the public by callous contractors. We were looking for a contractor to upgrade several rooms in our house and everyone we contacted either did not know about the law, knew about it and ignored it, or were certified and tried to talk us out of protecting our kids saying it would cost too much. Really? How much is a child's life and health worth? Are you folks for real? Do you not know about the dangers of lead, especially for kids? As a healthcare professional I have seen many people (children and adults) who were poisoned by heavy metals - lead, mercury, cadmium - and it's not pretty. In fact, it's very sad to see a child's life ruined because of the poisoning. If you think that little of your clients and our kids, I'm certainly not going to let you amateurs into my house. Disappointed with the lack of certified and concerned contractors, true professionals, my husband and I took the RRP class and are doing our own work and following the law, even though homeowners are not required to follow the law, which I think is idiotic (why would any homeowner want to poison their family?). Complying with the rule is not all that difficult, so I don't know why you are all complaining - oh wait, I know why, because you are not professionals and you don't care about your clients!!! All you care about is the almighty dollar. In addition to learning how to work safe and clean (we had and EXCELLENT instructor), we learned what to do about the non-certified contractor we encounter - REPORT THEM. That's right, you don't even need to be a registered business owner or pull a permit for the EPA to find you. We learned how to report you low flying morons. www.epa.gov/tips My husband and I have this URL saved as a favorite in our smartphones and as we drive around town and see contractors working who do not display the EPA Certified Firm logo or employing lead-safe work practices, we pull over, pull up the tips webpage and drop a dime on all of you. My husband travels extensively for work and no matter what city he is in, he's always on the prowl for non-compliant contractors. It may take the EPA a while to catch up to you, but I was assured by our EPA region office that they DO follow up. Have a nice life.

Posted @ Sunday, June 26, 2011 6:18 PM by A concerned homeowner

To A concerned homeowner  
 
 
 
Severe lead poisoning, characterized by convulsions, coma, brain damage, and death, was recognized as a fairly common disease of childhood in early 1930s. Is that what talking about? The triumph over lead is widely touted as one of the great public-health success stories of the last century, a stunning example of the strength of activism over vested interests. But many are unwilling to declare victory I guess.  
 
Fact, The sale of leaded gasoline back in 1960s, with a resulting dispersion into the environment of millions of tons of lead from car exhaust and is in the soil around most homes in metropolitan area. So, I would say it would take about week for you and your husband and light wind re-infect your home after you have completed your renovation. 
 
Regardless of how much lead is in a child's environment, it does no harm until it enters the child. Hygiene, Washing hand frequently and taking you shoes of before entering your home has shown to help greatly in places with extremely high of lead in the soil like Tokyo were it is the custom. They have low instances of low level exposures and the children IQ are high. I believe this is more of a debate of what is lowering the IQ of children. 
 
Nevertheless, thousands of mostly inner-city children are exposed to lead in dwellings that are in dire need of rehabilitation not only to get rid of lead but to take care of a variety of health hazards, from windows without locks to leaky gas heaters to rat infestation. These homes should be targeted and the children who live in them temporarily relocated while deteriorated paint is professionally removed and the homes are professionally cleaned. But stripping intact lead paint from woodwork should not take priority over patching a leaking roof or fixing a heating system that belches carbon monoxide. Nor should millions be spent on screening children who are at very low risk of lead exposure. Escalating low-level lead exposure into a nationwide "epidemic" has done little to help those children who really are at risk. Only by treating lead poisoning for what it is--largely a disease of the poor--do we stand a chance of beating it. 
 
I hope your happy Madam. 
 

To A concerned homeowner  
 
PS I Hope. You, your husband, and EPA are patrolling those inner-city neighborhoods also. But, I doubt it. One reason there is no money to had there. Those contractors are ghost. They would laugh in face and just disappear. 
 

http://blogs.wsj.com/in-charge/2011/06/23/contractor-survey-new-epa-rule-to-increase-costs/tab/comments/?sort_order=desc

i hope you and him get 4 flats

This is what we all get when a money-sucking Washington Bureacracy sets its grubby hands on a multi-billion dollar remodeling industry seeking to raise cash by " regulation". The greedy fools look in every direction to quench the thirst of the federal monster they created. Just think about the kind of persons, some of you knew in high schools, who went on to become politicians. I would love to see the kind of revenue those Washington lawmakers could raise, if any one of them actually had to go out and SELL something to someone! They would all starve to death in the real world. But instead, they invade ours and ruin it.Let's take all the lead paint out there and cram it low in their back pockets, because it's basically only harmful to minds 6 years old and younger. They shouldn't get hurt a bit.