Owners of homes built before 1978 are balking at the additional cost needed to repair and renovate their homes — an up to 24% increase — under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Lead: Renovation, Repair and Painting rule, according to a recent NAHB survey.

“Remodelers are finding that conducting renovation work in older homes has become more expensive under the lead regulation and that home owners are reluctant to pay the increased costs,” said NAHB Remodelers Chairman Bob Peterson, CGR, CAPS, CGP, of Associates in Building & Design, Ltd., of Fort Collins, Colo.

Responding to special questions in NAHB’s quarterly Remodeling Market Index (RMI) survey, remodelers indicated that the cost of remodeling projects of less than $5,000 — a vast majority of the projects nationwide annually — would increase by as much as 24% under the lead rule. The cost of remodeling projects of more than $100,000 would increase 9%, respondents indicated.

At least 65% of the respondents also indicated that home owners are trying to avoid the additional costs of the lead rule by attempting to do the work themselves, working with uncertified contractors who do not comply with the lead rule, scaling back the size of their remodeling projects or deciding not to remodel at all.

“Remodelers want to protect vulnerable children from lead exposure, but we’re seeing that home owners do not want to pay the costs for complying with the lead regulation,” Peterson said. “A huge part of the problem is that home owners who have no children living in their home do not see the need to pay this expense.”

Under the EPA’s lead paint regulation, remodelers and other contractors working in homes built before 1978 must take precautions to contain lead dust — including using lead-safe work practices, establishing dust containment areas and containing dust during the renovation, cleaning up after the project and maintaining detailed records.

The regulation also requires that they obtain training and certification, and that they distribute the EPA’s Renovate Right lead-safe guide to their home owner clients.

According to the American Housing Survey by the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Census Bureau, professional remodelers annually work on 16.6 million projects involving housing built before 1980. Of those, nearly 13 million are smaller projects priced under $5,000.

The total estimated costs for remodeling under the lead rule — including training, equipment, materials and work hours — could reach as much as $10.5 billion a year if home owners do not change their remodeling plans, according to the survey.

For more information on the lead rule, visit www.nahb.org/leadpaint; or email Kelly Mack at NAHB, or call her at 800-368-5242 x8451.

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