Undoubtedly, the lead laws have increased the homeowner’s awareness of lead hazards. With this increase of understanding, come lawsuits. Risk management is about controlling risk. A simple example would be to verify that the paint in the can is the same paint that the homeowner wanted.
Risk management is not only about winning a case brought to court, but also includes taking certain precautions to stay out of court to begin with.
Clearance testing is a simple way to limit your liability exposure on projects that disturb paint in pre-1978 homes. Simply put, a painting contractor can pass the buck. The painter can pass the buck to the clearance tester.
Clearance testing is where you hire an independent third party licensed lead inspector, lead assessor or dust sampling technicians to come out and see if you cleaned well enough to meet standards. The tester will go into the room and take 3 to 4 dust samples. They then send the dust samples to an approved laboratory. The results are given and a contractor then has proof that clean-up was done to acceptable levels.