The Duplex: What Kind of Job Is This, and Who Can Be There?
A landlord hires your firm to strip paint from roughly 80 sq ft of exterior wood siding, two window sashes, and a rear door on a 1952 duplex, then repaint. One unit is occupied by a family with a 2-year-old and a woman who is five months pregnant; the other unit is vacant. Your state runs its own authorized lead program: written notification is required at least 10 working days before abatement begins, and occupants may not be inside the work area until clearance. The landlord wants to start Thursday (three days), leave the tenants in place "because it's outside work," and have the crew "just scrape and paint." It rained last night; the drip line is bare soil beside a neighbor's vegetable garden.
1. Is this an abatement or a renovation, and what does that classification change about how the job runs?
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The call: It is an abatement, and the RRP-style renovation approach the landlord is imagining is not available.
Reasoning:
- Removing paint from ~80 sq ft of siding plus door and window components goes far past the minor repair and maintenance thresholds that separate routine renovation from abatement. The intent is permanent elimination of a paint hazard, not maintenance.
- Consequences: the firm must be certified, the on-site supervisor must hold a current abatement supervisor certification, and workers must be trained; the job needs containment, wet methods and HEPA equipment, no open-flame burning or high-heat removal, restricted access, thorough cleaning, and clearance by a certified inspector or risk assessor.
- The 10-working-day state notification is a hard gate. Thursday is not possible; the earliest start is ten working days out, and you should say so in writing now rather than after the crew mobilizes.
- Document the existing condition (photos, dust or soil samples) before any plastic goes up, so pre-existing contamination is not attributed to your firm.
2. The landlord insists the tenants can stay because the work is outside. How do you handle occupant protection for a pregnant woman and a 2-year-old?
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The call: You do not accept the landlord's reasoning, and you do not start until protection is settled.
Reasoning:
- Exterior abatement creates dust and chips that travel: through open doors and windows, through HVAC intakes, on shoes, and into the yard where a 2-year-old plays. Outside is not a safety boundary.
- Your state's rule prohibits occupants in the work area, so first define the work area to include the exterior face and the yard under it - not just the plastic.
- Because the highest-risk occupants are a fetus and a toddler, the defensible options are relocation for the duration, or a written agreement that seals the affected windows and doors from the inside, restricts use of the affected yard, sets work hours, and provides a cleaning protocol. Relocation is the clean answer; if the landlord refuses, the vacant unit in the same building is only acceptable if it has been assessed and kept clean.
- Give the landlord the choice in writing, with the cost of each. If he refuses both, decline the job - the liability is his, but the exposure is theirs.
3. You are told to start as soon as legally possible. Lay out what must be in place before containment goes up.
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The call: Sequence the paperwork and the physical protections together; neither is optional.
Reasoning:
- Certifications: firm certification, supervisor certification current, worker training documentation for everyone on site.
- Notification: state abatement notice filed and the 10-working-day clock complete; confirm whether any separate asbestos survey or notification applies to the exterior components before anyone disturbs them.
- Occupants: relocation or signed protection agreement, and a plain-language notice of the schedule.
- Site: ground protection over the drip line and away from the garden, no runoff of wash water into soil or storm drains, containment and critical barriers at windows and doors, HEPA vacuum, warning signs, restricted access, handwashing and changing facilities.
- Contact the neighbor about the garden and the work dates before start - that conversation prevents the complaint that stops the job.