A Field Guide for Painting, Home Maintenance, and Renovation Work - Lead-Safe Guidance

Sep 27, 2026

This field guide explains why every child should have a lead-safe home and how routine maintenance in properties built before 1978 should be planned and carried out safely. It provides step-by-step instructions and illustrations to help workers and contractors protect themselves and their clients from lead paint hazards. It highlights real renovation and painting incidents, explains how poor maintenance and dust endanger children, and outlines work-practice changes, containment, cleanup, and dust-wipe sampling to reduce lead exposure.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryHealthcare

FormatPDF

Pages84

Reading Time3 h 32 min

AccessFree to download

Foreword

Acknowledgements

Why Should I Follow This Guide?

Most Old Homes Contain Lead-Based Paint

Probability of a House Containing Lead

Poor Maintenance Endangers Children

Changing Common Work Practices Can Protect Workers and Children

Who Should Use This Guide?

A Fiielld Guiide for Paiintiing, Home Maiintenance, and Renovatiion Work U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Office of Healthy Homes and Lead Hazard Control Foreword Every child should have a lead-safe home. That’s why HUD is working to create lead-safe affordable housing through outreach and public education, a lead hazard control grant program, worker training, and the enforcement of regulations. This guide is one part of HUD’s comprehensive approach to lead safety in the home. If you perform routine maintenance on homes or apartments built before 1978, this guide will help you plan and carry out your work safely. Step-by-step instructions and illustrations explain and show what you need to do to protect yourself and your clients if you are working in older housing that could contain lead paint. This Field Guide is a valuable tool that thousands of workers and contractors across the country are using as part ofa national effort to eliminate childhood lead poisoning. Thank you for working lead-safe. It’s helping protect America’s children. Mel Martinez, Secretary U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Acknowledgements The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) developed this guide with the assistance and input of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) . HUD would like to thank the staff of these agencies for their participation in developing this Field Guide. HUD would also like to thank all of the renovation, painting, maintenance, and lead professionals who provided useful feedback. Vicki Ainslie, Dana Bres, Robert Brown, Kevin Cleary, Alan Isaac, David Levitt, Linda Lewis, Dennis Livingston, Eric Oetjen, Roy Reveilles, Ron Rupp, Joe Shirmer, Aaron Sussell, Peter Tiernan, David Thompson, Richard Tobin, Ellen Tohn, Veda Watts, and Mike Wilson served on the Technical Panel for this project. A special thanks goes to these individuals for their contributions. This Guide was developed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Healthy Homes and Lead Hazard Control through a contract with ICF Incorporated. Dennis Livingston created the illustrations and provided technical content for this Field Guide. WHY SHOULD I FOLLOW THIS GUIDE? Renovation of a two story, 19th century house included removing paint from floors and woodwork using powersanders, hand sanders, scrapers, torches, heat guns, and chemical paint strip pers. Ceilings were also repaired, and wallpaper and paint were removed from several walls. The family that owned the home temporarily moved out of the house. They returned when the work was only partly completed. There was dust throughout the house. The family discovered that something was wrong when one of the family’s dogs began to have seizures. A veterinarian found that the dog had been lead poisoned. Themother and children had their blood tested, and found that all of them had very high levels of lead in their blood. All three were admitted to the hospital for severe lead poisoning. A painter was hired torepaint the exterior of an old Vermont home occupied by a couple expecting the birth of their first child. The painter used a power grinder to remove the old paint from the exterior siding. While the painter worked, the window to the baby’s nursery was left open, and the entire room, including the crib, became covered with dust. Fortunately, the couple noticed the dust, and understood the potential risk. They called in another painter who was qualified to control lead hazards. He cleaned up the paint dustand the newborn baby moved into a clean, safe home. Most Old Homes Contain Lead-Based Paint • Most homes built before 1978 contain some lead-based paint. Leadbased paint is more common and was used more extensively in homes built before 1950. Probability of a House Containing Lead

FAQs

Why should workers and homeowners follow this field guide?

The guide helps prevent childhood lead poisoning by teaching safe planning and execution of maintenance, painting, and renovation work in homes that may contain lead paint.

How do poor maintenance and dust endanger children?

In poorly maintained homes, lead-based paint can flake or peel, and resulting chips and dust mix with household dust, building up on floors and in window troughs. Children can ingest lead through hands and toys, leading to severe illness and permanent damage.

What work-practice changes does the guide recommend to protect workers and children?

The guide recommends keeping dust to a minimum, confining dust and paint chips to the work area, using special cleanup procedures during and after work, and performing dust-wipe sampling to verify lead-contaminated dust was removed.

Sep 27, 2026

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