Lead Paint in Older SF Homes: What Every Homeowner Should Know

How common is lead paint in SF?

Federal law banned residential lead-based paint in 1978. Lead-based paint was the standard before then — meaning essentially every SF home built before 1978 has lead under the more recent coats.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development estimates that 87% of homes built before 1940 contain lead-based paint. That's most of San Francisco.

Why it matters

Lead exposure is dangerous primarily through ingestion or inhalation of dust. Children under 6 and pregnant women are at highest risk; chronic exposure can affect brain development, kidney function, and more.

The biggest exposure pathway in residential settings isn't intact paint — it's lead dust created when paint is disturbed (sanded, scraped, drilled, opened up for renovation).

What "lead-safe" means in practice

The EPA's RRP rule requires firms doing renovation, repair, or painting on pre-1978 housing to:

• Be certified by the EPA (the firm and at least one trained worker on each job)
• Contain the work area (poly sheeting, taped seams)
• Use wet methods only (no dry scraping, no power sanding without HEPA shrouds)
• HEPA vacuum at end of each work day
• Dispose of debris per EPA standards
• Document the work and retain records for 3 years

This is not "best practice." It is federal law.

What to ask a contractor

If you're hiring anyone — painter, carpenter, electrician — to work on a pre-1978 home, ask:

1. "Are you EPA RRP-certified?" (They should be able to produce a certificate.)
2. "How do you contain dust during the work?"
3. "How do you dispose of debris?"
4. "Will you give me the EPA's 'Renovate Right' pamphlet?"

If they hesitate on any of these, find another contractor.

Lead-safe vs. abatement

These are different services:

• Lead-safe (RRP): Disturbing lead paint safely during normal work. Covers painters, remodelers, etc.
• Abatement: Permanently removing or encapsulating lead paint as the primary goal. Requires separate state certification.

Most SF homes need RRP work, not full abatement. Abatement is more expensive and only justified when lead presents an immediate health risk.

How we handle it

Every pre-1978 job we do uses RRP containment and wet-method prep, regardless of whether the client specifically asks. It's built into our pricing.

We also provide the Renovate Right pamphlet at the start of every pre-1978 job, document containment with photos, and retain records for at least 3 years per federal requirements.