Being a Lead-Safe Certified Firm, our painting services, in some of our projects, involve the sanding or stripping of surfaces that contain lead. Doing those tasks with as little dust floating around as possible is important to the success of a painting project in pre-1978 housing. Through cleanup after the project is completed is also critically important.

HEPA Dust Extractor and Orbital Sander

Our tools of choice for doing mechanical sanding and stripping are made by a German manufacturer called Festool. This company has designed a brilliant line of fully integrated tools. Our house painters use the CT 22 E HEPA dust extractor, combined with the RO 150 orbital 6” sander. The sander plugs right into the vacuum and automatically turns it on or off simply by activating its own on/off switch.

The sander uses sand papers designed for each specific task; that it be polishing, sanding or stripping. The speed of the sander can be adjusted up or down to ensure a perfect result. The dust extractor has a replaceable, high-efficiency HEPA filter and has an on-board attachment storage area.

Investing in state-of-the-art equipment like Festool enables our painting services to deliver to our clients the best possible results every time.

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Painting services are required to abide by the new EPA regulations coming into effect on April 22, 2010. Specifically, it requires painting Contractors to distribute the “Renovate Right” brochure to the owners of pre-1978 child-occupied buildings. Additionally, house painting contractors are now required to be certified by the EPA, have the painting work supervised by a “Certified Renovator” and ensure that EPA-prescribed procedures are followed during painting activities.

It is a pleasure to announce that Painting in Partnership is now a “Lead Safe Certified Firm” and that three of its employees have become “Certified Renovators” to meet the EPA regulations. Below is some background information on the new regulations.

Painting in Partnership is a Lead-Safe Certified Firm

Lead was used as a paint ingredient for generations in the United States because of its durability features. It is estimated that 50 million tons of lead was used in American homes by painting services before it was banned in 1978. (Ironically, Europe moved to ban lead in paints in 1921, more than 50 years prior to this country.)

Lead has been proven to be especially dangerous to children under the age of six. The main exposure comes from ingesting lead dust that accumulates on floors and carpeting. It gets absorbed from hand to mouth during play activities. This dust is largely generated from remodeling projects, such as painting, that disturb lead or the up and down movement of windows surfaces. The intent of the new legislation is to protect children of six years of age or younger during restoration projects.

Painting in Partnership continues to be on the cutting-edge of painting technology and work practices in order to give you the best long-term result, while keeping you safe.

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Painting services delivered in a home environment sometimes present a particular challenge. Minimizing the stress on the family, while maintaining the efficiency of the painting operations is most important. On this particular project, the close coordination of the house painting activities was critical, due to the fact that the owners home-school their three children and the dad works out of the house a good part of the time. Additionally, there is a delightful 160-pound Leonberger dog which is also part of the family and whose needs for space must be taken into account. Her name is Bella, shown here holding one of her furry friends

Mario Guertin, Bella and her Friend

Because of the Holidays, it was decided that the painting project would be divided into two phases, the downstairs and the upstairs. A convenient start time for the family was agreed upon. The family then developed an off-premise schooling plan for the duration of the painting project. We then discussed the game plan for tackling the sequencing of the rooms we will be working on. Since painting services involve performing multiple tasks with varying dry-time requirements, we made the decision to only have two painters working on the project and work in no more than 2 rooms at a time. This way, we could avoid disabling the whole house and creating chaos for the family.

Keeping the stress down for the family during a house painting project is critical to producing a successful painting experience for our clients. Balancing the needs of the family with the needs to maintain the efficiency of the painting operations is surely a balancing act. As house painting contractors doing work mostly in occupied buildings, we are committed to maintaining a happy balance between those two key factors.

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