Lead Paint

Adam Musante

Francis Cauffman

LEEDuser Basic Member

0 thumbs up

Project location :

United States

May 22, 2015

Generally speaking, is the presence of lead paint in an existing school from the 1950's cause for concern and must be addressed or else the prerequisite is not satisfied? More specifically, if lead paint is discovered in a school project by the general contractor before any ESA reports have even been created, is that grounds for failing this Prerequisite and therefore all lead paint must be remediated to the most stringent standards?

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John Mlade

LFA, RESET ASP, WELL Faculty, LEED Fellow

Wight & Company

LEEDuser Expert

6 thumbs up

Fri, 05/22/2015 - 17:00

Hi Adam, There are a couple of things to consider here. For school projects in particular, you will want to mitigate any lead exposure to occupants. This is probably also covered by local regulation. In terms of the actual prerequisite requirements, LEED does not seem to explicitly address lead-based paint as a site contaminant. In doing some preliminary research, lead-based paint seems to be an optional inclusion in Phase I Assessments. Having said that, you may want to consult the standard directly or engage a local professional. I don't think the prerequisite is in jeopardy, as you should be mitigating the lead paint anyways.

Adam Musante

Francis Cauffman

LEEDuser Basic Member

0 thumbs up

Fri, 05/22/2015 - 17:45

Thank you for your reply John, greatly appreciated. Ok, so if it is an optional inclusion in Phase I, is it clearly stated anywhere in the ASTM standards that lead-based paint is included in a Phase II Assessment of an existing building? Overall, yes it it should be mitigated regardless of LEED, however if there is lead paint in the building that is not properly/entirely mitigated for some reason, is it correct to say there is no definitive answer from USGBC that this discovery would it cause the project to fail the prerequisite? Thanks again.