Our fast-paced, interactive EPA Renovation, Repair, and Painting (RRP) Initial Certification course offers comprehensive preparation for lead-safe work practices. All classes are held in Fairfax, Virginia, and we offer courses every two weeks. Register at least seven days in advance to receive a $75 discount on your course fee.
This rigorous training combines eight comprehensive classroom modules with eleven hands-on activities, ensuring a thorough understanding of lead safety protocols and practical application. Upon successful course completion, you will take a certification exam containing 25 to 50 questions, depending on your state requirements. Passing students receive official EPA RRP certification recognized throughout the renovation industry. To maintain your certification and remain compliant with federal requirements, you must complete a refresher course before your certification expiration date. If your certification expires without timely renewal, you will need to retake the full initial certification course to resume lead renovation work.
Classroom Module Content
Module 1: Understanding Lead Health Hazards
This foundational module comprehensively addresses the documented health impacts of lead exposure on children and adults. You will learn how lead enters homes through deteriorating paint and renovation activities, explore immediate and long-term health effects, understand what steps to take if you or others have been exposed, gain knowledge about lead testing procedures and medical evaluation, and learn practical prevention strategies to keep your residential and work environment safe from lead contamination.
Module 2: Regulatory Compliance Framework
The EPA's Renovation, Repair, and Painting rule and HUD's Lead-Safe Housing Rule represent the two primary regulatory frameworks governing lead work. This comprehensive module examines both rules in detail, their administration at the federal and state levels, and critical differences between them. We analyze enforcement mechanisms and penalties, OSHA's expanding role in workplace lead hazards, rule exclusions and exemptions, firm certification requirements and responsibilities, individual worker certifications, and the specific legal and safety obligations of certified renovators. Understanding this regulatory landscape ensures compliance and protects both workers and occupants.
Module 3: Pre-Project Planning and Preparation
Before renovation work begins, proper planning ensures regulatory compliance. You will learn how to educate homeowners about historical lead-based paint use, determine whether lead-based paint exists using EPA-approved test kits, collect paint chip samples using correct procedures, and select appropriate regulatory frameworks for your specific project.
Module 4: Dust Containment Strategies
Effective containment represents the most critical compliance element in lead-safe work. This highly interactive module reviews both interior and exterior containment strategies through extensive photographic examples, helping you identify what constitutes compliant versus non-compliant containment setups. You will discover efficient, cost-effective strategies that maintain strict regulatory compliance while optimizing time and material efficiency. The module explores different materials and tools available for containment, discusses strategies that save time without sacrificing compliance, and reinforces that keeping all generated lead dust contained within your containment barriers forms the absolute cornerstone of successful, legally compliant, and protective lead renovation work.
Module 5: Work Execution and Safety Practices
Successful lead renovation extends far beyond initial containment setup. This module covers how traditional renovation methods generate airborne lead dust, prohibited work practices according to EPA and HUD regulations and state programs, personal protective equipment development, material and tool handling strategies, and proper cleaning procedures during active work stages.
Module 6: Cleaning Verification and Final Inspection
Thorough cleanup determines whether renovation work achieves its safety objectives. This module examines effective interior and exterior cleaning techniques, work verification procedures, clearance testing protocols, and safe lead waste disposal methods. The ultimate goal remains ensuring that zero leaded dust remains to endanger occupants.
Module 7: Documentation and Record Maintenance
Comprehensive record keeping proves essential for regulatory compliance and liability protection. This module covers all required documentation and reporting. We provide a customizable record-keeping packet that you can enhance with your certifications and print for each lead project, ensuring you maintain complete compliance documentation.
Module 8: Training Non-Certified Renovation Workers
The EPA's RRP rule permits certified renovators to train non-certified workers on their renovation teams, a significant competitive advantage for building highly qualified and compliant project crews. This module details comprehensive training requirements, exactly what the rule allows and prohibits in worker training, legal responsibilities, and provides practical, proven training strategies to ensure your non-certified workers deeply understand and consistently follow lead-safe work practices in all situations and scenarios.
Important Requirements:
Please bring a valid picture identification to your training session. The exam requires government-issued ID verification before you may begin.
