Next on Obama’s hit list: small contractors
It may have slipped under your radar screen, as it almost did mine. But I was talking to a friend who owns a small home remodeling business and he reminded me that on April 22 (Earth Day!) new EPA regulations go into effect that could take down many a small contractor.
It’s all about the rules on lead paint removal, which heretofore had been enforced only for work on homes that were old enough to have lead paint and in which small children or pregnant women (the populations at risk) resided. But that’s not good enough for our nanny state; oh no. Now the rules will apply to work done on any home built before 1978, eliminating the previous sensible escape hatch whereby a homeowner could opt out of the regulations if there were no at-risk individuals living in the house.
You might ask why it is that a homeowner contemplating a remodeling job should be deprived of the ability to refuse to pay for costly lead protection procedures that are not needed. Well, here’s your answer: “this option (the opt-out) was ripe for abuse.” In other words, the government can’t trust people to do what’s in the best interest of their own children or pregnancies, and so we all must suffer.
And suffer we will, especially the contractors. To be in compliance by April 22 would mean that every contractor contemplating a job that would disturb more than six square feet of a home’s area (and this includes not just carpentry but plumbing, window installation, and heating and AC installation) would need to have completed a one-day course in the matter, necessitating taking a day off and spending about two hundred dollars. But since there are nowhere near enough certified teachers, therefore the vast majority of America’s contractors could not possibly comply by April 22 even if they wanted to.
But that’s relatively minor compared to larger problems connected with the new rules, such as the fact that they will increase the costs of renovation for both contractor and homeowner just at a time when the industry and the consumer can least handle it. And lest you think there aren’t so many homes built before 1978 (and there sure are in my neck of the woods, New England), the statistics are that this will affect two-thirds of US homes and apartments nationwide.
As this article states, pre-1978 homes being renovated will be turned into the equivalent of hazmat sites. Some contractors will decide it isn’t worth the hassle—and the risk of lawsuit—to work on older homes. As it is, fines for contractors who violate the rules could run up to $37,500 per day. Tons of paperwork will be required of the contractor to document every step of the process.
In addition, my informant filled me in on a few more details that aren’t in the articles. He said that on such a job, a great deal of the work of sawing would now be required to be done outside, which will necessitate a lot of time-consuming back and forth to and from a protected outdoor workplace to the inside of the home, increasing the expense. The plastic coverings, with all the supposed lead-paint dust they contain, will be sealed up and deposited in landfills (will the lead never leach down into the water supply thereafter?). Prior to that, the plastic cannot sit outside the home in a dumpster for more than 48 hours, a rule that will require many more dump runs and the fees that go with them. A black market in under-the-table construction will no doubt spring up—populated by the more libertarian, plus the more unscrupulous and less law-abiding.
Perhaps, as with specialists and/or health insurance companies under Obamacare, this will drive a lot of small contractors right out of business. Just what the doctor ordered..
But hey, who needs renovations, anyway? They’re for the rich capitalist pigs—although I don’t think it’s the rich this will hurt the most (and it will be a nice cash cow for the lawyers).
Oh brave new world, that has such people in it!
I was talking with two friends of mine who also do remodeling and repair work (one a finish carpenter, the other a flooring contractor) who said exactly this. Their fear is it is not worth the risk to even do work on older homes, and neither of them can get into a class until later this summer.
I have thought for a long time that the EPA was expanding the scope mandated by congress. Mr. Obama has said he would use the EPA to further the goals of the far left environmental movement.
As you pointed out “I don’t think it’s the rich this will hurt the most”. But then they could bail out all those poor people living in the homes and apartments the rich capitalist pigs don’t want anymore.
My brother is a contractor and a Yellow dog democrat, I wonder what he will think about this.
Yep. Just more stupidity. I run a small service business in CA. I have seen so much regulation from the California Air Resources Board like this. Putting people out of business left and right. Good time for it, too.
It is so obvious no one that makes and enforces these rules has ever worked in the private sector or made a payroll. Another reason the less than 10% of Obama’s cabinet who had private experience is so crucial to the future of this country.
They just have no clue what the results of their stupid bureaucratic activities will be. They live in la la land. More unicorns.
I just felt the value of my 1977 house go down. This is ridiculous.
Some regulating agencies make sense. But the EPA’s mission is too large in scope. The EPA has the ability to reach into any industry, any sphere of public and private life, and destroy it.
Can you say illegal aliens: not just day labor but the undocumented contractor.
This will also prevent the neighborhood handyman from starting a business, the summer carpentry business for teachers, the young man starting out on his own.
The EPA has the ability to reach into any industry, any sphere of public and private life, and destroy it.
That was probably the whole point.
If the voters in the northeast and west coast would quit voting for nanny state Democrats, this crap would stop.
“A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have.”
Presidential address to a joint session of Congress (Gerald Ford, 12 August 1974)
Demolition has been my line of work for 20+ years. I have dealt with asbestos and lead paint many times always within the regs. Until now there has always been exemptions for scope of work and especially for residential projects.
I have waited for this moment, that I believe will result in either the public engaging in massive non compliance or complete political realignment. Which I don’t know, but this touches upon the widest spectrum of the public and it’s life imaginable.
Oh, Neo, this is only the tip of the iceberg.
Home remodeling is a big business due to sheer volume; commercial renovation is much bigger – volume plus scope of work. And it’s getting attacked by government very aggressively, in the last 5 years (and by unions – and government mandating exclusive union contracts).
As someone who passed the LEED exam last year, I understand the amount of damage this – formerly voluntary program will do to all industries. From energy-production to water-use to construction to manufacturing of goods. What’s more, government invests mostly in “green”, a.i. fictional and expensive, jobs and job creation. Normal laws of efficiency, profit and steady income no longer apply. We entered era of Soviet-style double-bookkeeping: one set of figures for internal use, one – for publicity.
Gee, you would have to think they want the logical result of all this regulation – put more middle-class, middle-american, individual small businesses out of business.
The hatred and scorn Obama expresses for America’s ‘salt of the earth’ citizens is really remarkable.
I live in a lefty enclave, full of The One’s supporters. Sometimes, I feel like I’m wearing a pair of those super glasses from the Lenscrafters commercials (you’ve seen them……the boy puts on the glasses and sees through clothing, the older lady puts them on and sees her elderly husband as a young stud, etc.)
I feel like I can see the destructive intent of Obama’s policies, and the people around me see sunshine and lollipops. It’s discouraging. Finding a site like this, complete with like-minded commenters, has been a god-send.
This has been on-going for some time. Obama is stepping it up, but he didn’t begin it.
I remeber having to go look athte electrical system in a school a few years back. It had a drop ceiling. To remove a tile required a hazmat certified individual. They weren’t just worried about asbestos, but also about dust. I needed to move several tiles. The cost would have been $45.00 per tile. Just to move it, so I could have a look and then put it back. Plus this would have to be done when school wasn’t in session. I just waited until that evening and removed the tiles myself, looked at what I needed to see and replaced them.
That’s just one example.
While I see the need for environmental regulations, we have long ago jumped past sane and sensible.
Now wait for the other shoe to drop: the exemption granted to Federal buildings, housing projects, and/or renovations conducted by unionized labor.
This will lead to more widespread non-compliance, as many here have said. More important, with that comes contempt for the unenforceable law that stands behind it. We will see more and more of this gray economy, because that’s where these incentives lead. There will be show trials for some, but more will go off the books. The additional civil service employees hired to enforce these mandates will create the unwritten net of corruption that will form the norm for how business is done until this all comes down in a heap.
Only then will we begin to deal with the real problem, and only then will we go back to small government and constitutional rule, based on the role of government as seen by the founders and those others who gave us the finest blueprint for government in the history of mankind. After we’ve tried everything else, this country always finds a way to do the right thing.
Progressives don’t give a flying crap about lead paint harming people. They see fees, fines and new beauracrat jobs. There is no end to this “for your own good” disgusting and greedy government.
Every contractor in the country should price out jobs showing the “progressive burden fee” and its outrageous impact on simple jobs transacted between supposedly free people.
A modest proposal: require all community organizers to
1) take a lengthy, expensive, and seriously oversubscribed course,
2) obtain a community organizer license (which must be renewed annually, with the applicant proving document (in triplicate) of his participation in CCE – continuing communist education), and
3) submit copies of all protest signs in triplicate before display to obtain signoff from the state environmental protection agency regarding the eco-friendliness of the materials used in the sign, the state diversity coordinator to check that no group could possibly be offended by the content of the sign, and a committee of English teachers who certify that the spelling and grammar of the sign comport well with the rules of standard English.
That should do it.
Occam,
Why not require all protest signs be bilingual? See how they like them apples.
Oh brave new world, that has such people in it.
Indeed.
Here’s their goal:
The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed.
Jim, great idea. And the person holding the sign has to be accompanied by someone furiously signing in American sign language for any illiterate deaf people.
Occam’s For President
“”The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed.””
Or…The hungry sheep look up, and say f*** the fed.
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Occam’s For President
Nah, I’m not qualified. I’ve got an American birth certificate, and am not ashamed to produce it. /g
Besides, I’ve already my candidate picked out. Here’s my sign for the Tea Party Thursday:
“Soros for President – Eliminate the Middleman”
SteveH:
LOL! Well I’m with you one the sentiment for the fed. . . .
I couldn’t be President either. I’d be done whipped some Press persons ass at the first cocktail party.
Breathtaking. I’m(almost)becoming accustomed to The Bamma and his Mites exceeding their ballooning control-micro incompetency management reach.
C’Mon, November ! Praying there’s enough country left to salvage from the contro-sharks by then.
By the by…Die this year, rather than 2011, Y’all, when Big Nanny is going to Gift Its Fetid Self with 55% of what has been yours.
If you were wondering about the tipping point, wonder no further. It’s here. The choices are clear, non compliance or non repair. It is probably impossible to over estimate the actual costs of full compliance. It will be interesting to track arson rates as people’s behavior adapts to new economic conditions.
Will this apply to all of Obama’s weatherization workers?
the weatherization people in Australia now have houses burning down from their work.
OT: Jesus, another effing bow.. What’s wrong with this clown?
I just sent this to a local media outlet that once ran a local story I sent to them. (They tried to interview me for that one but I had a sinus infection, among other things so I declined). I suggest you all send it to your local media as well-and to your liberal friends.
I’m curious–if this is the tipping point, how might it work? Underground operations I can imagine. Illegals taking over the market, I can imagine. It reminds me of the story I read in The Weekly Standard not long ago, where a gentleman in Connecticut found a leaky underground tank on his property, and after doing the proper thing and reporting it to state authorities, and taking remedial measures at his own expense, has since run into no end of regulatory trouble and further (greater) expense. Or endangered species fiascos, where people have followed the law and reported finding such critters on their property, and regulators repay them by making it impossible for them to do anything productive with their own property, so that they are driven to regret having been good, law-abiding citizens in the first place. Is this really going to be a tipping point, or just a move into a Black Market?
Black Markets have their own power, and they also exist under the threat of government enforcement, if discovered. I think of a tipping point, though, as something that changes the direction of the existing order, the weight that sends the scales toppling in the opposite direction. It launches a spring towards revolution, a total change in direction–it’s not a stealthy means of hanging on while still under oppression.
Don’t misunderstand me–I think a tipping point may be coming. But I’m also reminded of Jefferson’s words in the Declaration of Independence: “Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath shewn, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed.”
I hate what is going on, and I think our country is indeed threatened–indeed, I’ve been pretty outspoken in that regard, right here on neo’s site. But I still get up and go to work in the mornings. I chat with friends about relatively trivial matters. I go to the grocery, I stop by the library, I pay my bills. I did my taxes over the week-end, and did not contemplate refusing to do them as a matter of revolt, or even protest. I do not expect, just yet anyway, to run into the brick wall of history being completely thwarted, and I still have the sense that the best thing to do is to stay out of trouble. I think that, considering what’s going on, we should be massing (and I’m talking about something on a far larger scale that the Tea Parties, fine as they are) and marching on Washington, and physically removing the bahstuds. But we’re not. That may come, and if it does, a tipping point will be what brings it. But I don’t think we’re there yet.
Don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes.
Artfl: Yes. I’ve read about that.
I just want to make sure I am understanding this right. Any home built before 1978, EVEN IF DOES NOT HAVE LEAD PAINT IN IT, this rule still applies?
Betsy,
I can see I was not clear enough in my use of the term tipping point. I did not mean this will be the lynchpin of the revolution. This is not a Ft. Sumpter moment.
What I mean by tipping point is the point of no return for the existing model of residential renovation and repair. This regulatory scheme if allowed to stand makes small renovation and repair no longer economically viable in the houses within it’s scope.
A 79 model house has a modest repair costing $1000.00. A 77 with similar problems costs $5000.00-$10,000.00. In flush times a legitimate contractor will be unavailable at any but the most extravagent of prices. The black market will certainly thrive but it won’t come cheap either, not for competant help. The skills needed are not common knowledge amongst the up and coming generation.
Much like rent control in NYC it will reward neglect and punish maintence until at some point the continued viability of the basic habitability and occupancy of many structures will be questionable. The ability to insure, finance, and sell the properties will be impacted. Hence my closing remarks on arson. An accidential fire will appear to be a godsend. The Lord helps those who help themselves.
jon baker: Yes.
Amused Observer: maybe the next step for the Obama administration will be a Cash for Clunkers program for houses built before 1978.
AO,
Indeed He does, sir. Well I appreciate your clarification, and I do not disagree with you, in the event.
As far as the ultimate tipping point is concerned, I’ll always recall what Bill Bennett said some years ago, maybe as long ago as the early ’90s, when people were urging him to run for president (I may have quoted it here, sometime past). He said that running for president at that time would be a bit like campaigning to clean up the Mafia by running for Godfather. He added that, when people were ready to pick up pitchforks and march on Washington, he would be their man.
I’ve often wondered whether we’re there yet. I wonder more and more, as time passes. It would be a tipping point if we are.
Good idea Neo.
From what I understand they can start in Detroit.
First the toys and products from small manufacturers, plus resales on books for children prior to a particular date, clothing, etc now this, If we could follow the money who paid which politicians how much for these rules and how do the bribers benefit?
Neo, It may be that the ultimate Cash-for-Clunkers program in the Obama administration would be an offer of money (or its like) in exchange for the names of those of us who are in serious opposition to the program. I don’t like to think of myself as a Clunker. Still . . . . Well, I know of no reason to rule such a thing out.
Looks like small contractors aren’t the only things the Obamanites are using “lead” as an excuse to destroy. Google “CPSIA”, the law that went into effect a year ago when mandates destroying children’s books published before 1985. I’m not kidding.
It also puts small homebased fabric craft enterprises out of business because they can’t afford the lead tests required. However, Mattel is exempt. The hubby of one of the bureaucrats (the Consumer Protection Agency rather than the EPA) who drafted this horror is a VP at Mattel. (They are so brazen.)
betsybounds Says:
April 12th, 2010 at 10:01 pm
That’s pretty impressive, and frankly surprising to me. Listening to him on the radio nowadays, he almost sounds like a male Peggy Noonan to me. (I’ve made that comparison here before.) I often find his bland equanimity utterly exasperating.
I’m more a Mark Levin kind of guy.
rickl, I agree that Bennett has changed, and not for the better. But my quotation of him is true enough. I used to think that, if we waited long enough, and things got bad enough, we could count on him. I no longer think that. I do think, however, that there is someone out there ready to pick up the pitchfork, to don the mantle. An heir, if you will.
I wouldn’t give you a nickel for Peggy Noonan.
We will see more and more of this gray economy
Yes indeed. Welcome to my economy. I’ve lived under it all of my adult life.
I can’t build my kid a bedroom because the New Mexico Energy Codes (introduced by Bill Richardson) effectively outlaws adobe construction!
My dad built this house in 1972 with his own hands, out of adobe, made from the earth it sits on. There is nothing more wholesome, there is nothing more “green”, there is nothing more healthy.
This lead thing is just another reason I cannot get a permit to build my kid a bedroom.
Yet, I’m going to build my kid his own bedroom.
Hopefully, the regs have a religious exemption because I live in northern Indiana and want to hire some Amish guys to redo my kitchen cabinets in my 1977 house.
“OT: Jesus, another effing bow.. What’s wrong with this clown?”
Must be the chip; but instead of in his brain, our Manchurian Candidate wears it on his shoulder, reminds him when to bow, or when to bark or whine….
It will narrow to two distinct camps. The two camps will be male and female, all colors and creeds. We’ll need arm bands.
I think we will need to bring all the boys home to stand guard at all borders, while we decide seriously, once and for all, what we are going to do inside these borders. Hell, let’s get it over with. This slow death crap is getting under my skin.
It’ll just lead to massive non-compliance, like several others have said.
About a year ago I was laid off when the economy went south. A few months ago I started a small business buying foreclosures, renovating and selling them. There’s a huge stock of foreclosures out there, plus another huge stock of properties people are upside down in. The housing market where I live is red hot and the real estate agent I work with said she’s never been busier in the 30 years she’s been selling houses.
I’ve bought seven houses in the last six months which need minor work through major work. You already have to sign addendums when you buy a house concerning lead paint. And the agent has to make sure you walk out of the office with a cheezy little lead paint brochure. You actually have to check a box on the contract stating you’ve read and understood it. We (the agent and I) are like, “yeah, whatever.”
Guess what? I’m a proud non-comply-er.
House built in 1961. Not the original owner. No idea whether there is lead paint anywhere or not. Great.
If you think about it, so many regulations like this one are really about the union mentality of progressives and their disdain for a free America where the average Joe is capable of competing in a free and open market place. A sort of price fixing (thus salary fixing) scheme via limiting who has the capability of participating and affecting prices in the construction market in the first place.
Of course, the folly of such a union mindset lies in its pretending that union protected workers won’t be affected in their own purchases from an overly inflated and corrupt marketplace.
And don’t use any felonious wood.
I agree that Bennett has changed, and not for the better.
Any one willing to lie “marijuana has no medical value” to keep his job was never the man of honor you ever imagined he was.
Gray. Good to hear you have an adobe house. Do you need minimal heating in the winter, minimal cooling in the summer because of the thick walls ?
@M. Simon
Thank you for the link to felonious wood. The takeover of all plants commerce, possession, and etc. is jaw dropping.
“Anyone who imports into the United States, or exports out of the United States, illegally harvested plants or products made from illegally harvested plants, including timber, as well as anyone who exports, transports, sells, receives, acquires or purchases such products in the United States, may be prosecuted.
The blindness is not just in our gummint agencies. I currently work for a large paper company. At our last all-day corporate engineering meeting, 90% of the time was spent on pollution and greenhouse gas abatement issues. The rest of the time (about 30 minutes) was spent on projects that might make money.
I look at the Zero and his merry band of looters, and I see the outcome of 30 years of moonbat ‘education’ and indoctrination. The Zero is not the cause of our problems; he just reflects them. I agree with others that this has been going on for quite a while, and I wonder if an election or series of elections will reverse the process. This is not going to end well because the sense of entitlement to others wealth seems too widespread. And I have had too much of the tyranny of good intentions.
Gray. Good to hear you have an adobe house. Do you need minimal heating in the winter, minimal cooling in the summer because of the thick walls ?
It certainly helps. There are a few months in the spring and the fall that I don’t have to run any heating or cooling–maybe 4 months out of the year; sometimes 5 depending on the year.
Summer I just use a “swamp cooler”. In the summer, the trick is to open everything up in the evening, and all night, and then close everything tight and pull all the curtains shut in the morning to keep it like a cave.
Perfectly suited to the climate, made out of local materials. Outlawed by NM Energy Code.
Most contractors are unaware of this requirement and will keep doing their work as usual.
Utah carpenter,a.
Hi –
I can’t find anything, anywhere, that states that these new rules are for ALL pre-78 houses, regardless of residents. Everything I’ve found says that homes without pregnant women or children under 6 can still be exempt from the rules. Can you please point to an actual link that says that ALL pre-78 houses must comply?
Thanks – I’m trying to help a painter friend find out more info. She’s a small business and knew nothing about this.
Melanie:
Here’s a link from the Washington Post. And here’s a quote from it:
Thank you! 🙂
It’s all very confusing, isn’t it? Sounds like they haven’t actually taken away the exemptions yet, but that next Thursday they probably will. Argh.
So Code Compliance can fine us for peeling paint on our house and they can mandate that we paint or pay a steep fine, and the EPA can fine us for painting. This is quite a dilemna for those of us who have no savings and can barely pay our mortgage.
Many Americans don’t realize that these smaller regulations are a dry run for a long list of more significant Regulations they plan on putting in place by skirting the U.S. Congress. They are feeling us out. These power hungry ego maniacs intend on forcing more and more freedom destroying regulations, until they have condemned our entire U.S. population to live under the heels of their red Communist boots.
While Americans were sidetracked by health care, the Obama administration was hard at work radically changing every single federal institution in ways that are frightening when you consider how each one chips away at our freedoms and rights.