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LEAD SAFE UNIVERSITY · RENOVATION 101

home renovation just got safer.

fluorospec lets you see lead dust at one tenth of a microgram, in real time, on the floor of the room you just renovated. that was not possible when the EPA renovation rule was written. now it is. here is what changed, how to use it, and the worksheets to plan the job.

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this study was on PROFESSIONALS

this is what trained, certified pros leave behind.

EPA's 2007 study measured floor dust-lead AFTER trained, EPA-certified, RRP-compliant contractors finished the work and the cleanup pass. medians per activity, in micrograms per square foot. 5 µg/ft² is the action level a child should not re-enter above.

median post-job floor dust, by activity

EPA 2007 Dust-Lead Study, Table C2.3a · medians across RRP-compliant professional jobs

activity	median dust-lead	vs. action level
wall cut-outs	5	at the action level
kitchen gut	5	at the action level
heat gun under 1100 °F	18	3.6× over
dry scrape	33	6.6× over
window replacement	41	8.2× over
heat gun over 1100 °F	94	19× over
dry plane, no exhaust	140	28× over

source: U.S. EPA, "Characterization of Dust Lead Levels After Renovation, Repair, and Painting Activities" (2007), Table C2.3a.

IF YOU ARE DOING DIY

certified pros went through 8 hours of training and still left these readings. without that training, the gap is wider. read every page of this guide before disturbing pre-1978 paint. that is not a hedge, it is the math.

why this exists

I took the class. cut the recordkeeping. kept the safety.

the actual EPA Certified Renovator course is 8 hours and roughly 300 pages, most of it about firm certification, recordkeeping for paid jobs, and other paperwork that does not apply to a homeowner. I went through it, stripped that out, and kept the practical lead-safety techniques: containment, PPE, dust minimization, cleanup, verification.

that is what is in the worksheets below. that is what will be in the long-form handbook coming next. nothing else.

, eric, fluorospec

how fluorospec sees it

fluorospec finds the dust EPA was measuring.

methylammonium bromide reagent in alcohol. the moment it hits a lead-containing dust speck, that speck becomes a perovskite quantum dot and glows green under a 405 nm flashlight. drywall, gypsum, sawdust: dark. lead-paint dust: glows.

~0.1µg

smallest visible particle

each glowing dot is roughly one tenth of a microgram of lead. the size of a single grain of household dust. invisible to a contractor's eyes during cleanup. visible to fluorospec's.

~50dots/ft²

to hit EPA's action level

50 of these dots per square foot is the 5 µg/ft² action level. the worst RRP-compliant job in EPA's study left ~1,400 dots per square foot. countable. photographable. now visible to the homeowner.

WHAT THIS ACTUALLY MEANS

you do not have to wait for the rule. fluorospec is here.

the EPA rule is the legal floor for hired contractors. it does not stop a homeowner from going further. spray before the work begins. spray after cleanup. anything that glows is dust your eyes did not catch. that is now a thing you can do in your own home, this weekend, with one bottle.

what to do

two paths. same goal: a glow-free floor.

DIY

spray before. spray after. clean what glows.

before the first wall comes down, mist the floor and trim with fluorospec. anything that lights up tells you where the lead is. set up containment around it.

after cleanup, mist again. anything still glowing is dust your eyes did not catch. clean, mist, repeat until the room is dark under the flashlight.

YOUR GEAR

N100 respirator. not a surgical mask, not a paper dust mask. lead dust passes both.
tyvek suit or dedicated work clothes that never enter the family laundry.
nitrile gloves + safety goggles. lead is absorbed through skin and eyes too.
shoe covers at the work-area exit. swap them, do not track dust into the rest of the home.

no glow. no dust. ready for the kid to come back in.

HIRING A PRO

don't settle for RRP. ask them to fluorospec the job.

RRP is the legal floor: did you follow the procedure. fluorospec is the actual outcome: is the floor clean. one is paperwork, one is the room your child sleeps in.

before sign-off, ask the contractor to spray and walk the floor with you under a UV flashlight. if they wont, that is information. if they will, that is the contractor you keep.

"i'd like to fluorospec the floor before final pay. can we do that together?"

the toolkit

nine worksheets to plan the job.

homeowner-voiced. EPA-cited. click any card for the live page in figma.

(R)ENOVATE R · 07a cover

toolkit cover

(R)ENOVATE R · 07b p1

what's in here

(R)ENOVATE R · 08 p2

why renovation is different

worker acknowledgment

view the full toolkit in figma →

PDF download arrives shortly.

RRP+ is the contractor side of this. a fluorospec walk-through at the end of the job, signed and dated, so the homeowner knows the floor is actually clean and the contractor has the proof. in development.

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EPA TSCA L-25-0206 · DEA exempt mixture

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