Bill's Building Blog

Video Q&A — What building practices are prohibited when doing RRP jobs?

Tips on training workers in EPA RRP lead-safe practices

As you know, as an EPA RRP Certified Renovator, it's your job to train your crew in RRP lead-safe practices.

As an accredited EPA RRP trainer, I'd like to offer a few training tips:

1. First, conduct a training session to cover all the aspects of the lead-safe practices. My new DVD, of course, will come in handy for that. The first training could be an hour watching the DVD, followed by hands-on experience setting up an actual RRP job.

2. After that, during your regular morning tailgate training sessions, review one of the important aspects of set up, personal protective equipment and clean up. 

3. Try having one individual describe best practices for one of those topics. The reason is that the best way to learn something is to teach it. They will learn it better, as well as teachng others.

4. Have someone point out a good work practice going on in the company currently, and then have someone else point out a work practice that could use improvement. When I've done this, the workers get very enthused and engaged. They take ownership.

Remember, while the Certified Renovator certificate must be renewed every five years, there is no expiration date on jobsite training. So it's important that you, the Certified Renovator, keep that up do date.

 

Ask Bill: How do I find an EPA RRP class?

Ask Bill with Bill Robinson

Question: I want to become a Certified Renovator. How do I find an EPA RRP class?

Answer: I have a few suggestions:

1. Do a Google search on: EPA RRP classes (your state). There's a bit of a cottage industry happening with firms and trainers offering classes, so all the information is not necessarily compiled all in one place. This will give you a wide-ranging set of options.

2. Check out the handy directory on the ZipWall website. You just enter your state and a list of providers comes up.

3. Go to the National Center for Healthy Housing and see the array of classes offered through them.

4. Send me an email and let's discuss some options. As an accredited RRP trainer, I've taught hundreds of contractors, business owners and others. I don't want to seem immodest, but I get rave reviews for my ability to make this somewhat dry information a lot more interesting. And when you hire me to provide your RRP training, you get an outrageous deal on my new DVD: On-the-Job Training: RRP Lead-Safe Practices.