Lead paint, asbestos and a pre-1978 bathroom in Central Ohio

Two dates get quoted about old bathrooms and only one of them is real. The year 1978 is a definition in federal law: EPA's lead rules cover housing constructed prior to it, and the Consumer Product Safety Commission's paint ban covers consumer products manufactured after February 27, 1978. Asbestos has no such year, because the bans came product by product and the one general ban was largely overturned in court. This page sets out what the agencies say, which Ohio agency runs which program, and how old the housing around Columbus actually is.

Last updated September 2026 · Rules, code sections and Census figures were read September 2026 · No prices on this page; the Estimate Builder carries those · Part of the knowledge base

Two dates, and why only one of them is a year

Ask about an older bathroom and two numbers come back: 1978 for lead paint, and something around 1980 for asbestos. The first is exact. The second does not exist, and the difference decides what a rule can turn on.

For lead, 1978 is a definition rather than an estimate. The federal Environmental Protection Agency's lead rules run on a defined term, and the definitions section at 40 CFR 745.223 says target housing means any housing constructed prior to 1978. The definition carries narrow exclusions for housing for the elderly or persons with disabilities, and for dwellings with no bedroom, unless a child under six resides or is expected to reside there.

The date came from another agency. The Consumer Product Safety Commission's ban on lead-containing paint, at 16 CFR 1303, applies to consumer products manufactured after February 27, 1978. EPA rounds the same thing to the year, saying that in 1978 the federal government banned the sale of lead-based paint for use in homes and childcare facilities.

EPA is careful about what the year tells a homeowner. It says that if a home was built before 1978, it is more likely to have lead-based paint. More likely is the whole of the claim. EPA adds that children can live safely in homes that have lead-based paint as long as paint and surfaces are in good condition and surfaces are kept clean. Both sentences are the agency's own.

Asbestos has no equivalent year, and EPA's own chronology of federal asbestos actions is why. It records a ban on spray-applied surfacing material in 1973, a ban on installing asbestos pipe and block insulation in 1975, the Consumer Product Safety Commission's ban on asbestos in wall patching compounds and artificial fireplace embers in 1977, and a ban on the remaining spray-applied surfacing materials in 1978. The 1989 rule that banned most asbestos-containing products was then, in EPA's words, largely overturned in 1991 by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Nothing since has replaced it for buildings. EPA's 2024 chrysotile rule reaches gaskets, vehicle friction products and chlor-alkali diaphragms and says nothing about asbestos already installed in a building. No agency names a year after which asbestos left home building materials, so no such year appears on this page.

How old the housing is here

Age is what triggers the lead rule, so it is worth knowing how old the housing around Columbus is. The Census Bureau's American Community Survey publishes the year a structure was built in table B25034, and the 2019 to 2023 five-year estimates are the current ones. One catch matters here: the table's categories break at 1979 and 1980, with no boundary at 1978, so no Census table can give a share of housing built before 1978. Every figure below is a pre-1980 figure standing next to a pre-1978 question.

Read them as the Bureau publishes them. The universe is housing units, the totals are its estimates, and the shares are arithmetic on the five oldest categories rather than percentages the Bureau prints. The place rows are municipal boundaries, so an Upper Arlington or Worthington mailing address outside the city limits is not counted in them. Grandview Heights lands well below its reputation, at 68.9 percent against Bexley's 91.2.

The regional contrast is the useful part. Ohio's stock is markedly older than the country's, 64.0 percent against 50.5 percent nationally, while Franklin County at 52.2 percent sits close to the national figure and Delaware County at 21.0 percent is a different world. The pre-1978 question is far more a Franklin County and inner-suburb one than a Delaware County one. Which neighborhoods and towns are of which era, and the year-built table for the counties and towns, are on the house styles page. How old the houses are in Delaware, Licking and Fairfield counties, on the census and the auditors' records, is on the page on those three counties by the numbers.

One more limit matters most. The survey records the year a structure was built. It does not record what is in the paint or under the floor, and no Census table reports lead or asbestos content. Age triggers a rule; it is never a finding about a material in a particular house.

The federal lead rule, and who runs it in Ohio

The rule people mean is EPA's Renovation, Repair and Painting rule, at 40 CFR part 745, subpart E. Its opening sentence sets the boundary: the subpart applies to all renovations performed for compensation in target housing and child-occupied facilities. Performed for compensation is the phrase that matters, because it binds whoever is paid and leaves the owner's own unpaid work outside the rule.

Not every paid job is a renovation under it. EPA's definition of a minor repair and maintenance activity covers work that disrupts six square feet or less of painted surface per room for interior activities, or twenty square feet or less outside. Per room, not per job.

Two things cut that exception back, and both are ordinary in a bathroom. It does not apply where prohibited work practices are used, or where the job involves window replacement or demolition of painted surface areas; EPA's contractor page says window replacement and demolition of painted surfaces are always covered regardless of square footage. And EPA's rule says jobs performed in the same room within the same thirty days must be considered the same job. Taking a tiled surround and the painted wall behind it out of a bathroom is demolition of a painted surface, so the square footage question often does not arise.

The rule gives three ways out, all about showing the lead is not there: a written determination by a certified inspector or certified risk assessor, testing by a certified renovator using an EPA-recognized test kit, or laboratory analysis of paint chip samples. Each must show the components are free of paint containing lead at or above the rule's threshold, 1.0 milligrams per square centimeter or 0.5 percent by weight.

Four dates travel with this rule and they are easy to run together. EPA published it on April 22, 2008. Since April 22, 2010 no firm may perform, offer or claim to perform covered renovations without certification from EPA. The work practice standards became mandatory on July 6, 2010. The pre-renovation education requirement dates from December 22, 2008: the firm has to give the owner EPA's pamphlet, Renovate Right: Important Lead Hazard Information for Families, Child Care Providers and Schools, no more than sixty days before renovation activities begin, and obtain a written acknowledgment or a certificate of mailing. That pamphlet is the one piece of paper the rule puts in a homeowner's hands.

The rule governs the tools as well as the paperwork. EPA's work practice standards prohibit open-flame burning or torching of painted surfaces. The same standards prohibit high-speed sanding, grinding, power planing and abrasive blasting unless the machine has a shroud and a HEPA vacuum attachment, and permit a heat gun only at temperatures below 1,100 degrees Fahrenheit. Under those standards the floor of an interior work area has to be covered with taped-down plastic sheeting extending six feet beyond the surfaces worked on, or far enough to contain the dust, which in a small bathroom can reach past the door.

Ohio does not run its own version. EPA says states may be authorized to administer their own renovation programs in lieu of the federal one; Ohio is not among the states EPA lists, so EPA administers the Renovation, Repair and Painting program here, and a firm's certification for this work is federal.

Lead abatement is a different thing under a different statute, and confusing the two is the commonest mistake here. Ohio's lead statute defines abatement as a measure or set of measures designed for the single purpose of permanently eliminating lead hazards, at Ohio Revised Code section 3742.01, and the federal definition at 40 CFR 745.223 is materially the same. A bathroom remodel is not that. EPA says abatement and renovation projects can look similar but are two separate programs that require different certifications and are regulated differently by EPA.

In Ohio the abatement half sits with the Ohio Department of Health. Section 3742.05 of the Revised Code says the director of health shall issue lead inspector, lead abatement contractor, lead risk assessor, project designer, worker and clearance technician licenses, and the department's own Lead Licensure and Accreditation Program page names the same categories. EPA's list of the states where EPA itself administers the lead-based paint abatement and evaluation program does not include Ohio.

Where asbestos sat in an old bathroom

EPA publishes a list of products that may contain asbestos, and three entries on it reach a bathroom. EPA's list names vinyl floor tiles, the backing on vinyl sheet flooring and the adhesives. It names hot water and steam pipes coated with asbestos material or covered with an asbestos blanket or tape, which reach a bathroom through the basement and the chase behind the fixtures. And it names textured paint and patching compounds used on walls and ceilings, the joint compound question people are usually asking. The floor those tiles were laid on, and what a mortar bed under an older tile floor is, are on the floors and subfloors page.

EPA's list carries no dates at all. The list and the ban chronology are two separate documents: the 1977 date belongs to the Consumer Product Safety Commission's ban on patching compounds, not to the product list, and nothing on the list is described as safe after any year.

What EPA says about material already in a house is short, and the opposite of alarming. Material that is in good condition and will not be disturbed should be left alone. And if done incorrectly, EPA writes, sampling can be more hazardous than leaving the material alone; the agency says a trained and accredited asbestos professional should take samples for analysis. EPA's own example of what disturbs such a material is remodeling.

Ohio's asbestos rules, and the threshold that reaches a house

Start with which agency. Ohio's asbestos statute, chapter 3710 of the Revised Code, puts the rulemaking with the director of environmental protection rather than the director of health: section 3710.02 says the director of environmental protection shall adopt rules to carry out the chapter, effective January 1, 2018 as amended by House Bill 49 of the 132nd General Assembly. Some headings in the chapter listing still read director of health, which is why the older attribution survives.

Ohio EPA runs it from there. Its asbestos program, in the agency's words, licenses and certifies companies and persons directly involved with the asbestos abatement industry, under Ohio Administrative Code chapter 3745-22, which covers contractors, supervisors, designers, workers, building inspectors, air sampling technicians and training providers. A second chapter, 3745-20, controls asbestos emissions from demolition and renovation, and Ohio EPA says its regulations there are consistent with the federal National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants. The two chapters give different answers about an ordinary house.

Take the answer most people have heard, because it is true as far as it goes. The federal emission standard excludes residential buildings that have four or fewer dwelling units from its definition of a facility, and Ohio EPA says the same of its own emission control regulation: such a building is not considered a facility unless it is part of a larger installation, such as an apartment complex. On that rule a single house sits outside the demolition notification requirement.

Then read the other chapter. Ohio EPA states that if a contractor performs renovations in which more than fifty square feet or fifty linear feet of regulated asbestos-containing material is disturbed, on any structure, the job becomes subject to Ohio EPA's asbestos notification rules. The words on any structure are the agency's own, and it writes them under its own heading for demolition or renovation activities at a private, single-family residence.

Above that threshold the work belongs to a contractor holding the Ohio EPA license, who in the agency's words assumes all responsibility for submitting the notification and following specific work practices, and for the disposal. The notification has to be postmarked or hand-delivered ten working days before any work that will disturb the material, and Ohio EPA says the form may not be faxed or emailed. That is roughly two calendar weeks, and it is the item most likely to move a start date.

Two qualifications belong with that. Ohio EPA says that if the demolition or renovation is completed by the home owner, submission of a notification is not required. That exemption is about the notification requirement and nothing else, and it is gone the moment a paid contractor is the one disturbing the material, which is the line the federal lead rule draws with the words performed for compensation. And a house that used to be something else stays inside the rules: Ohio EPA says that if the residential structure was ever a business, then it remains subject to its asbestos notification rules. The word ever is the agency's.

What a homeowner can do before the wall opens

The agencies put the same order of operations on both materials: find out what the material is before anything disturbs it, and let a trained person take the sample. EPA's asbestos advice is explicit that a badly taken sample can be worse than no sample, and its lead rule names a certified inspector, a certified risk assessor or a certified renovator for the testing routes.

For lead, know which of two services is being asked for. A lead-based paint inspection, EPA says, tells you whether a building has lead-based paint and where it is; a risk assessment tells you whether there are hazards and what to do about them. EPA also says a recognized test kit can reliably determine that regulated lead-based paint is not present, which is a statement about a negative result.

Who to ask depends on the material, which is the practical value of keeping the programs apart. Asbestos is Ohio EPA's. Lead abatement is the Ohio Department of Health's. The renovation rule governing a paid bathroom job in an older Ohio house is EPA's. A contractor's answer about one says nothing about the other.

Asbestos abatement is a specialty trade of its own in Ohio, carried out by Ohio EPA license holders. The Upper Arlington page gives the same answer for an older Central Ohio bathroom: suspected material is tested before anything disturbs it, an abatement contractor deals with it if it needs dealing with, and that work is scheduled and priced apart from the remodeling.

The other lead in an old house, and who inspects

Paint is not the only place lead sits in a house of this age. The service line under the yard and the solder in older copper joints are a separate subject with their own dates and their own city counts, covered on the supply pipes page. Which plumbing code applies to a bathroom in Ohio, who holds the state plumbing license and who inspects the work are on the code and license page.

Sources

Every figure, date and quotation on this page comes from one of these documents, read on the date given. Where two of them disagree, the page says so.

• Office of the Federal Register (eCFR), 40 CFR Part 745, Subpart L, Lead-Based Paint Activities (section 745.223, Definitions), current as of September 2026; read September 2026.
• Office of the Federal Register (eCFR), 16 CFR Part 1303, Ban of Lead-Containing Paint and Certain Consumer Products Bearing Lead-Containing Paint, current as of September 2026; read September 2026.
• United States Consumer Product Safety Commission, CPSC Announces Final Ban On Lead-Containing Paint, September 2, 1977; read September 2026.
• United States Environmental Protection Agency, Protect Your Family from Sources of Lead, undated; read September 2026.
• United States Environmental Protection Agency, EPA Actions to Protect the Public from Exposure to Asbestos, undated; read September 2026.
• Office of the Federal Register (eCFR), 16 CFR Part 1304, Ban of Consumer Patching Compounds Containing Respirable Free-Form Asbestos, current as of September 2026; read September 2026.
• Office of the Federal Register (eCFR), 16 CFR Part 1305, Ban of Artificial Emberizing Materials (Ash and Embers) Containing Respirable Free-Form Asbestos, current as of September 2026; read September 2026.
• United States Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2019-2023 five-year estimates, table B25034 Year Structure Built, table-based summary file, 2024; read September 2026.
• United States Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2023 five-year geography lookup file, Geos20235YR.txt, 2024; read September 2026.
• Office of the Federal Register (eCFR), 40 CFR Part 745, Subpart E, Residential Property Renovation (sections 745.80 to 745.92), published April 22, 2008, as amended November 12, 2024; read September 2026.
• United States Environmental Protection Agency, Frequent question: if a project disturbs six square feet or less of interior surface or 20 square feet or less of exterior surface, is it necessary for a firm to comply with the pre-renovation education requirements?, undated; read September 2026.
• United States Environmental Protection Agency, Renovation, Repair and Painting Program: Contractors, undated; read September 2026.
• United States Environmental Protection Agency, Lead Renovation, Repair and Painting Program, undated; read September 2026.
• United States Environmental Protection Agency, Renovation, Repair and Painting Program: Firm Certification, undated; read September 2026.
• Ohio Laws and Administrative Rules, Ohio Revised Code Section 3742.01, Lead abatement definitions, undated; read September 2026.
• United States Environmental Protection Agency, Lead Abatement, Inspection and Risk Assessment, undated; read September 2026.
• Ohio Laws and Administrative Rules, Ohio Revised Code Section 3742.05, Application for required licensure or certification, undated; read September 2026.
• Ohio Department of Health, Lead Licensure and Accreditation Program, undated; read September 2026.
• United States Environmental Protection Agency, Lead-Based Paint Abatement and Evaluation Program: Overview, undated; read September 2026.
• United States Environmental Protection Agency, Learn About Asbestos, undated; read September 2026.
• United States Environmental Protection Agency, Protect Your Family from Exposures to Asbestos, undated; read September 2026.
• Ohio Laws and Administrative Rules, Ohio Revised Code Section 3710.02, Rules for asbestos hazard abatement, effective January 1, 2018; read September 2026.
• Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, Asbestos Abatement and Demolition, undated; read September 2026.
• Ohio Laws and Administrative Rules, Ohio Revised Code Section 3710.01, Asbestos abatement definitions, undated; read September 2026.
• United States Environmental Protection Agency, Overview of the Asbestos National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP), undated; read September 2026.
• Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, Asbestos Notification Requirements for Facility Demolition and Renovation or Abatement, May 2022; read September 2026.
• United States Environmental Protection Agency, Lead Test Kits, undated; read September 2026.

Common questions