6.1 Deteriorated Paint and Paint in Poor Condition
Key Takeaways
- Deteriorated paint (40 CFR 745.223) is paint that is cracking, flaking, chipping, peeling, or otherwise separating from the substrate — a condition, not a square-footage test.
- Paint in poor condition (745.223) is a quantity rule: more than 2 ft² of deteriorated paint on interior large components (walls, ceilings, floors, doors); more than 10 ft² on exterior large components; or more than 10 percent of the total surface area on interior or exterior small components (window sills, baseboards, soffits, trim).
- Any deteriorated lead-based paint in or on a residential building or child-occupied facility is a paint-lead hazard under 40 CFR 745.227(h)(2)(iv) and 745.65(a)(4). Do not wait for the 2 ft² / 10 ft² / 10% poor-condition numbers before treating deteriorated LBP as a hazard.
- A lead hazard screen tests deteriorated surfaces that are in poor condition; a full risk assessment tests all visibly deteriorated paint. After abatement, deteriorated painted surfaces and visible dust, debris, or residue must be eliminated before dust sampling (745.227(e)(8)(i)).
Two definitions that the exam will try to collapse
Quick Answer: Deteriorated paint is paint that is cracking, flaking, chipping, peeling, or otherwise separating from the substrate of a building component (40 CFR 745.223). Paint in poor condition is deteriorated paint that exceeds 2 square feet on interior large components, 10 square feet on exterior large components, or 10 percent of the total surface area of an interior or exterior small component. Any deteriorated lead-based paint in or on a residential building or child-occupied facility is a paint-lead hazard (745.227(h)(2)(iv)). Poor condition is a quantity trigger used in screens and HUD-style sizing. It is not the on/off switch for a paint-lead hazard.
Chapter 5 defined lead-based paint and the three hazard families (paint, dust, soil). This section is what you do with your eyes on a walkthrough. You are not the risk assessor, and you will not take the XRF. You still have to recognize deteriorated coatings, size them against the poor-condition rule, and know when that coating is already a paint-lead hazard even if it is smaller than 2 ft².
Deteriorated paint is a condition
Deteriorated paint means paint that is cracking, flaking, chipping, peeling, or otherwise separating from the substrate of a building component (745.223). The substrate is the wood, plaster, drywall, metal, or masonry under the film. If the film is no longer a continuous, attached coating, it is deteriorated. A hairline crack that has opened, a flake hanging from a sash, a chip on a stair riser, and a sheet of peeling clapboard are the same legal category.
Intact paint is not deteriorated paint. A glossy, well-adhered 1950s enamel on a door that has never been nicked is lead-based paint if it meets 1.0 mg/cm² or 0.5% by weight, but it is not deteriorated. Intact LBP can still be a friction-surface paint-lead hazard (Section 6.2) if the surface is being abraded and the dust underneath meets 745.65(b). Intact LBP is not a 745.227(h)(2)(iv) "any other deteriorated LBP" hazard.
Subpart D (745.63) adds chalking to its deteriorated-paint list: peeling, chipping, chalking, or cracking, or any coating otherwise damaged or separated from the substrate. Chalking is the binder breaking down into a powder you can wipe off with a finger. Subpart L's 745.223 list does not use the word chalking, but chalking is "otherwise separating" in the field and it generates dust. Treat a chalking exterior as deteriorated for walkthrough purposes, and read the risk-assessment report to see how the assessor classified it.
Paint in poor condition is a quantity
Paint in poor condition means (745.223):
| Where the paint sits | What "large" vs "small" means | Poor-condition trigger |
|---|---|---|
| Interior components with large surface areas | Walls, ceilings, floors, doors (the regulation's own examples) | More than 2 square feet of deteriorated paint |
| Exterior components with large surface areas | Siding, large wall planes, big painted assemblies | More than 10 square feet of deteriorated paint |
| Interior or exterior components with small surface areas | Window sills, baseboards, soffits, trim (the regulation's own examples) | More than 10 percent of the total surface area of the component is deteriorated |
Memorize the triad as 2 / 10 / 10%. Interior large is the strict square-footage number. Exterior large is five times larger because a clapboard wall is a bigger canvas. Small components switch from square feet to a percentage of that component, because 2 ft² of peel on a 1 ft² sill would be a meaningless test — the sill would have to be fully failed twice.
Size the deteriorated area, not the whole wall, unless the whole wall is failed. A 12-by-10-foot living-room wall is 120 ft²; if 3 ft² is peeling, you compare 3 to the 2 ft² interior-large trigger, not 120. For a small component you compare the deteriorated patch to that component's total area, not to the room.
Worked examples — one peeling door versus an entire clapboard wall
| What you see | Component class | Arithmetic | Poor condition? | Paint-lead hazard if it is LBP? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Entire interior door face peeling (typical 3 ft × 7 ft door ≈ 21 ft²) | Interior large (doors are named) | 21 > 2 | Yes | Yes — deteriorated LBP |
| One 8-inch by 8-inch chip at the bottom of an interior door (≈ 0.44 ft²) | Interior large | 0.44 is not more than 2 | No | Yes — still deteriorated LBP |
| Living-room wall with 1.5 ft² of peeling LBP | Interior large | 1.5 is not more than 2 | No | Yes |
| Living-room wall with 3 ft² of peeling LBP | Interior large | 3 > 2 | Yes | Yes |
| Entire clapboard wall, 12 ft² of scattered peeling | Exterior large | 12 > 10 | Yes | Yes |
| Same clapboard wall, 6 ft² of peeling | Exterior large | 6 is not more than 10 | No | Yes |
| Interior window sill 36 in × 4 in (1.0 ft²) with 0.15 ft² of peel | Small (window sills named) | 15% > 10% | Yes | Yes |
| Same sill with a 1-inch nick (≈ 0.03 ft²) | Small | 3% is not more than 10% | No | Yes if the nick is deteriorated LBP |
| Baseboard run 20 ft × 4 in (≈ 6.7 ft²) with 0.8 ft² of peel | Small (baseboards named) | ≈ 12% > 10% | Yes | Yes |
The exam loves the peeling door and the clapboard wall because both feel "big" in English and they sit in different rows of the table. An entire failed door is a large interior component measured against 2 ft², not against the 10 ft² exterior number. An entire clapboard elevation is a large exterior component measured against 10 ft². A supervisor who applies 2 ft² to the outside of the house will call a 6 ft² exterior failure "poor condition" when the regulation does not. A supervisor who applies 10 ft² to an interior wall will miss a 3 ft² interior failure.
Poor condition is not the paint-lead hazard switch
745.227(h)(2)(iv) (and 745.65(a)(4) in the same words) is the field rule you cannot sand down: a paint-lead hazard is present if there is any other deteriorated lead-based paint in any residential building or child-occupied facility or on the exterior of any residential building or child-occupied facility.
Read "any other" after the friction, chewable, and impact bullets in Section 6.2. Those three special surfaces have extra tests. Everything else with deteriorated LBP is already a hazard. There is no 2 ft² grace amount in 745.227(h)(2)(iv). The 1.5 ft² peeling living-room wall is a paint-lead hazard the moment the coating is LBP and deteriorated. It is simply not "paint in poor condition."
Why does poor condition exist at all? Because lead hazard screens and some HUD sizing rules use it as a testing gate, not as a hazard definition.
- Lead hazard screen (745.227(c)(2)(iii)): if deteriorated paint is present, each surface with deteriorated paint that is determined, using documented methodologies, to be in poor condition and to have a distinct painting history shall be tested for lead. A screen can leave a 1.5 ft² interior patch untested because it is not poor condition. That is a screen limitation. It is not a finding that the patch is safe.
- Full risk assessment (745.227(d)(4)): test each friction or impact surface with visibly deteriorated paint, and all other surfaces with visibly deteriorated paint. The RA does not wait for 2 / 10 / 10%.
- 745.65(d) work-practice de minimis (treating paint-lead hazards of less than 2 ft² per room, 20 ft² exterior, or 10 percent of a small-component type) is a third number set. So is the dry-scrape restriction in 745.227(e)(6)(iii) (no more than 2 ft² in any one room, hallway, or stairwell, or 20 ft² exterior). Do not swap those 2 / 20 / 10% figures for the 2 / 10 / 10% poor-condition definition. Interior large poor condition is 2 ft², not 2 ft² per room. Exterior poor condition is 10 ft², not 20.
| Rule | Numbers | What it decides |
|---|---|---|
| Paint in poor condition (745.223) | 2 ft² interior large / 10 ft² exterior large / 10% small | Extent of deterioration; screen testing gate |
| Paint-lead hazard — other deteriorated LBP (745.227(h)(2)(iv)) | Any deteriorated LBP | Hazard yes or no |
| 745.65(d) work-practice floor | 2 ft²/room / 20 ft² exterior / 10% small-component type | When certain work-practice rules apply to treating a paint-lead hazard |
| Dry scrape limit (745.227(e)(6)(iii)) | 2 ft²/room / 20 ft² exterior | When dry scraping is even allowed |
Two visual inspections, two jobs
745.223 defines two different visual inspections. Mixing them fails items about clearance.
Visual inspection for risk assessment means the visual examination of a residential dwelling or child-occupied facility to determine the existence of deteriorated lead-based paint or other potential sources of lead-based paint hazards. 745.227(d)(2) adds the work: locate deteriorated paint, assess the extent and causes of the deterioration, and other potential LBP hazards. Causes matter: is this moisture behind a failed eave, friction on a sash, impact from a knob, or ordinary aging? The certified risk assessor performs this inspection. You read the report (Chapter 7) and you still walk the unit yourself.
Visual inspection for abatement-related testing means the visual examination of a residential dwelling or child-occupied facility following an abatement to determine whether the abatement has been successfully completed. 745.227(e)(8)(i) is the operational sentence: following an abatement, a visual inspection shall be performed to determine if deteriorated painted surfaces and/or visible amounts of dust, debris or residue are still present. If they are present, these conditions must be eliminated prior to the continuation of the post-abatement testing procedures. A certified inspector or risk assessor does that visual. The supervisor cannot self-clear. The supervisor can fail a sloppy cleanup on a pre-clearance walk so the inspector is not the first person to see chips in the corner.
| Visual | Who | When | Looking for | Fail consequence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Risk assessment | Certified risk assessor | Before you write the work | Deteriorated LBP and other potential hazards; extent and causes | Report identifies hazards; you still have to see them in the field |
| Abatement-related testing | Certified inspector or risk assessor | After cleanup, before dust wipes | Remaining deteriorated paint and/or visible dust, debris, residue | Stop. Eliminate. Then sample. Do not wipe a dirty room. |
Daily walkthroughs after the report is already in the truck
Chapter 7 is how you interpret inspection and risk-assessment reports. Those reports are a snapshot. Paint keeps failing after the assessor leaves. A supervisor still recognizes hazards on daily walks:
- New deterioration inside containment: a sash that was intact on Monday is flaking on Wednesday because the crew has been working it. That is new deteriorated paint. It is a paint-lead hazard if it is LBP. It is also a clearance problem if it is still there at visual.
- Containment breaches that expose unabated deteriorated paint or dump dust into a living area. Living area, under 745.223, is any area of a residential dwelling used by one or more children under age 6.
- Visible paint chips on the dripline after exterior work. 745.227(e)(8)(v)(C) requires a visual after exterior paint abatement; if paint chips are present on the dripline or next to the foundation below any exterior surface abated, they must be removed from the site and properly disposed of. Do not leave a "we'll get them at final" pile along the foundation overnight on an occupied property.
Field habit. On every interior walk, look at walls, ceilings, floors, and doors for more than 2 ft² of failure, and look at sills, baseboards, and trim for more than 10 percent failure — then remind yourself that any deteriorated LBP is already a hazard. On every exterior walk, look for more than 10 ft² of failure on large planes and for chips on the dripline. Size it. Photograph it. Do not wait for the inspector to discover it.
Under 40 CFR 745.223, when is paint in poor condition?
A living-room wall has 1.5 square feet of peeling paint that tested as lead-based paint. Which statement is correct?
Following interior abatement, the certified inspector's visual inspection finds remaining deteriorated painted surfaces and visible dust. What does 40 CFR 745.227(e)(8)(i) require before dust sampling continues?