Thats great narrative Joshua for education for all. By the way I am in California where you have to be certified through the State to test for lead paint but that does not stop inspectors (even internachi members) because the Realtors and labs in CA dont care if your certified or not, just send in the samples. But if you follow the rules you should be certified, unfortunately i loose a few inspections because I am careful and the Realtors will do with inspector who does it. Let the Realtor go to Home Depot and do the lead testing sample kit. But those who are reading, take Joshuas statement as wisdom.
About ten years ago, I had a hyper concerned client about lead paint. They hired a gal with a XRF. She charged by the test spot. She tested most of the major walls in this small house and her fee was about $500. Her XRF cost her $20K. That’s when I thought that I’d pass on offering that service. Don’t hang your hat on the reliability of swabs. It may be that all swabs are not equal, but the one time I tried them, I got conflicting results with them on the same surface.
it wasn’t a swab but a lab test and i think it was $40 and not $25. asbestos and lead was 40 and mold was 25. that was the lab guy that i asked about the testing. he said it’s all lead if it’s a commercial building before 1978 and had been painted at all. good advice though, swabs are shit for lead testing.