TL;DR: Harmony Painting is now an EPA Lead-Safe Certified Firm. The certification was issued July 23, 2026 and is valid through August 6, 2031. It authorizes our team to perform renovation, repair, and painting work in pre-1978 homes and child-occupied facilities under the EPA’s RRP Rule. In a city where roughly 70 percent of homes were built before the 1978 lead paint ban, this matters for nearly every older neighborhood we serve. Here’s what the certification covers, why we pursued it, and what it means for your next paint project.
We have some news we’re genuinely proud of: Harmony Painting has been certified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as a Lead-Safe Certified Firm. The certification was issued on July 23, 2026 and is valid through August 6, 2031. If you caught the announcement in the news last week, this post is the longer, plainer-English version, because a credential like this deserves more explanation than a press release allows.
What the certification actually is
The EPA issues the Lead-Safe Certified Firm credential under its Renovation, Repair and Painting (RRP) Rule. Federal law requires that any firm disturbing paint in homes built before 1978, as well as in childcare facilities and schools, be certified and follow specific lead-safe work practices: containing the work area, minimizing dust, and cleaning up thoroughly with HEPA equipment rather than a broom and a shrug. Harmony Painting is certified for purposes of Section 402 of the Toxic Substances Control Act, and the certification is valid in all EPA-administered states, tribes, and territories.
If you want to verify it yourself (and honestly, you should verify this for any contractor you hire for an older home), you can look us up in the EPA’s Lead-Safe Certified Firm database. We wrote a full guide to lead paint in Denver’s historic homes earlier this month if you want the deeper background on how lead paint behaves and what the law requires.
Why this matters so much in Denver specifically
Denver is an old-housing city. The City of Denver estimates that around 70 percent of the housing stock predates 1978, the year the federal government banned lead-based paint for residential use. Think about the neighborhoods where our crews spend most of their time: the Victorians of Capitol Hill and Baker, the brick bungalows of Platt Park and Wash Park, the Denver Squares around Congress Park, the mid-century ranches of Lakewood and Arvada. Most of those homes carry older paint layers somewhere under the current finish, and the older the layer, the higher the likely lead content.
Intact lead paint under sound modern layers is generally not a hazard. The danger shows up when old paint is sanded, scraped, or otherwise disturbed and releases lead dust, which is especially harmful to young children. That’s exactly what a repaint can do when it’s handled carelessly. Certified firms are trained to keep that from happening.
What changes for our customers
Honestly, less than you might think, and that’s the point. Our crews have followed careful containment and cleanup practices on older homes for years because it’s the right way to work. As our founder Spencer Melfi put it in the announcement: “This certification formalizes the careful preparation we have always believed in. Families can hire us for an older home knowing the work will be done to the federal standard.”
What the certification adds is verification. You no longer have to take our word for it. When you’re comparing painters for a pre-1978 home, you can check the EPA database, see Harmony Painting listed, and know the crew showing up understands containment, dust control, and cleanup at the level federal law requires. In our experience, asking a painter about RRP compliance is one of the fastest ways to separate professionals from everyone else. Now you can skip the question and just check the list.
What lead-safe work looks like on your project
If your home predates 1978 and we’re repainting it, here’s what you’ll actually see. On exteriors: heavy plastic sheeting on the ground extending well out from the wall, wet-scraping instead of clouds of dry dust, and HEPA vacuums at cleanup. On interiors: sealed work areas, covered floors, and a finish clean that ends with HEPA vacuuming and wet-wiping. It’s a slower way to work, and it’s the only responsible one. Slow down now so the results last for years. That’s been our family rule on every job, and on older homes it carries extra weight.
The certification covers the full range of what we do: interior painting, exterior painting, and commercial work throughout Denver and the surrounding communities we serve, including Arvada, Aurora, Boulder, Castle Rock, Centennial, Highlands Ranch, Lakewood, Thornton, and Westminster.
Thinking about painting an older home?
If your house was built before 1978 and it’s due for paint, don’t let the lead question scare you off. A sound, professionally applied paint system is exactly what keeps old layers safely encapsulated and your original woodwork protected from Denver’s sun and freeze-thaw swings. The right move is simply to hire a certified firm that treats the prep with the respect it deserves. We’d be glad to be that firm.
Planning a paint project in a pre-1978 home?
Get an instant ballpark estimate, then let’s talk about doing it the lead-safe way.
Questions about our EPA certification? Call 720-450-2907 and we’ll give you straight answers.
Spencer Melfi has been painting Denver homes since 2011 and has led Harmony Painting for more than a decade. Harmony Painting is an EPA Lead-Safe Certified Firm, BBB accredited, Team Dave Logan approved, and holds a 4.9-star rating across 255+ Google reviews.