Lead Paint Inspection
A lead paint inspection applies to Oregon homes built before 1978, sits outside the home inspection as an environmental hazard, and needs a certified assessor.
A lead-based paint inspection or risk assessment covers housing built before the 1978 federal ban on residential lead paint. OAR 812-008-0204 excludes environmental hazards from the home inspection, so it is a separate engagement by a certified assessor. Oregon-specific certification details are in verification.
Inspection, risk assessment, and the difference
A lead inspection identifies where lead paint is present. A risk assessment identifies where it is a hazard, meaning deteriorating, on friction surfaces, or in dust and soil.
Buyers of pre-1978 houses with children or renovation plans usually want the assessment, because intact paint is managed differently from a hazard.
What the home inspection does instead
The certified inspector reports visible paint condition as part of interiors and exterior categories, and stops there. Determining lead content is an environmental hazard question excluded by OAR 812-008-0204.
Housing-era data on the city pages shows how much pre-1978 stock each place carries. That is the practical screen before ordering a test.
Asked and answered
Through a certified lead inspector or risk assessor, who uses an XRF analyser or laboratory paint-chip analysis. The Oregon home inspection will not do it: OAR 812-008-0204 excludes determining environmental hazards. Age is the screen, since residential lead paint was banned federally in 1978. The city pages here show how much pre-1978 housing each place has.
Before 1978, when the federal ban on residential lead paint took effect. The older the house, the higher the likelihood and the lead content. In Oregon that includes most of the pre-war housing in Portland, Salem and the valley towns. Housing-era figures appear on the city pages of this site. A certified assessor confirms; the home inspection does not test.
No Oregon agency publishes a price for lead remediation or for the inspection that precedes it. The cost depends on whether the assessment finds intact paint, which is managed, or a hazard, which is abated. Get the risk assessment first, because it defines the scope a contractor prices. This site prints no market figure it cannot source.
Questions are taken verbatim from live Google People Also Ask results for this inspection type. Answers rest on Oregon rule text and the records cited above.