Window replacement costs in Milwaukee

In Wisconsin, lead-safe window work answers to the state, not to EPA. EPA has handed that program to Wisconsin, one of a short list of states allowed to run lead-safe renovation in place of the federal rule. The state Department of Health Services certifies lead-safe renovators, and each one has to work under a certified lead company.

Windows get special attention in that rule. The department's guide for rental owners says paid renovation in a home built before 1978 is regulated when it disturbs 6 square feet of paint in a room, 20 square feet outside, or involves window removal. For windows there's no size threshold at all. Taking one out is enough.

That reaches a big share of Milwaukee. By Census figures, more than eight of every ten city houses date from before 1980, and roughly a third from before 1940.

Wisconsin's statewide dwelling code mostly governs the newer houses. The Uniform Dwelling Code covers one- and two-family homes built since June 1, 1980, and its energy chapter dates from December 1, 1978. Alterations to those homes have to follow it. Most Milwaukee houses are older than that, so the dwelling code's alteration rule doesn't reach them the way it reaches a house from the 1990s.