Irving Lead Paint Removal provides lead paint removal and lead abatement in Farmers Branch, along with lead risk assessments, paint testing before demolition or remodeling, and dust cleaning with clearance testing. Whether the job is a rental between tenants or a 1950s house about to be gutted, we start by finding out which surfaces carry lead-based paint and whether any of it is a hazard today.
Farmers Branch had 915 residents in 1950 and 13,441 in 1960, as new residents arrived who commuted to Dallas (Wikipedia). About 31% of its homes predate 1970 and about 58% of occupied homes are rented, although roughly half of all housing in the city has been built since 2000 (ACS 2020–2024).
1950s ranch house in Farmers Branch, about 1,400 sq ft
Original request
Know what the demolition crew is dealing with before the house comes down
Inspection
Every type of painted part read with a handheld analyzer; lab chips where a reading is unclear
Found
Lead paint on the exterior trim, the fascia and the kitchen cabinets; none on the interior walls
Report
A written list of what tests positive and what does not
Estimated cost
$520
In this example, the owners of a 1950s ranch house in Farmers Branch plan to tear it down and build a new home on the lot. Before they sign with a demolition contractor, they want to know which painted parts of the house carry lead paint.
A Farmers Branch house from the 1950s may carry its original painted wood trim, interior doors and wood windows under later coats, and the exterior trim and fascia can still hold early paint even on a brick house. Interiors can also hide lead paint under wallpaper or paneling added later. A lead risk assessment shows which of those surfaces are hazards in a lived-in house.
Before demolition or a rebuild
Tearing down part or all of a pre-1978 house disturbs every painted surface at once. EPA counts demolition of painted surfaces as renovation regardless of size, so a paid crew needs RRP certification and lead-safe practices unless testing shows the paint is not lead-based. Testing before demolition, or before gutting the interior for a rebuild, tells the contractor what containment the job needs.
Rental houses with a city license
About 9,100 occupied homes in Farmers Branch are rented. A 2021 city form says a rental needs a valid single-family or short-term rental license before a certificate of occupancy issues, and a new certificate, with an inspection, is required whenever tenants change. Federal lead disclosure applies at each new lease of pre-1978 housing too. Our rental property lead hazard control page covers turnover repairs.
Interior abatement and clearance
When lead-based paint needs to come out of a house for good, interior lead paint abatement by a DSHS-certified firm removes or encloses it, and clearance testing confirms the rooms are clean before anyone moves back in. For the cleaning and lab step on its own, see lead dust cleaning and clearance testing.
Farmers Branch homes from the 1950s
Farmers Branch, just north of Dallas, incorporated in 1946. Between 1950 and 1960 its population grew more than fourteenfold, and by 1970 it had reached 27,492. Wikipedia describes it as an inner-ring Dallas suburb. Today’s housing survey puts roughly 2,100 standing homes in the 1950s bracket, 3,100 in the 1960s and only 1,300 in the 1970s, so about four in five of its pre-1980 homes come from those two postwar decades, well before the 1978 cutoff.
Since then the city has added a large amount of new housing; about 51% of its homes date from 2000 or later. Newer apartments and townhomes fall outside the federal lead rules, and that leaves the older single-family streets and early apartment buildings as the places to check.
The city’s Residential Programs page lists a Demo/Rebuild Program that offers incentives to tear down an older home and build a new one, a Neighborhood Partnership Program, and a Replacement Housing Program for income-qualified owners in Valwood Park that Dallas County runs. None of them mentions lead paint, and we make no claim about eligibility or amounts. A demolition under the Demo/Rebuild Program is still covered by EPA’s renovation rule when the house predates 1978, so lead testing belongs in the plan before the teardown is scheduled.
The city established Farmers Branch Historical Park in 1981, and it opened five years later. Its centerpiece, the Gilbert House, was built in 1856 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988. The park’s buildings are museum structures rather than homes, so they are context rather than part of what we do, but they show how far back building in the area goes, long before the subdivisions that make up most of its older housing today.
Do I need lead testing before tearing down an old house?
Testing is not legally required, but unless you have documentation that the paint in a pre-1978 house is not lead-based, EPA’s RRP rule applies, and it covers demolition of painted surfaces whatever its size. The demolition crew then needs certification, containment and cleanup. If testing shows no lead-based paint on the surfaces involved, those requirements fall away for them.
Are 1950s Farmers Branch homes likely to have lead paint?
They are old enough to fall under the federal lead rules, and Texas DSHS treats pre-1978 housing as presumed to contain lead-based paint until testing shows otherwise. Whether a particular house still has it depends on what has been repainted, replaced or covered since. A paint inspection settles it surface by surface.
Does a Farmers Branch rental need a lead disclosure?
For any rental house finished before 1978, it does, because the federal disclosure rule follows the building’s age rather than the city. The paperwork goes with every new tenant, not only the first one. The city’s rental license and certificate of occupancy are a separate track, and neither city document we read mentions lead.
Who do I call about the certificate of occupancy?
The 2021 city form directs applicants to Farmers Branch Code Enforcement at (972) 919-1414. The form is several years old, so confirm current requirements with the city before a move-in date is set.
Over in Tarrant County, Euless grew a decade later than Farmers Branch, mainly in the 1960s; see lead paint removal in Euless for its housing and rentals.
Request a free lead paint removal quote
Tell us the Farmers Branch address, roughly when the house was built and what is planned: a rental turnover, a remodel, a demolition or a test of peeling paint. We'll get back to you soon with an estimate or any questions we have. Estimates are free and there's no obligation.
