Chip Gaines and Joanna Gaines have renovated tons of homes in their lifetime. It’s natural to wonder if they’ve ever run afoul of government regulations pertaining to home ownership. Well, the Fixer Upper stars were actually fined once by the EPA for $40,000. Let’s learn what happened, and what the couple did to remedy the situation.
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Studying Footage Of Chip Gaines
If Chip and Joanna Gaines were only renovators, the EPA never would have learned about their unsafe practices. Since they’re renovating homes on television, the Nixon-era agency had hundreds of hours of footage to study Chip at work. In 2018, it discovered numerous instances of the same issue.
The EPA learned the Gaines family were not minimizing lead paint exposure in 33 homes. They also failed to cover floors and vents to catch paint chips during removal. If you’re in the habit of binging Fixer Upper, keep an eye out during early seasons to try and spot the violations.
Springing To Action
As soon as the pair were notified of the violations, Chip and Joanna Gaines paid the $40,000 fine and announced they “took immediate steps” and “took a step further in its commitment to compliance.” It sounds like the pair went above the minimum after learning about their mistakes and risks.
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Above And Beyond
The pair pledged to spend an additional $160,000 on lead paint treatment in their neighborhood of Waco, Texas. In an episode of Fixer Upper after the fine, Chip Gaines took a moment to discuss testing for lead paint per the EPA rules and guidelines. A video was then posted to the Magnolia website as well.
That’s not all. Chip also tweeted a link to the EPA stressing the need seriousness of lead paint.
In a subsequent statement to People, a spokesperson for Magnolia Homes said “Additionally, to take its commitment a step further, Magnolia Homes made the decision to implement a compliance management program in which it adopted an enhanced renovation record-keeping checklist for use by Magnolia Homes staff and subcontractors.”
The Gaines family could easily have swept this issue under the rug. $40,000 is a drop in the bucket for the two, but they upped the ante to $200,000 total and did a lot of publicity to spread awareness of the serious issue. Lead paint is a serious problem, especially during pregnancy and for animals.