PHOTO BY LAURA PETRILLA

Renee Rosensteel is excited about lead paint abatement. She acknowledges it’s not something many people would get excited about. But Rosensteel approaches every facet of her new career with enthusiasm, even when it involves donning personal protective equipment and figuring out how to dispose of wastewater.

“That’s the thing, either you love it or you don’t want anything to do with that,” she says. “I wouldn’t trade it.”

Rosensteel, 60, purchased her first property in 2010, thinking it would be a good retirement plan for herself and her husband, WESA-FM cultural reporter Bill O’Driscoll. But when the COVID-19 pandemic shut down much of Allegheny County’s businesses and social events in mid-March 2020, work for her freelance photography career came to a halt. Construction became her full-time occupation.

A general contractor, Rosensteel only received her lead paint abatement certification within the last few months. It required completing a four-day course and passing a state exam; she had to convince members of her crew to take days out of the field to complete their own two-day course.

“People around me are just like so sick of hearing about lead paint abatement,” she says, “but you have to really pay attention in this course.

“In construction, people have to be really focused. You have to know … what the hazards are. Construction is truly the most dangerous job you can get into.”

Rosensteel, who lives in Manchester, works primarily on single-family homes, mostly in Allegheny County. She started out working with Action Housing’s Whole-Home Repairs Program, which helps eligible county residents obtain up to $50,000 to make significant repairs to their homes. Daniel Sullivan, Action Housing’s manager of housing stabilization programs, says when Rosensteel came in for onboarding, staff members knew she was a perfect fit.

“She’s really a breath of fresh air in the contractor space,” he says. “First off, you don’t see a lot of women-owned businesses in construction spaces, and we take extra care in Action Housing to bring in smaller [Women and Minority Business Enterprises].”

Rosensteel, he says, looks beyond just the construction aspect of a project.

“She’s got all the knowledge, she’s got all the skillsets, but she approaches the work through such a human lens,” he says. “It’s about really working with the homeowner and us to figure out what is needed … We’re dealing with houses in significant duress.

“She handles everything with such grace and kindness that I think really positively affects the homeowner … They feel they’ve had a good experience.”

Rosensteel is cognizant that she’s working in a man’s world but says it’s also a world where people help out others in the field, much like photography.

On a gray January day, she ambles through Specialty Products and Insulation inside an old warehouse in Braddock. A global company, SPI offers everything one would need in the abatement and disaster response industries, safety equipment, and supplies for environmental clean-up, from caution tape to protective suits to air filters. The owner, who’s been in the business for decades, guides her through the warehouse to show her what she’ll need for her first lead abatement project.

The use of lead-based paint, which is harmful to children’s developing brains, was banned in homes in 1978, but in homes built before 1978, contractors must follow lead-safe work practices. Some contractors, like Rosensteel, are certified in removing the paint safely.

“Wire brushes?” he asks her.

“Yep,” she replies.

“You’ve got them?” he asks.

“I have two of them. Should I get more?” she asks, reaching out a hand to inspect them. “Yours are probably better than mine.” She agrees she could use a few of the smaller sizes. Each item he offers and each question he asks are met with a mixture of curiosity and enthusiasm.

She says she’s one of a handful of contractors in Allegheny County certified in lead paint abatement, and she toys with the idea of a certification for asbestos removal, a cancer-causing material once commonly used in building materials.

“I felt like getting into contracting was a pivot, and now it’s like pivots and pivots and pivots,” she says.

She says she works around 60-80 hours a week, constantly fielding calls from her crew members or clients, running trips to hardware stores and doing the actual construction labor on sites.

“The work falls in line with what I want to do with my life because this is making homes safe for people. That’s what I want to do. That’s what I value,” she says.

“I’ve always had a very strong need to volunteer and to do work that’s meaningful to people on the planet.”

Renee Rosensteel has contributed freelance photography to Pittsburgh Magazine in the past.