New Orleans presents painting contractors with a combination of challenges found nowhere else in North America: the city’s average humidity exceeds 70% year-round, its architecture spans nearly three centuries of construction styles, and the subtropical heat accelerates paint degradation at rates that would surprise painters from drier regions. The Creole cottages, double shotguns, and Greek Revival townhouses of neighborhoods like the Garden District, Tremé, and Bywater often feature original cypress wood siding, a rot-resistant species abundantly harvested from Louisiana’s forests in the nineteenth century, which requires a fundamentally different preparation approach than modern pine or composite siding. Painters working in New Orleans must also navigate the city’s historic preservation overlay zones, which in some districts require specific color palettes and surface treatments.
Local homeowners place particular emphasis on moisture management, as the combination of high humidity, periodic flooding from rain events, and the city’s below-sea-level topography in many neighborhoods creates persistent moisture infiltration at ground level. Painters with experience in plaster repair, a skill set specific to the older building stock, are in consistent demand across the historic districts.
Rufino’s Painting and Construction Inc.
Founded: 1990
Address: 5128 Timber Haven Ln, New Orleans, LA
Phone: (504) 915-6869
Website: https://rufinospainting.com
Services: Interior painting, exterior painting, roofing services, flooring installation, residential and commercial painting
Products Used: Not specified
Established on May 1, 1990, Rufino’s Painting and Construction has operated continuously in the New Orleans market for over three decades, building its reputation as the most experienced certified DBE (Disadvantaged Business Enterprise) residential and commercial painting contractor in Southeast Louisiana. The company’s completed project portfolio includes large institutional clients such as New Orleans Charter Science and Mathematics High School and the Terraces on Tulane, a 200-unit apartment complex developed by Volunteers of America. Their service scope extends to roofing and flooring alongside painting, positioning them as a comprehensive exterior rehabilitation contractor.
Keith Guy Inc.
Founded: 1983
Address: PO Box 50380, New Orleans, LA 70150
Phone: (504) 330-8466
Website: https://keithguyinc.net
Services: Interior painting, exterior painting, Venetian plaster, decorative glazes, historic restoration
Products Used: Not specified
The Guy family has practiced painting in New Orleans across four generations, with the craft traced back to journeymen painters who worked across the city’s historic districts beginning in 1983. Keith Guy Inc. positions itself as a luxury painting service with particular expertise in decorative and specialty finishes including Venetian plaster and decorative glazes, techniques that complement the architectural character of New Orleans’s older residential buildings. The company’s mission statement explicitly references the preservation of New Orleans’s architectural character alongside the cosmetic renewal of its homes, churches, and buildings.
JMA Painters
Founded: Not specified (approximately 18 years in operation)
Address: New Orleans, LA 70123
Phone: (504) 229-2083
Website: https://jmapainters.com
Services: Residential interior painting, exterior painting, commercial painting, drywall finishing and installation, historic restoration, waterproofing, water repellents, staining
Products Used: Not specified
JMA Painters operates from locations in both New Orleans and Lafayette, serving the Southeast Louisiana corridor with a combination of residential, commercial, and historic restoration capabilities. The company holds EPA certification for repair and repaint work on pre-1978 buildings, which covers a substantial portion of New Orleans’s housing stock. JMA is licensed by the Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors under license numbers 553923 and 56423, and carries BBB accreditation. Their historic restoration service line addresses the specific challenges of working on plaster, cypress, and other legacy materials found throughout the city’s nineteenth and early twentieth-century building inventory.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: How much does interior painting cost in New Orleans?
A: Interior painting in New Orleans typically runs between $2.50 and $5.00 per square foot for walls in moderate condition. Older homes with plaster walls requiring skim coating or crack repair before painting can push costs notably higher than standard drywall projects. A full interior repaint of a 1,200-square-foot shotgun house commonly falls in the $2,800 to $5,500 range, with specialty finishes like Venetian plaster or custom color mixing adding further cost.
Q: Do New Orleans painters need special certification to work on historic homes?
A: Contractors working on pre-1978 homes anywhere in Louisiana must follow EPA Renovation, Repair, and Painting guidelines governing lead paint disturbance, and those working in New Orleans’s regulated historic overlay districts should also be familiar with the Historic District Landmarks Commission’s requirements for materials and methods on contributing structures. Not all painting contractors have experience navigating HDLC review processes, so homeowners in regulated neighborhoods should ask specifically about that experience before hiring.
Q: How does New Orleans’s humidity affect how long exterior paint lasts?
A: Exterior paint in New Orleans typically requires recoating every four to six years on wood surfaces, compared to seven to ten years in a drier climate. The persistent humidity prevents paint from drying as completely as it would in low-humidity regions, and the subtropical sun causes UV degradation at an accelerated rate on exposed surfaces. North-facing and shaded surfaces often develop mildew faster than sun-exposed walls, and mildewcide additives or mildewcide-containing topcoats are standard recommendations across the local painting industry.
New Orleans’s painters who understand both the city’s preservation requirements and the chemistry of moisture-resistant coatings occupy a specialized position that few contractors outside of the Gulf South can match. The city’s continued investment in its historic neighborhoods creates steady demand for contractors skilled in the restoration and maintenance of buildings that serve as irreplaceable records of Louisiana’s architectural history.