Exterior paint costs in New Orleans

In the French Quarter, you need a permit to paint your house. The Vieux Carré Commission requires one for all outside painting on private property, even on a wall nobody can see from the street. You send photos and paint chips with the maker, color name and sheen. Touch-ups don't need a permit; large jobs do. The permit also rules out elastomeric and ceramic coatings, sealers, water repellents and rotary sanders.

Outside the Quarter, the bigger issue across New Orleans is age. More than 6 in 10 homes in the metro were built before 1980, and about 13 percent before 1940. By EPA's estimate, most homes built before 1978 still hold some lead paint somewhere, and a painter you hire to scrape a house that old has to carry EPA lead-safe certification. On a wood shotgun or a raised cottage with layers of old paint, careful scraping is where the time goes.

Then there's the water. The annual rain total here runs past 60 inches. Wood that stays damp lets paint blister and peel from behind. A painter who finds and fixes where the water gets in, at a gutter, a sill or a rotted board, is doing the part of the job that makes the new paint last.