Louisiana moved its contractor licensing thresholds twice in two years. A residential or commercial license is now required at $50,000 or more, down from $75,000, under Acts 2024 No. 178 and Acts 2025 No. 422. Home improvement registration starts at $7,500. A handbook still circulating from the licensing board, marked current only through the 2022 session, carries the old figure. Check the date on whatever you are shown.
| Service | Typical |
|---|---|
| Auto repair shop labor rateLouisiana average | $132 per hour |
| Attorney hourly rateLouisiana average | $245 per hour |
Ranges last checked September 2026. They come down automatically when they are due to be rechecked.
Every figure above comes from a named source we can link to, with the date we last checked it. We publish ranges rather than single prices because a range is what a provider will actually give you: the same job moves with what is being worked on, the materials, how hard it is to get at and how busy the trade is locally. Treat these as the order of magnitude to expect before you call, not as a quote.
Where a source publishes figures state by state, this page shows the figure for this state rather than a national average. Where no state-level source exists, it shows the national range and the local factors that move a job within it. We do not scale a national number by a multiplier of our own invention.
Every range carries a review date. When that date passes the number comes down until it is rechecked, rather than sitting here undated.
La. R.S. 37:2150.1 carries the definitions the Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors works from. As amended by Acts 2024 No. 178 and again by Acts 2025 No. 422, a residential contractor license is required where the project value is fifty thousand dollars or more, and a commercial contractor license at the same figure. Home improvement contractor registration starts at seven thousand five hundred dollars.
Fifty thousand replaced seventy-five thousand. The 2024 Act made that change in terms, striking seventy-five thousand dollars and substituting fifty thousand dollars or greater, and the 2025 Act amended the section again with an effective date of 1 August 2025.
The practical consequence is a window in which published guidance disagrees with the statute. A handbook still in circulation from the licensing board, marked current only through the 2022 Regular Session, carries the superseded seventy-five thousand dollar figure. A job priced at sixty thousand dollars falls on opposite sides of the line depending which document you are reading. The statute is the one that decides.
The New Home Warranty Act, R.S. 9:3141 and following, sets three periods on a new home rather than leaving them to the contract. One year against defects arising from noncompliance with the building standards. Two years on the plumbing, electrical, heating, cooling and ventilating systems, excluding appliances, fixtures and equipment. Five years against major structural defects.
Two things this page does not state, because the sections carrying them were not read. When the clock starts is defined separately at R.S. 9:3143, and the owner's deadline to notify the builder in writing sits at R.S. 9:3145. Both matter, and both are worth asking a builder to point at in the statute rather than describe from memory.
The table above carries the two Louisiana figures with a per-state source: shop labor for auto repair, and attorney time. Shop labor sits exactly on the national figure, which is unusual enough to be worth noting. Attorney time sits a little below the national median.
Ask which credential the job needs at its actual price, and check the date on whatever the contractor shows you. Fifty thousand and seven thousand five hundred are the two numbers that matter now. Seventy-five thousand is not.
Verify the license or registration with the board rather than from a certificate. Where the rule has changed twice in two years, a document is only as good as its date.
On a new home, ask the builder to identify the warranty commencement date in writing. The statute defines it, the contract does not get to, and the one-year, two-year and five-year clocks all run from it.
Put any warranty complaint in writing early. There is a statutory notice duty on the owner, and a phone call is not it.
At a project value of $50,000 or more, for both residential and commercial work, under La. R.S. 37:2150.1 as amended by Acts 2024 No. 178 and Acts 2025 No. 422.
It was. The 2024 Act struck seventy-five thousand dollars and substituted fifty thousand dollars or greater. Guidance published before that change still shows the old figure.
From a project value of $7,500. That is a separate registration from the contractor license.
R.S. 9:3144 sets one year against defects from noncompliance with the building standards, two years on plumbing, electrical, heating, cooling and ventilating systems, and five years against major structural defects.
No. The two-year period covers the systems but excludes appliances, fixtures and equipment.
R.S. 9:3143 defines the warranty commencement date. This page does not state it, because that section was not read. Ask the builder to point at it.