How Much Does a Blower Door Test Cost in New Orleans and Metairie?

Ask three local companies what a blower door test costs, and you will get three different answers, and all three can be honest. The reason is that “blower door test” is not one product. It is the name of a piece of equipment that turns up in at least four different jobs, and those jobs are priced nothing like each other.

This page does not quote a price, and it is worth saying why rather than padding the page out. No government agency or trade body publishes a Louisiana figure for this test that is worth repeating, and a made-up range would be worse than none. What follows is the thing that is actually useful: what you are buying, what moves the number up and down in this market, and the questions that force two quotes into the same shape so you can compare them.

The four jobs below run in roughly ascending order of cost. A compliance test is the shortest visit and the cheapest. A diagnostic test takes longer and costs more. A blower door inside a full audit or a HERS rating sits higher again, because the test is one instrument in a larger piece of work. Knowing which of the four you are being quoted for is most of the answer to how much.

Four different jobs, one piece of equipment

Before you can compare prices, work out which of these you are being quoted for.

1. A code compliance test. A pass or fail number for a permit file. Louisiana’s energy code requires the building thermal envelope to be tested, with the result reported at 50 pascals using ANSI/RESNET/ICC 380, ASTM E779, or ASTM E1827. The deliverable is a certified result. The tester sets up, runs the fan, records the number, and writes the report. Nobody hunts for leaks.

2. A diagnostic test. The fan runs and stays running while a technician walks the house with a smoke pencil or an infrared camera to find where the air is getting in. The deliverable is a list of leak locations, usually with photographs. This takes far longer than a compliance test and costs more, and it is the version worth paying for if you intend to fix anything.

3. A blower door inside a full energy audit. Here the fan is one instrument among several. A full energy audit also looks at the ducts, the equipment, the insulation, and the bills. The test is bundled, so a separate line item may not exist.

4. A blower door is included in a HERS rating. A certified rater runs the test as part of scoring the whole house against a reference home. The rating is the product and the test is a required input.

A quote for the first job and a quote for the fourth are not the same purchase, and putting them side by side tells you nothing.

What moves the number in this market

Once you have fixed which job you are buying, these are the variables that change the price of it locally.

House volume and the number of zones. The fan has to depressurise everything inside the envelope. A shotgun single is one straightforward volume. A storey and a half with a knee wall attic, or a house with an unconditioned addition, may need more than one setup or more than one fan.

How the house sits off the ground. New Orleans has a lot of raised pier and beam construction. An open crawl space means the floor system is an exterior surface, and any diagnostic work underneath it is slower and dirtier than working in a slab house.

Preparation time. Combustion appliances have to be handled per the test standard so nothing gets backdrafted. Fireplaces with loose ash, window units, attic hatches and pet doors all add setup. A house that is ready when the technician arrives tests faster than one that is not.

Travel. A job in Lakeview and a job on the North Shore are not the same drive. Some companies fold travel into the rate, some add it, and some have a boundary past which they charge differently. Ask where you sit.

Whether a retest is included. If you are sealing or foaming after the test, the second number is the one that proves the work landed. A quote that includes the retest and a quote that does not can look identical until you read them.

What the report looks like. A single figure on a certificate and a photographed leak inventory with a prioritised repair list are different amounts of work.

Who is holding the manometer. Since 1 July 2024, Louisiana requires blower door testing to be performed by an individual certified to perform blower door tests by a nationally recognised organisation. Certification carries a cost, and it is not optional for a test that has to stand up in a permit file.

Eight questions that make two quotes comparable

Send these to every company you are considering. The answers are worth more than the headline figure.

1. Is this a compliance test, a diagnostic test, or part of an audit or rating?
2. Is the technician certified by a nationally recognised organisation, and which one?
3. Which test standard will you run, and will the result be reported at 50 pascals?
4. Will you report CFM50, ACH50 and cfm per square foot of enclosure area, or only one of them?
5. Does the fan stay running while you look for leaks, and do I get photographs?
6. Is a written report included, and can I see a sample before I book?
7. Is a retest after remedial work included, and for how long does that offer stand?
8. Is travel to my address inside your standard rate?

Question four matters more than it looks. ACH50 divides by the internal volume of the house, which penalises small homes, so a compact New Orleans cottage can post a worse ACH50 than a large suburban house with sloppier air sealing. The ACH50 explainer covers why, and why you should ask for both figures.

Routes that cost you nothing or very little

Before you pay for a test, check whether one of these applies to you.

Entergy New Orleans Energy Smart. The programme is live for Entergy New Orleans customers and covers home assessments alongside incentives on insulation, air sealing and duct sealing. What the assessment includes, what the incentive amounts are, and which households qualify for no-cost work are all things to confirm directly with the programme rather than from a blog post. Call 504-229-6868 and ask what is included before you book anything privately.

The Louisiana Weatherization Assistance Program. Administered through the Louisiana Housing Corporation, this programme assists households that qualify on income. The corporation states that household income determines the minimum requirements for assistance and that availability of the programme is not guaranteed. Additional waiting list points go to households with someone aged 60 or over, with children aged 17 or under, or with an established disability. Annual income levels by household size and the list of local providers are published on the corporation weatherization page, and they change by programme year, so work from that page rather than from a figure quoted elsewhere.

A builder or seller who already has the number. For new residential construction in Louisiana, the state requires an Insulation Certificate to be permanently posted in a utility area, and the certificate template lists blower door test results among the supplemental documents. If you are buying a recently built house, look in the utility room before you pay anyone.

Is the test worth paying for on an older house?

If the plan is to do nothing afterwards, a number on its own has limited value.

The test earns its money in two situations. The first is when you are about to spend real money on the envelope and want the work aimed at the largest holes rather than the most visible ones. Sealing the big bypasses first and insulating second gets more improvement per dollar than the reverse order, and the fan is how you find them.

The second is when you want proof. A before figure and an after figure, measured the same way by the same equipment, are the only honest evidence that air sealing worked. Without the before number, the after number is just a number.

There is also a trap worth knowing about in advance. Louisiana’s code requires that where a blower door test is performed and the infiltration rate comes in under 3 air changes per hour, the dwelling must be provided with whole-house mechanical ventilation. Spray foam is entirely capable of taking a house past that line, so the ventilation conversation belongs in the planning stage rather than after the foam is in place. Our guide to Louisiana’s blower door code requirements sets out who the rule applies to.

How to get a firm number, from us or anyone else

The variables above genuinely change the work, which is why a rate card would mislead you more often than it helped. The way to get a real figure is to make the request specific:

• Say which of the four jobs you want, and why you want it.
• Give the house: rough size, how it sits off the ground, how many storeys, and whether there is an unconditioned addition.
• Ask for the quote in writing before a date is booked.
• Ask whether a retest after remedial work is inside that quote or outside it.
• Ask what the written report will contain, and ask to see a sample.

Put the same five things to every company you approach and the quotes become comparable. Put none of them and you will get four numbers that are not measuring the same job.

For work that follows the test, the two service pages most people end up on are blower door testing and attic insulation. If the number is going to drive a decision between foam types, the comparison is in open cell versus closed cell insulation.

Frequently asked questions

Get a written quote for the right test

Star Spray Foam is based in New Orleans at the address below. Ask whether your address is inside the working area when you call. Tell us what you need the number for, ask for the version of the test that answers it, and ask for the quote in writing before anything is booked. Get in touch to start.

Star Spray Foam
5826 Louis XIV St, New Orleans, LA 70124
504-229-6500

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