New Jersey painting contractor marketing that reaches landlords before the lead inspection
A free plan that puts your HIC number everywhere the state expects it, builds an offer for landlords facing rental lead inspections and times exterior ads to each region's cold nights.
- Each ad, truck, estimate and invoice read for the HIC number and the Consumer Affairs line
- A landlord page and outreach timed to tenant turnover and two-year lead-safe certificates
- Exterior ads switched on and off by region, with the Atlantic City area first in the fall
- An honest evaluation, with no obligation to hire us
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The 60-second version
- New Jersey's home improvement rules name painting, so a painter who works on homes registers and prints the HIC number on ads, documents and both sides of each truck.
- Rentals built before 1978 are inspected for lead every three years or at tenant turnover, and a failed unit must be fixed, which makes landlords a market with deadlines.
- Abatement and inspection belong to state-certified firms, so an EPA-certified painter sells lead-safe repair and repainting and keeps those two words out of its ads.
- Overnight lows fall sooner near Atlantic City and Trenton than in Newark, so exterior ads should switch to interiors region by region in the fall.
HIC lines, lead rules and VOC limits for New Jersey painters
- Painting counts as home improvement
- The state's registration rules name painting, so a residential painter registers before advertising
- Where the HIC number goes
- Every ad, contract and letter to a customer, and both sides of each work truck in letters an inch high (display rule)
- Rentals built before 1978
- Inspected for lead paint hazards every three years or at tenant turnover, and a lead-safe certificate lasts two years (DCA)
- When a rental fails
- The owner fixes the hazard by abatement or hazard control under the lead-safe law, or risks up to $1,000 a week after 30 days
- Paint you apply for pay
- Covered by the state's VOC rule, and a crew may not thin it past its limit
- Written contracts
- Required over $500, along with every change to them, under the practices rule
Painting in New Jersey: the order we would work in
HIC number checks on every ad, truck and invoice
We read your profile, site, lead-site listings, yard signs, truck lettering and estimate template against the state's display rule, and list each place the number or the Consumer Affairs line is missing.
A landlord page for lead-safe repainting
One page for owners of pre-1978 rentals: what you fix after a failed inspection, your EPA firm certificate, how you clean up in dust wipe towns, and a form that asks for the unit count and inspection date.
Outreach timed to turnovers and expiring certificates
Property managers and small landlords hear from you before the busy lease months and before two-year certificates lapse, sent only to people who asked to hear from you or already work with you.
Exterior ads that switch off region by region
Separate exterior campaigns for North Jersey, the Trenton area and the Atlantic City area, each moved over to interiors and cabinets as its own October and November lows arrive.
Paint claims that name the product
Any low-VOC or low-odor line in your ads names the product and the figure from its data sheet, so the claim says more than the state rule already requires.
Ready for New Jersey's HIC, lead and frost checks?
Grab one work truck, one recent estimate and your Google profile. Answer yes only where each already passes. The score stays in your browser.
Answer all five to see where you stand. Your answers stay on this page.
New Jersey names painting in its home improvement law, so the HIC number goes on every ad
A painter who works on homes in New Jersey has to register with the state before running a single ad. After that, the registration number follows the company onto almost everything a customer sees.
The state's registration rules define home improvement as remodeling, altering, painting and similar work on homes. Painting is named outright. So an interior repaint, a deck stain and a full exterior all count.
Registration comes before the first ad. Another section of the rules bars anyone who is not registered from advertising as a contractor here. "Advertise" reaches the internet, business cards, flyers and directory listings.
The display rule then sets where the number goes:
- Every ad shown in New Jersey. Online ads and directory profiles count, since the definition covers the internet.
- Estimates, contracts, invoices and emails. The rule names business documents, contracts and letters to customers.
- Both sides of each work truck. Your registered name and "HIC reg. #" with the number, each at least an inch high.
- A complaint line. Invoices, contracts and letters also print the Division of Consumer Affairs' toll-free number, in capitals and 10-point bold.
A crew that paints only offices and stores sits outside this definition, which covers homes and other noncommercial property. Its first homeowner job changes that. If a registration lapses, the number has to come off every ad and vehicle at once, so an old magnet sign on a truck door matters too.
Our New Jersey remodeling page covers the contract and insurance duties that come with the number. Not legal advice; confirm with counsel.
Pre-1978 rentals in New Jersey get lead inspections, and a failed unit needs a painter
New Jersey makes landlords of older rentals show, on a schedule, that their units are safe from lead paint. When a unit fails, the owner needs the paint work done properly and soon. That turns landlords into a buyer of their own, with deadlines a homeowner never faces.
The Department of Community Affairs runs the program under a 2021 law, with rules adopted in May 2023. Single-family, two-family and multiple rental dwellings built before 1978 are inspected every three years, or at tenant turnover if that comes first. The first round was due by July 22, 2024. A unit that passes gets a lead-safe certificate good for two years, which spares it a turnover inspection while it lasts.
Some rentals are left out. DCA exempts units built in 1978 or later, units certified free of lead paint and some long-registered apartment buildings with clean records. Single- and two-family seasonal rentals let for less than six months a year are out too. So a summer cottage at the shore is not this market, but a year-round apartment in the same town can be.
When an inspection finds a hazard, the owner must fix it through abatement or hazard control, under the lead-safe law. The clock is short. An owner who has not ordered the inspection or started the work within 30 days of a violation faces up to $1,000 a week, by DCA's account.
Who may do the work shapes your ads. Asked who can remediate, DCA names abatement contractors it certifies, abatement workers licensed by the Department of Health and firms EPA certifies for renovation, repair and painting. Its definition of interim controls includes repairs, specialized cleaning and painting.
So an EPA-certified painting firm sells lead-safe repair and repainting of what the inspection flagged. Keep three things out of the pitch:
- Abatement. That word belongs to contractors DCA certifies for it.
- The inspection. The town or a certified lead evaluation contractor does it. Your ad can promise work ready for the inspector, not a pass.
- The certificate. Only the inspection produces one, so no painter can sell it.
Turnovers bunch up where leases end together, as in the college towns our New Jersey page describes for late August. Our painting contractor page covers EPA's firm certification and what it lets you advertise.
Dust wipe towns and state lead money change what a landlord asks before hiring
How a rental gets inspected depends on the town, and that changes what the landlord worries about. In some towns the inspector wipes floors and windowsills and sends the wipes to a lab.
DCA draws the line by children's blood tests. Where at least 3% of tested children aged six and under have a blood lead level of 5 micrograms per deciliter or more, DCA's program page requires dust wipe sampling. Elsewhere a visual check is allowed. DCA publishes the method for each town.
A visual check looks for peeling paint and visible dust or paint chips. A wipe test can fail a unit that looks clean. So in a dust wipe town, the cleanup at the end of your job is part of what the landlord is buying.
Write the landlord page for that town:
- How you contain the work. Plastic, closed doors and covered floors, shown in your own job photos.
- How you clean up. The steps your crew takes before it leaves, in plain words.
- What the owner gets in writing. The rooms and surfaces you worked on, and the date you finished.
Money can decide the job too. The lead-safe law lets DCA give owners grants or loans for lead hazard control work, up to the full cost and no more than $150,000 for a dwelling unit. Whether money is open right now is the owner's question for DCA. A page that points to the program, with no promise of an award, answers the cost worry before it stalls the call.
Your number first, then the landlords
Tell us the towns you paint in and whether you hold EPA firm certification. The plan starts with your HIC number on every ad and truck, then builds a landlord page for lead-safe repainting.
Your free plan for New Jersey starts with:
- HIC number checks on every ad, truck and invoice
- A landlord page for lead-safe repainting
- Outreach timed to turnovers and expiring certificates
New Jersey's VOC rule follows the paint onto the job, not just the store shelf
New Jersey caps the solvent content of house paint, and the cap binds the painter who applies it for pay, not only the store that sells it. That decides what a "low-VOC" line in your ads is worth.
The state's architectural coatings rule reaches anyone who applies a coating for pay in New Jersey. Aerosol cans and containers of a liter or less fall outside it. Paint bought in New Jersey, or in one of four neighbors the rule lists as at least as strict, puts compliance on the seller. Those four are Delaware, Pennsylvania, New York and Maryland.
The standards section adds two duties on the job:
- No thinning past the limit. A coating thinned until it exceeds its VOC limit may not be applied.
- Closed containers. Buckets, cans, pails and trays stay closed when not in use, and so do thinners and cleanup solvents.
Two things follow for your marketing. Every coating you apply for pay already sits under a state limit, so "low-VOC" alone tells a homeowner very little. Name the product line and the figure from its data sheet, or leave the claim out.
Parents planning a nursery and owners who stay home during the job ask about fumes. Answer with the products you use and how you air out the rooms. Leave health promises out.
Exterior season ends first near Atlantic City and Trenton, and last in Newark
New Jersey's outside painting season does not end on one date. Nights cool sooner in the south and inland, so the Atlantic City area loses its exterior weeks before North Jersey does.
NOAA's thirty-year monthly normals show it in the overnight lows for October and November:
- Newark. Normal lows of 49.0°F in October and 39.0°F in November, in the Newark airport normals.
- Trenton. 45.9°F and 36.3°F at the Mercer County airport station.
- Atlantic City airport. 46.4°F and 36.6°F at the inland station in Egg Harbor Township.
Spring runs the same way. In the same three files, April's normal low is 44.1°F at Newark, 42.1°F at Trenton and 41.7°F at the Atlantic City airport.
The product label sets the floor for each coating, so plan by the lows rather than the calendar. On our reading, exterior ads around Atlantic City and Trenton should hand over to interiors and cabinets by mid to late October. Essex, Hudson and Bergen crews can usually keep selling exteriors into early November.
Book spring exteriors in January and February, while crews are inside. North Jersey opens a little sooner, so its spring campaign goes live first.
Exterior weeks and inside months: the New Jersey painting year by NOAA's lows
Our estimate, built from NOAA's 1991 to 2020 monthly normals for Newark, Trenton and the Atlantic City airport. Exterior weeks follow the overnight lows, and interiors, cabinets and rental work fill the rest. North Jersey runs a little later into the fall than the south.
- January: Slow
- February: Slow
- March: Steady
- April: Busy
- May: Peak
- June: Peak
- July: Peak
- August: Peak
- September: Peak
- October: Busy
- November: Steady
- December: Slow
- January and February
- Normal lows in the mid-20s at all three stations. Interiors, cabinets and landlord work carry the crews, and spring exteriors get booked now.
- March
- Lows climb past freezing, from 32.6°F near Atlantic City to 34.2°F at Newark. Exterior ads go live late in the month, north first.
- April
- Newark's normal low reaches 44.1°F. Exterior estimates fill the calendar.
- May to September
- The full exterior season, with July lows between 66.6°F at Trenton and 69.4°F at Newark.
- October
- Lows of 45.9°F at Trenton and 46.4°F near Atlantic City. Southern and central exterior ads hand over to interiors.
- November and December
- Newark's normal November low is still 39.0°F, so North Jersey squeezes in its last exteriors early in the month. Then interiors and rental turnovers.
New Jersey painting questions about registration, lead and the season
Do we need the HIC number if we only paint interiors?
Yes, for homes. New Jersey's definition of home improvement names painting and covers residential property, inside or out. A crew that paints only offices and storefronts falls outside it until its first homeowner job.
Can our ads say we do lead abatement?
Not on EPA certification alone. DCA certifies lead abatement contractors and the Department of Health licenses abatement workers. An EPA-certified firm can sell lead-safe repair and repainting, and DCA names those firms among the ones that can address lead paint in homes.
Can we inspect a landlord's unit and hand over the lead-safe certificate?
No. The town or a lead evaluation contractor certified by DCA does the inspection, with inspectors licensed by the Department of Health. Your part is the work after a failed inspection, finished so the unit is ready for the next visit.
Are summer rentals at the shore part of the landlord market?
Mostly not. Single- and two-family seasonal rentals let for less than six months a year, without back-to-back lease renewals, are exempt from the inspections. Year-round rentals in the same shore towns are not, so aim the landlord ads at those.
Can we advertise a free color consultation in New Jersey?
Yes, with its terms in the ad. The state's home improvement practices rule bars a free item or bonus offered without its conditions, including when the offer ends and when the free item is given. A line such as "free color consult with any signed exterior estimate, through March 31" carries both.
Can we buy paint in Pennsylvania for a New Jersey job?
Yes. The state's VOC rule lists Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware and Maryland as at least as strict, and paint bought there or in New Jersey leaves compliance with the seller. Thinning it past its limit on the job is still on your crew.
Sources
11 cited
Rules and figures on this page trace to these pages. None of it is legal advice; confirm anything that affects your license or your ads with the agency or your counsel.
- N.J.A.C. 13:45A-17.2 via Cornell LII: definitions, with painting named as home improvement
- N.J.A.C. 13:45A-17.3 via Cornell LII: registration before advertising as a contractor
- N.J.A.C. 13:45A-17.11 via Cornell LII: the HIC number on ads, documents and vehicles
- Cornell LII copy of N.J.A.C. 13:45A-16.2: the practices rule on free offers and written contracts over $500
- New Jersey Department of Community Affairs: lead-based paint inspections in rental dwelling units (N.J.A.C. 5:28A)
- P.L.2021, c.182 (pub.njleg.gov), as enacted: rental lead inspections, remediation and the assistance fund
- N.J.A.C. 7:27-23.1 via Cornell LII: who the architectural coatings VOC rule covers
- N.J.A.C. 7:27-23.3 via Cornell LII: VOC standards, thinning and closed containers
- NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 monthly normals, Newark airport station USW00014734
- NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 monthly normals, Trenton Mercer County airport station USW00014792
- NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 monthly normals, Atlantic City airport station USW00093730
Where to read next
Registration number, counties and how much of your work is rentals
Send your registration number, the counties you paint in, a link to your site and roughly how much of your work is rentals. We answer with every ad and document missing the number, a landlord offer for your towns and exterior ad dates for your region.
- A free consult. A real conversation about your business, your area and what is not working yet.
- An honest evaluation. Where you stand in search, ads and follow-up next to the businesses you lose customers to.
- A plan you keep. What we would fix first and why. It is yours whether or not you work with us.
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