FORTIFIED roofers in New Orleans

The Fortify Homes grant in New Orleans

New Orleans is in Orleans Parish, which the Louisiana Department of Insurance lists as eligible for the Fortify Homes grant as of August 17, 2026. The grant reimburses the cost of rebuilding your roof to the IBHS FORTIFIED standard, up to $10,000 per home. It is a cap on a reimbursement, not a flat check, and the money goes to your contractor after IBHS issues the certificate. Selection is a random lottery, so registering is not the same as being awarded.

Eligibility is settled at the address level and the list changes every round, so check your address on the live LDI Fortify Homes map, and apply through the state at ldi.la.gov/fortifyhomes, not on this site.

What it pays back, grant or no grant

The grant is a lottery. The other two payoffs are not. A FORTIFIED designation earns a required cut on the wind portion of your home insurance in Louisiana, every year the designation stays in force, and the state tax credit returns up to $10,000 of qualifying costs on a roof you finance yourself. A New Orleans homeowner who never wins a grant can still come out ahead on both.

See how the mandated discount works in the insurance savings guide, the state credit in the FORTIFIED roof tax credit guide, and what the standard actually requires in the FORTIFIED Roof guide.

Hiring a FORTIFIED roofer in New Orleans

A great many New Orleans roofs went on before Louisiana adopted a statewide building code, and a replacement is the one time the deck is open to fix that. Decide on FORTIFIED before the tear-off, and hire for it, because the work that earns the certificate happens while the old roof is off.

Check the certification first. Look the roofer up in the IBHS directory of FORTIFIED professionals. Since November 1, 2025, a roof has to be installed by a certified FORTIFIED Roofing Company to earn the designation. A license and FORTIFIED certification are two different credentials.

Then check the state license. Roofing work on a home with a project value of $7,500 or more requires a license from the Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors, in the Residential Roofing or Residential Construction classification. Look the roofer up with the LSLBC license lookup before you sign.

The permit office. In New Orleans, roof permits come from the Department of Safety and Permits, and the city has a permit just for re-roofing. Under Ordinance 30,235 MCS, replacing 50 percent or more of the roof on a one- or two-family home needs one; smaller repairs are exempt unless something else calls for a permit. The city says why: the permit is a formal, independent record of the new roof, meant to help homeowners qualify for lower insurance premiums or meet a roofing grant program's requirements. The application goes in through the city's One Stop App, and the job is documented with geotagged photos at four stages, from tearing off the old roof to the new covering. That record is the city's. A FORTIFIED evaluator documents the roof separately, so a FORTIFIED job carries both.

What to ask before you sign

• Certificates of insurance for general liability and workers' compensation.
• The full FORTIFIED scope in writing: sealed deck, ring-shank deck attachment, drip edge and starter strip, and wind-rated shingles, not a vague one-line quote.
• Recent FORTIFIED jobs in your area, and call a couple of them.

For the full list, see choosing a FORTIFIED roofing contractor.

Storm damage already? Start with what to do after the storm.

New Orleans is in Orleans Parish

For how the program reads across the whole parish, see FORTIFIED roofs in Orleans Parish. For every other parish and city, see FORTIFIED roofing by Louisiana parish and city.