Mold Removal in Gretna and Who Is Allowed to Do It
A removal arranged with the right hands on it: the owner where the law lets the owner do it, and a licensed remediator where the job needs one.
Mold Removal quote in Gretna
Tell us what you can see or smell, roughly where in the house it is, and whether the house is raised or on a slab. Those three things narrow it more than the size of the patch does, because they point at how the water is arriving rather than where it ended up.
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Gretna permits, licenses and the owner exemption
Gretna runs its own permitting, separately from Jefferson Parish, so structural repairs under a raised floor go to the city. The owner exemption is from the license, not from doing the work properly, and it does not create the written report a licensed remediator owes on a job over $7,500. If you are a tenant, ask the owner in writing who is doing the removal and whether that person is licensed. If you are the owner, check any contractor on the board's public search and keep the survey and the removal with different companies.
Who is doing the work
The owner, the owner's staff, or a contractor. The first two can be exempt from the license; a contractor on a job over $7,500 cannot.
What is coming out below the floor
Insulation between the joists, subfloor and any joists that fail the probe. The scope should list each with a quantity.
Which Gretna office sees it
The city. Gretna issues its own permits, so structural work under a raised floor goes through the city rather than the parish.
What Louisiana law and the Gretna record say about removal
Gretna has 8,352 housing units with a median year built of 1966, but 1,378 of them, 16.5 percent, were built in 1939 or earlier, the highest pre-war share in Jefferson Parish and second in this service area only to New Orleans. 73.1 percent of the stock predates 1980 and 51.2 percent of occupied homes are rented.
Source: United States Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020-2024 five year estimates, accessed 2026-09-22
The city of Gretna, community 225198, holds Community Rating System Class 5, a 25 percent discount in the special flood hazard area and 10 percent outside it. Its first flood insurance rate map took effect on August 14, 1970.
Source: Federal Emergency Management Agency, National Flood Insurance Program Community Status Book, accessed 2026-09-22
Louisiana R.S. 37:2157(A)(17) exempts from mold remediation licensure a residential property owner who performs mold remediation on his own property, and an owner or tenant, or a managing agent or employee of an owner or tenant, who performs mold remediation on property owned or leased by the owner or tenant, with that exemption not applying if the managing agent or employee engages in the business of performing mold remediation for the public.
Source: Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors, Contractors Licensing Law and Rules and Regulations, effective August 1, 2022, accessed 2026-09-22
Louisiana R.S. 37:2158(A)(19)(a) makes it a violation for a mold remediation contractor to fail to provide a written report to each person for whom he performs such services for compensation.
Source: Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors, Contractors Licensing Law and Rules and Regulations, effective August 1, 2022, accessed 2026-09-22
The board publishes a free public contractor search that can be queried by contractor name, license number, city, parish, type of contractor and qualifying party, and returns only contractors whose license or registration is currently active. The page carries the board's own caution that the information is provided as a courtesy and may not reflect recent changes or updates.
Source: Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors, contractor search, accessed 2026-09-22
What mold removal involves in Gretna
Who may remove mold from a rented Gretna house
Removal in a rented Gretna house starts with who is allowed to do it. Louisiana exempts a residential property owner working on their own property from the mold remediation license, and extends that to an owner's managing agent or employee, unless that agent is in the business of doing it for the public. So a landlord can lawfully do a small job without a license. What comes out on the city's older raised houses is often below the floor: wet insulation between the joists, stained subfloor, and sometimes the joists themselves, before the walls above are touched.
Owner, tenant, or managing agent?
Tell us which. In Gretna it decides who may lawfully do the removal and who needs a license.
Gretna removal questions from landlords and tenants
My landlord says he will remove the mold himself. Is that legal in Louisiana?
Generally, yes. R.S. 37:2157(A)(17) exempts a residential property owner working on his own property from mold remediation licensure, and the exemption extends to his managing agent or employee unless that person does this work for the public. The exemption covers the license. It does not change the need to find and stop the water first, which is the part that decides whether the growth returns.
Does Gretna need a permit for removal under a raised floor?
If joists, sills or subfloor are being replaced, that is structural work and the city's permit desk is the place to ask, because Gretna permits its own work rather than going through Jefferson Parish. Stripping wet insulation alone is a question to put to the city before you start.
Send the Gretna scope or the space under the floor
Photos of the joists and insulation help most. A person reads them and says what the job involves.