The Hunterdon Scoop / Hire

Painters in Hunterdon County

Everyone with a brush is a painter until the second coat. Prep is the whole trade.

Skip to all 10 businesses filed under Painting in the county directory ↓

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What it costs

NJ-wide pricing guides put interior painting at roughly $3-$7 per square foot and exterior painting at roughly $2-$5.50 per square foot, with prep/repair work being the biggest swing factor, sources: solispainting.com and calcsmart.io 2026 NJ pricing guides.

Before you hire

  1. Get the exact NJ Home Improvement Contractor (HIC) registration number in writing and check it yourself at njconsumeraffairs.gov before signing anything, a verbal 'we're licensed and insured' means nothing until you've seen the active 13VH number.
  2. For any home built before 1978, ask in writing whether the crew is EPA Lead-Safe certified and how they'll handle lead paint disturbance, this is a legal requirement in older Hunterdon farmhouses and river-town homes (Lambertville, Frenchtown, Stockton), not a nice-to-have.
  3. Get the prep work spelled out line by line in the estimate (scraping, sanding, caulking, priming, number of coats, patching), the single biggest driver of both price and how long the paint job actually lasts is prep, and vague estimates are where corners get cut.
  4. Ask what paint brand and product line they use (e.g., Benjamin Moore Regal vs. a builder-grade line) and get it named in the contract, 'we use quality paint' with no brand specified is a red flag for substitution to a cheaper product.
  5. Confirm who is actually swinging the brush: is it the owner's crew, or subcontracted day labor brought in for the job? Ask how many people will be on site and whether the same crew stays for the whole project, this affects both quality consistency and your ability to hold anyone accountable if something goes wrong.

NJ home painting contractors are covered under the state's Home Improvement Contractor (HIC) registration, administered by the NJ Division of Consumer Affairs (not a skills-tested trade license, it's a business registration + insurance/bonding record). Active registrations carry a number formatted 13VHxxxxxxxx. Check status (Active / Expired / Suspended / Revoked) at the state lookup: https://newjersey.mylicense.com/verification/, search by business name or license number. General info: https://www.njconsumeraffairs.gov/hic/

Do it in your browser: check any license · check your quote · the storm-chaser test

The local picture

One of the deeper-supplied trades here, with several in-county companies plus strong adjacent-county operators covering the southern and western towns.

Questions neighbors actually ask

Do painters in New Jersey actually need a license?

Yes. Painting counts as a home improvement under NJ law, so any painting contractor working on a residential job over a certain size needs to be registered with the NJ Division of Consumer Affairs as a Home Improvement Contractor (HIC), you'll see this as a number starting with 13VH. It is not a skills-tested trade license like electrical or plumbing; it's a registration that mainly proves the business is on file with the state, carries insurance, and can be held accountable through the Consumer Affairs complaint process. Always ask for the number and check it yourself at newjersey.mylicense.com, don't take 'we're licensed' at face value.

How much should interior or exterior painting cost in Hunterdon County?

Statewide NJ pricing guides put interior painting at roughly $3 to $7 per square foot and exterior painting at roughly $2 to $5.50 per square foot, with the range driven mostly by how much scraping, sanding, and repair work the surface needs before paint goes on, a full repaint (interior or exterior) on a typical ~2,000 sq ft house often lands in the $4,000 to $10,000+ range. Get itemized quotes from at least two local companies rather than trusting a flat per-room number, since Hunterdon's older housing stock (farmhouses, historic river-town homes) usually needs more prep than a standard suburban build.

Should I worry about lead paint in an older Hunterdon home?

If your house was built before 1978, yes, federal EPA rules require any contractor disturbing more than a small area of old paint (sanding, scraping, demolition) to be Lead-Safe Certified and to follow specific containment and cleanup procedures. This is common in Hunterdon's older towns like Lambertville, Frenchtown, and Stockton. Ask directly whether the crew doing your job is lead-certified, and ask to see the certification rather than taking a website claim for it. A painter who has not mentioned lead at all on a pre-1978 house has not thought about it.

10 businesses filed under Painting in the county directory, A–Z

Everything filed under Painting in the county directory, alphabetically. It is a broad category, so it takes in neighboring lines of work as well as painters. No ordering, no ranking, no picks.

Names, towns and numbers come from The Hunterdon Scoop business directory, pulled July 28, 2026. Want this list narrowed to your town? Browse Painting by town. A business appearing here is not a recommendation, and no business pays to be on it.

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