BATON ROUGE - Home renovations can be pricey to begin with, but inflation and supply chain issues are now driving that cost even higher.

Greg Lavergne has been painting homes in Baton Rouge for nearly 30 years. Now, he says oil-based paint, a key material used in his profession, is almost impossible to come by.

“It’s been real hard to find because all the stores are out. So if you don’t have oil-based paint, you can’t paint trims, you can’t paint cabinets, especially if it’s been painted with oil-based paint already," Lavergne said.

The reasoning for the shortage of oil-based paint, Lavergne says, changes depending on who he asks. Of the three main suppliers in town, no one has what he needs.

“At first, they were saying it was because of the trucking. Now they’re saying the plastics they use to make the oil-based paint was hard to get. It wasn’t being produced as much as it was. So without plastic, there’s no oil-based paint.”

According to Lavergne, oil-based paint only has one alternative: latex paint. It's a costly change not only for him but also for his customers.

“If you have to change it to latex, then you would have to prime all the oil-based paint and then do latex on top of it. That’s twice as much work, twice as much the cost," he said.

Being in the business for nearly three decades, he anticipated this happening. He thinks it's an issue that will likely impact contractors long-term.

“For the future, people really need to think about switching over to latex. They said, ten years ago, there was going to be no more oil paint. Now it’s to that point, and here we go."