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How much does exterior house painting cost?
Exterior house painting cost factors
So, how much does it cost to paint the exterior of your home? This post will go over the most common factors that go into the price of painting the exterior of your house so you better understand how the total cost is aggregated. We’ll even share some average numbers for your exterior paint cost calculations too.
Pros and Cons
As much as we’d like to cover every single factor that is included when talking about how much it will cost to paint your home, there will certainly be scenarios that are uncommon or unique to your home.
1- You may ask; how much does it cost to paint a house?
We may answer; how much does it cost to buy a car?
Then you may scratch your head and wonder why we asked a question to answer a question. You see, there is no best answer here when asked about estimating exterior painting costs since there are so many factors involved that are unknown until we get more details about the exterior of your home and your exterior painting needs. The price for painting the exterior depends on many factors that include the current condition, style of house to be painted, number of doors/ windows, square feet to be painted, heights, quality of finish, type of paint to be applied, level of preparation, number of coats and access to get the painting accomplished. Check out our post about interior painting costs as well.
Much like a car, you cannot give a price until you know what type of vehicle and the attributes the driver is looking for…….
Throughout the remainder of this post we’ll take a dive into each of these factors and how they contribute to the cost to paint a house and exterior painting services.
2- Current condition for exterior painting costs
As always, preparation is the key to the success of any project. The process of staining wood can be messy. The protection of all adjacent areas is imperative. No one wants to make a mess that can’t be cleaned up readily. In this situation, all the adjacent rugs, hardwood floors, and walls were protected with plastic, tape and carpet protection film.
3- Your style matters with exterior house painting costs
The type of home you own can save you money.
Own a colonial, ranch, saltbox, cape, gambrel or maybe a contemporary home? The attributes of each home add or subtract from the workload of exterior painting costs.
Hopefully it is obvious, if your home is smaller: it costs less to paint. The easiest houses to paint are ranch and cape style houses since access to all areas is simple. Other styles such as colonial can be basic in shape with straight runs of siding and simple lines to paint. Houses such as contemporary and homes with multiple additions, dormers (or multiple dormers), and multiple roof lines take longer to work on along with safety precautions for them. The number of doors and windows to be painted along with square footage of siding to be painted influences the cost which coincides with the size of the home.
Overall size and style of your home are very important factors when estimating the cost for exterior painting.
4- Quality matters with exterior paint costs
Good, better, best for paint and preparation
Quality of paint, level of finish, number of colors and number of coats are the most labor intense part of the entire project.
Catching up with many years of neglect as previously stated can certainly gobble up hours and hours of time. Maybe you are planning to stay in your home a while and wish to use premium coatings and want more prep completed so it lasts longer. This can influence the total cost to more than if you wish to make it look good with less preparation and lower quality coatings.
5- How do we access that side of the house?
Obstacles to house painting efficiency
Access to your home can be interesting. You may have a beautiful house nestled in the woods with perfectly painted woodwork and siding but, we can’t easily reach it. Maybe you live on a hillside and there may be limited access to set up ladders and work on the surfaces. Are you in tight quarters with your neighbor and we have to ask them to setup ladders in their yard? Do large bushes or trees grow along your house that prohibit access. All those beautiful roof-lines need to be addressed too. Safety first as our workers need to be up there crawling around to get it painted which is slower than working from a ladder or on the ground.
We don’t expect a flat, perfect lot for every project but these are a few things to look for with exterior painting and how they affect the overall price.
6- Exterior wood rot repairs
Carpentry before exterior painting
On almost every home exterior painting project we find wood rot repairs that need to be completed before painting.
You may choose to have them completed in advance by another contractor or we can take care of it in-house with our own carpenter. Either way, replacing boards and siding with products like Azek (PVC trim) and cedar siding materials should factor into the overall cost to paint your home.
For Castle Complements this is an important step in a long-lasting exterior paint project. We offer a 3 year warranty and there must be a suitable substrate that has paint applied to it and we will not paint over rotted materials.
Carpentry and wood rot repairs play a vital part of the overall cost estimated costs. We will be glad to include a detailed cost breakdown of all repairs in our written quotes.
7- Was your house built before 1978?
Exterior painting and safely dealing with Lead
Did you know that if your home was built before 1978 it could be painted with lead based paint? Did you know that painting contractors are required by law to be certified to disturb lead paint?
This is in no way meant to scare anyone. It is meant to inform you. For more than 10 years there have been laws here in Massachusetts that mandate the safe working practices when disturbing lead paint. Most contractors ignore it, don’t know about it or are scared to bring it up to customers.
When estimating your exterior paint project Castle Complements will test the surfaces to be painted to see if there is lead present. If so, there are safety protocols that must be taken by our employees to keep you, our employees and most importantly, your children safe when preparing the exterior of your home for painting. Feel free to ask us at any time about this and the needs that arise if lead is present.
Safety is always paramount when estimating for exterior painting and while working on your home. Choose an expert that chooses safety!
8- Exterior paint quote for a Ranch house
1600 Square foot ranch exterior paint cost
Let’s get an example of the cost to paint a small ranch style home.
We’ll assume the house has 12 vinyl windows that do not need painting, 2 entry doors, wood siding in great shape and nothing is taller than 18feet. The scope of work will be to power-wash, minor scrape and caulking needed, 2 coats on the siding and 2 coats on the window casings, doors, door casings and soffits with premium acrylic paints. No lead-based paint.
this project would take 3 days and price for this service would range from $3,000.00 to $4,000.00
9- Exterior paint quote for a Colonial house
5,000 Square foot Colonial exterior paint cost
Here’s an example on what it costs to paint the exterior of a 5,000 square foot colonial style home.
This house has 32 windows that the sash needs to be painted as well. There are 3 doors, 3 garage doors and frames, federal blocks in the front corners, dentil molding on the front gables, 3 dormers, one side is on a hill and there is about 20 hours of carpentry repairs needed. Siding and trim condition is not bad but not great. Woodwork is in good but not great condition as well. House will be power washed. All surfaces will get 2 coats of super-premium acrylic paints.
The cost for this house to be painted will be $17,500-$25,000 and take 1-2 weeks.
CONCLUSION
Wow, we’ve covered a lot of that are taken into consideration when estimating for exterior painting costs. We’ve even given examples of costs to paint a simple home to a more complex project.
As you can see there is no way to give a number range based on how big or samll the house is. There is no average home exterior paint cost since it takes many factors to give an accurate price that reflects the actual project much like shopping for a car.
Do you need an estimate to paint the exterior of your house?
Want to know how much exterior paint will cost you?
Call us or book a quote today and we’d be happy to get you an exact price for your needs.