Does your home exterior paint look old and have lost its appeal? Is the paint on the exterior wall peeling and fading that the color looks dull? The best way to bring back your home’s exterior elegance is to add a fresh coat of paint.
Now you may wonder how much does it cost to paint the exterior of a house and how often you should paint it? It’s hard to tell exactly how much you need, but you can find out an average figure by considering a few things.
Usually, a painting task needs 4 or 5 days to complete. So you have to pay the labor cost, working hours, and necessary items to paint. The house siding material is also essential to consider while determining the price.
Benefits of Painting Home Exterior
The key benefits of the exterior paint of homes are –
- It helps to raise your home value
- Enhance your home’s curb appeal
- Prevent staining and peeling
- Secure the house exterior painting from moisture, mildew, and insect damages.
- Extend your home’s siding lifespan
When to Paint Home Exterior
You should paint your house either in early summer or early fall. It’s the best time to exterior paint since paint should be applied on dry surfaces; out of moisture and extreme heat.
To paint a house basically needs a moisture-free and warm environment to dry appropriately. But make sure the weather isn’t too hot that it creates bubbles underneath the paint.
How Often to Paint House Exterior?
The exact timetable of painting a house’s exterior depends on the siding material. The previous paint exterior quality and the amount of moisture and heat your home’s siding has absorbed are two significant factors that determine the painting timetable.
Generally, it’s recommended to paint a house exterior every 10 to 20 years. Vinyl siding rarely requires repainting, but once the old paint or interior house painting starts fading colors after 10 to 15 years, many homeowners choose to repaint them.
Wood siding requires repainting every 3 to 7 years, stucco siding 5 to 10 years, brick and concrete siding 10 to 15 years, and metal siding usually require to repaint every 5 years.
What Factors Determine the Cost of Painting a Home?
Some factors determine how much does it cost to paint a house. These are –
Home Size
To determine the overall cost of exterior house painting for the quality paint, you must first calculate the total square foot of your home’s exterior siding.
You have to repaint chipped paint within a few years; hence, for the quality paint siding, it’s better to pick the best exterior painters.
Determine Square Foot
Multiply the length, height, and width of each wall together. Now, plus each figure together to get the square foot of your home walls.
Next, figure the square foot of doors and windows. The square foot measurement is a pretty simple task; multiply the length of each door and exterior window, height, and width together.
Now sum the door and window’s figure together, then deduct the result from the total figure of walls and find out square foot.
Determining a square foot is essential as the cost to paint gutters, the fresh coat depends on per square foot.
Add the Square Footage
Square footage is the effective term for house painting. For this, you must reconsider the square footage at the time to paint a house exterior.
The determining process of the square footage of the doors and windows is to multiply the length and width individually.
Now you have to add the square footage of both door and window simultaneously. Now subtract that summation from the overall square footage of the walls.
Multiple Stories
Multiple-story houses need extra tools like extension ladders, scaffolding, and lifts to paint a house exterior. Thus, it affects the total cost of house painting for each story.
The approximate exterior house painting cost of a single-story home is near $1000 to $3000, a two-story house near $3000 to $5000, and a three-story house requires near $4000 to $10000 for high gloss paint.
Perhaps, the price range of an exterior paint job differs from a painting contractor or exterior painter.
Multi stories are required more paint and the cost to paint might vary for oil based paint,semi-gloss paint, specialized metal paint, semi-gloss paint.
Additionally, you can also use latex paint,painting cedar, acrylic latex paint, peeling paint or lead based paint etc.
The overall cost of premium paint will be more expensive for commercial painting than interior painting or exterior house paint.
Preparation for Work
Before you or professionals start painting the home exterior, prep work is needed for the walls. The wall preparation requires sanding, scraping, drop cloth, repairing holes, caulking, and cracks. Sometimes priming and power washing is necessary.
This step of painting a home exterior as well as interior paint costs on average $25 to $50 per hour.
PAINT TYPE
What cost to paint and type your wall suits the best depends on the siding material and paint inspections. A gallon of paint or primer costs around $20 to $90. A coat of primer is needed to make easy the paint adhere.
However, higher-quality paints with lower solvents will cost you more. However, higher-quality paints are best since they’re durable, last longer, and need fewer coats.
PAINTING CONTRACTORS
For exterior house painting, you have to consult with exterior painters, local house painters, or painting contractors as well.
Exterior paint prices or entire house painting costs might vary depending on how many coats are applied per square footage, labor costs, and paint quality.
Likewise, you can use an exterior painting cost calculator to determine exterior house painting cost.
SIDING MATERIAL
The most common siding materials are vinyl, wood, stucco, brick, concrete, metal or aluminum siding for house paint. How much does it cost to paint the exterior of a house with each siding material? Of course, the painting cost will vary depending on the material.
TRIM
Trimming is usually done by hand with a brush. The exterior painting cost of trim is approximately about a dollar per linear foot.
The paint exterior trim work is considered by square footage and the linear foot occasionally.
Equally, the entire exterior painting cost of doors, fascia, shutter, and gutters may cost you separately or included in the estimated price.
The cost of linear foot painting trim of different colors is high than fiber cement siding.
ADDITIONAL FEATURES
Likewise, the exterior painting cost of doors, fascia, shutter, and gutters may cost you separately or include in the estimated price. The exterior doors may cost about $70 to $300, the fascia costs per linear foot around $1 to $3, the shutters $50 to $90 each.
How to Estimate a Painting Area?
When you want to determine how much it costs to paint the exterior of a house, you must know the square footage of your home and per square foot of walls. To paint a house exterior , if you think your house is 2500 square feet, then the wall of your house will also be 2500 square feet, then you’re mistaken.
The estimated exterior house painting area should be between 1600 to 2700 square feet if you have this size home. You can follow the below two simple methods to figure the total coverage area and for the best quality paint:
- Total finished area: Measure your home’s perimeter and multiply it by the height.
- Total paintable area: Subtract the door and window areas from the total finished area. The standard size of the door is 21 square feet, and the window is 12 square feet.
These two steps of measuring the wall size are pretty similar to the steps of determining the home size. However, in case you’re still unable to calculate your wall sizes, you should contact a professional.
How Much Does it Cost to Paint the Exterior of a House?
Multiple factors determine the cost to paint, especially when it’s the exterior of your house. Please read the following facts to know per square foot of exterior house painting.
Exterior Painting Project: Per Square Foot
The cost of exterior paint per square foot can range between $0.50 to $4; the exact amount may vary depending on the painting charges in your area. Besides, your home exterior condition also plays a great role in determining the cost.
If your house is a two-story building with many dorms, painters may demand an extra cost for extra labor. Here’s the average cost for different paintable areas per square feet:
| Paintable Area in Square Feet | Average Cost |
|---|---|
| 700 | $720 – $2900 |
| 800 | $800 – $3200 |
| 900 | $900 – $3600 |
| 1000 | $1000 – $4000 |
| 1100 | $1100 – $4400 |
| 1200 | $1250 – $4800 |
| 1300 | $1300 – $5200 |
| 1400 | $1400 – $5600 |
| 1500 | $1500 – $6000 |
| 1600 | $1600 – $6400 |
| 1700 | $1700 – $7000 |
| 1800 | $1850 – $7500 |
| 2100 | $2100 – $8400 |
| 2200 | $2000 – $9200 |
| 2500 | $2500 – $10000 |
| 2900 | $2900 – $11600 |
| 3300 | $3200 – $13500 |
| 3800 | $3800 – $15200 |
| 4100 | $4000 – $17000 |
Note: These are approximate numbers of paintable areas.
Home’s Exterior Paint: Cost Per Gallon of paint
Prep work is needed to determine the per-gallon cost.If you use a good quality latex or acrylic, then exterior paint ranges from $30 to $80 per gallon. On the other hand, mineral-based exterior brick paint costs $100 to $150 per gallon.
So the average cost of paint for painting the whole home exterior may cost from $300 to $1250. Generally, a gallon of paint can cover somewhere between 200 to 400 square feet with one coating only.
But the recommended number of coats is two for long-lasting coverage. Now the question is, how many gallons of paint do you need to cover your exterior with two coats?
| Paintable Surface in Square Feet | Required Gallons for Two Coats | Total Cost for Paint |
|---|---|---|
| 800 | 4 – 6 | $120 – $500 |
| 1000 | 5 – 9 | $150 – $560 |
| 1200 | 6 – 10 | $180 – $800 |
| 1500 | 8 – 12 | $250 – $950 |
| 2000 | 10 – 16 | $300 – $1200 |
| 2500 | 12 – 20 | $350 – $1650 |
| 3000 | 16 – 24 | $480 – $2000 |
These are the average cost of two coats of latex paint and acrylic latex paint, but the primer cost isn’t included in it. Primer is recommended to use on all kinds of surfaces to get a smooth and beautiful result.
So the cost of the primer will add to the cost of the paint. Usually, a good-quality primer costs over $40 per gallon. A gallon of primer can cover around 250 square feet of area.
The oil-based paint is cheaper and nearly $30 per gallon, whereas lead paint testing and inspection, costs less than $600 for exterior paints.
Labor Wages
Typically, a painter demands their wages based on how many hours they spend painting outside your home. Most of the time, painters claim between $30 and $70 per hour. But, again, sometimes they ask for a certain amount of money for their labor and time after summarizing the whole project.
However, be careful while communicating with a painter about pricing structure. Contractors often demand more than the fair price by offering uncertain hours to complete the project.
Average Costs to Paint Siding
You have to spend around $1 to $5 per square foot for painting the exterior sidings. The siding material is a great factor that determines what type of paint you need and how many hours the project will take.
| Siding Material | Average Cost |
|---|---|
| Brick | $2500 – $10500 |
| Stucco | $1400 -$6500 |
| Wood | $700 -$3000 |
| Vinyl | $600 – $3500 |
| Concrete | $500 – $3000 |
| Metal/Aluminum | $400 – $3500 |
Note: These average costs are based on over 1500 square feet.
BRICK HOUSE
Brick is an expensive material of siding to cover. Since brick is rough and porous, a gallon of paint can roughly cover 300 square feet. Usually, brick siding costs between $3500 to $10500, which means more than $3 per square foot.
Another reason why painting brick materials are expensive is, it needs a primer to adhere.
STUCCO HOUSE
You may need to spend between $1400 to $6500 to paint your exterior stucco siding. But if you want to install new stucco siding, you should expect to pay from $2200 to $8000. When the siding is totally damaged, it’s better to replace them instead of trying to fix them through paint.
There are two main factors that increase the price:
- Stucco siding needs more preparation work like caulking, cleaning, cracks filling, and more.
- Stucco is very rough that it needs multiple layers of paint to make the paint look even; thus, it requires more gallons of paint than other siding materials.
WOOD
To paint wood siding, you need to spend between $700 to $3000. It means you may end up paying a dollar to $3 per square foot of wood. Wood siding needs some sealants to fill the joints before painting. Though wood is cheaper than brick house and stucco, you need to consider some things before choosing wood:
- Wood materials need frequent maintenance. You’ll need to stain the wood every 3-5 years and paint it every 5-10 years or when it starts to peel.
- Though the wood sidings are easy to repair damage, the repair price may increase due to some reasons.
VINYL
If you want to paint vinyl siding, then you can expect to pay between $600 to $3500 or $1.5 to $3 per square foot.
It’s inexpensive to paint the vinyl siding compared to replacing them. Ensure the contractor you hire cleans and repairs the damage before applying the paint.
CONCRETE
You should expect to pay $ 1 to $3.50 per square foot or $500 to $3000 to paint your home exterior trim concrete siding. Concrete surfaces require priming before applying the paint. In that case, you should expect to spend around $2 to $6 per square foot.
If your home siding needs stripping, the cost will increase to double. Concrete materials are porous; therefore, you should seal the siding against water.
On the other hand, resurfacing or repairing concrete will cost you over $350 to cover every hundred square feet.
METAL/ALUMINUM
Among all the common home siding materials, metal sidings are inexpensive to paint, but it requires repaint every 5 years. The total cost of painting a metal siding falls between $400 to $3500.
But you can lower the expense in some cases like sometimes metal sidings need a simple cleaning to be prepared for paint. But you may need to remove the previous layer of paints and use a specialized paint for metal.
However, sometimes you may need to replace the siding due to climate conditions. The installation cost of new metal siding falls somewhere between $4000 to $15000.
How Much Does it Cost to Paint the Exterior House by Home-Story?
The cost of painting home exterior increases when the home size increases. The total painting cost can also be determined by the number of stories and relative accessibility. Such as –
Single-Story House
A single-story house with ranch-style is easy to paint since there are no hard-to-reach spots and doesn’t need any harnessing gear to reach a certain area of the house exterior.
That’s why professional painters usually charge between $1500 to $3500 to paint single-story ranch-style houses.
Two-Story Home
The cost to paint of a two-story home might be 50% more than you spend on a single-story house to paint. If your two-story house has hard-to-reach areas and many dormers, you should expect more charges to pay.
To paint a two-story house, painters need ladders and lifts to reach certain areas of the exterior of the house; thus, pros need to put extra effort to move and adjust the ladders and lifts. And they’ll charge you extra wages to do so.
Generally, a two-story home may cost to paint job between $3000 to $6500.
Three-Story House
No doubt, it offers ample space for kids, friends, pets, and guests to stay in a house with ease. But this kind of house is bigger than the above two stories house; thus, they’re likely more cost to paint.
If you want to paint a three-story house, you should expect to pay as lofty as a thousand dollars. But if you need to touch up the exterior paint with a single coat, it may cost you nearly $4500.
How Much Does it Cost to Repaint a House by House Type?
Do you know the prep work of exterior painting costs? There are three types to paint a house- Mobile Home,Townhouse, and Standard homes.
The cost to paint exterior of these houses varies depending on their work area. But if the existing painting surface’s condition is poor, then it may add extra expenses with the total cost.
Mobile Home Exterior
The cost to paint a mobile home depends on the siding condition, home size, and type of paint you need. However, the average cost to paint a mobile home falls between $700 to $4200. And if you use a DIY method to paint the house, then it may cost you $250 to $750.
Townhouse
Herewith the size, paint type, and siding condition, the number of stories also play a role in determining the cost of the paint.
Generally, both sidewalls are attached to the neighboring unit, making them a single wall between two units. So you need to pay to paint the front and back walls.
For this reason, there’s a slight difference between the average cost of mobile home painting and townhouse painting. The average cost of painting a townhouse ranges between $980 to $4300.
Standard Home
The cost to paint a standard home determines similar factors as Townhouse.
But a standard home is bigger and needs paint on all four walls, the price of the painting is higher than the Townhouse. The average cost of painting a standard home falls between $1700 to $6750.
The Estimate Cost of Exterior Painting of Your House
When you figure an estimated cost to paint your exterior house wall, paint shutters, you must initiate prep work that includes all the home features such as doors, garage, trim, foundation, window, shutters, and more.
Here’s the average cost of extra parts of your house that determines the cost:
| House Parts | Average Cost |
|---|---|
| Exterior trim | $1 – $4 per linear foot |
| Exterior wall | $1 – $4 per square foot |
| Deck, Porch, or Patio | $2 – $5 per square foot |
| Fascia, Eaves, and Soffit | $2 – $6 per linear foot |
| Window frame | $45 – $150 per window |
| Exterior shutters | $60 – $150 per pair |
| Exterior door | $100 – $225 per door |
| Garage door | $100 – $680 |
| Gutters and downspouts | $100 – $900 |
| Foundation | $200 – $1100 |
| Detached garage and door | $350 – $2800 |
DIY Cost to Paint a House Exterior
If you want to paint your house yourself, you should know what tools and equipment you need and how much you need to spend. However, knowing the required tools will make it easier to figure out the approximate cost to paint the exterior walls.
Usually, the average cost of painting your house exterior by yourself will fall between $400 – $1800 for a home of 1500 square feet. This average cost includes supplies, paint, tools, and a renting sprayer.
| Necessary Tools | Average Cost |
|---|---|
| Paint trays | $2 – $5 |
| Brushes | $2 – $15 |
| Painters tape | $3 – $10 |
| Trisodium phosphate | $5 – $12 |
| Sandpaper | $5 – $15 |
| Plastic drop cloths | $5 – $30 |
| Buckets of 5 gallons | $6 – $8 |
| Caulk | $6 – $9 |
| Scrappers | $6 – $20 |
| Paint roller kit | $10 – $25 |
| Primer per gallon | $20 – $50 |
| Rental paint sprayer (per day) | $30 – $50 |
| Exterior paint per gallon | $30 – $150 |
| Scaffolding rental (per day) | $50 – $100 |
| Ladder | $80 – $300 |
These are all the necessary tools and their average prices that you need while painting your house exterior. Some tools can be rented since painting is a rare task, and unless you’re a professional painter, you don’t need them anyway.
Having all the necessities near your hand always make any work easier and hassle-free.
Tips for Saving Money When Painting Your House Exterior
Although you need to paint your house exterior once every 5 to 10 years, still, it costs a big sum of money. There’re many factors that affect the total cost. Here we’ll share some tips on saving money when you need to repaint your house exterior –
- Do all the preparation work yourself and leave the painting task to the professionals. In this scenario, painters won’t need extra hours and labor to prep the walls, so they’ll charge less for the job, and you save your money.
- You can also paint some areas of the exterior wall or one full side of the wall to reduce the workload on professionals to complete the project quickly and charge less.
- Contact multiple contractors and see how they work and how much they offer to do your job.
- Don’t wait until your exterior wall is 80% damaged. Start thinking and preparing about repainting the exterior when they begin to peel.
- You can choose a plain color instead of forgoing painting to save money. But if you really want to decorate your exterior wall, try painting them yourself.
- For doing a perfect paint job, sometimes it’s crucial to less paint. Materials that are in good condition will also require less paint than damaged materials.
FAQs
DOES IT WORTH PAINTING THE EXTERIOR OF YOUR HOUSE?
Yes, it’s worth painting the exterior of your house. Paint can repair some damages on the walls and protect them against mildew and moisture. In addition, if your home has a good painting color, it’ll increase the curb appeal and increase your house value at the same time.
WHAT COLOR ADDS THE MOST VALUE TO A HOME?
Somehow black is the most searched color for homes in Google. Hence we believe that black can add over $6000 value to your house resale price.
Besides black, some other eye-catchy colors can add value to your homes, such as white, gray, warm blue-gray, cool mint green, natural sage green, classy turquoise, and more.
IS IT BETTER TO ROLL OR SPRAY PAINT?
Both roll and spray paint is a better option, but according to the need of the wall. For example, rolled paint will be a good choice if your wall isn’t clean since it smoothly goes over rough surfaces. And the paint combines really nicely when you use roll painter, whereas the tiny paint droplets of spray can’t blend the paint smoothly.
Conclusion
Painting your home’s exterior is necessary to hold the charm of your house. It not only preserves the appeal but is also beneficial to increasing your house’s price when you want to sell it.
By learning the approximate cost to paint per square foot can save you a heap of cash and be determine what to do and what not. The exterior paint cost per square foot of a house varies depending on several points; thus, the price of repainting your house increase when a new factor adds up.
We hope all the information above including the cost to paint per square foot was helpful for you to understand what to consider while figuring the cost of the paint.