How much does it cost to paint your home’s exterior?
In this blog post, we’re going to tackle that question and discuss the different factors that impact the price of an exterior paint job.
Depending on the size of your home and factors we’ll get in later in this article, the cost of painting your exterior should fall between $3,000 - $5,000.
Prices can get up to $10,000 again depending on the size of the home, quality of materials used, and how much labor is needed for the project.
Commercial Vs Residential
If you’re only evaluating the factors for a residential exterior paint job, then feel free to skip this section.
Commercial paint jobs will almost always be more expensive than residential. First of all, not all painters are licensed commercially so the ones that are can charge a premium.
Large commercial work environments have more moving parts like changes in scheduling, working hours, and worker safety. This requires a project manager who can manage all of this.
Lastly, commercial projects often require repairs and extra steps that you’ll never find in a home like concrete ceiling repair, higher durability coatings, metal door painting, and joint expansion sealing.
Size Of The Home
It’s simple, the larger the home the more material that will be used. There will also be an increase in the labor and time to apply these materials. We have a standardized method of calculating the size of the exterior painting surface of a home.
Prep Work Required
Before painting the exterior of a home, we’re going to do three things. Clean it, move or cover any areas that we don’t want to get paint on, and repair any cracks in the foundation. Power washing the property is necessary because painting over a dirty exterior will not allow the paint to properly stick.
We’ll repair any holes in the trim.
These repair prep steps can include but are not limited to:
Patching up nail holes and cracks to ensure the surface is smooth.
Repairing any rotten or loose siding and ordering replacement boards if the damaged ones are beyond repair to again ensure a smooth finish.
Replacing the trim around windows and caulking the gaps around the window frames, door frames, molding, and fascia if needed.
As you can see, painting isn’t just showing up with a paintbrush and going to work. A considerable amount of prep work is required for an exterior paint job and we’ll calculate into the estimate.
Decorative Features Around The Siding
Besides the siding, we’ll also paint the decorative features like shutters, blinds, door frames, gutters, downspouts, roof overhangs, the garage door.
We can also stain your deck if needed.
Accessibility of Your Home
Some homes are easier to paint than others. If we have to navigate around hot tubs, pergolas, bushes, or outdoor artwork, this can increase the laboor cost.
Also, homes located in steep areas require special equipment both for worker safety and access.
Occasionally, we’ll assess a painting project and determine we need to select the best of the best of our painting crews or specific painters who have experience climbing on roofs, using cranes, etc.
Quality Of The Paint Used
The quality of the paint used is another factor that can influence the price of your painting project. Not all paints are created equal as they come in different grades.
We always suggest going with the highest quality paints and primers to ensure maximum coverage and durability. The binders in higher quality paints allow for more durability.
Higher quality paints contain smaller pigments with excellent concealing properties compared to low-quality pigments like clay and silica found in cheaper paints. This means you’ll actually need more coats of low-quality paints to cover a surface.
Location
The price will vary depending on where your home is located not just because of the accessibility, but simply the cost of living where you live.
For example, the cost of living in San Francisco is much higher than that of Bella Vista, Arkansas. Thus, the cost of painting a 5,000 square foot home is much higher in SF than in Arkansas (all things being somewhat equal).
The minimum wage in a city like SF is $15.59 while just over $10 in Benton County, AR so right there the price of labor is going to be at least $5 more per hour.
You’ll also have to factor in the price of materials.