How Much Should Exterior House Painting Cost?
by CertaPro Painters® of Washington D.C.
How Much Will It Cost to Paint the Exterior of My Home?
The first step after you decide to paint your house is to set a budget. To that end, CertaPro Painters of Washington, DC has created this pricing guide to help you create a ballpark range for how much it should cost to paint your house. This pricing guide is for informational purposes only and it should be understood that the prices are averages. Many factors can influence the price of painting your home which will review in more detail.
The Cost of Exterior House Painting Services
- Square Footage – The size of your home matters a great deal. A smaller house won’t cost as much as a large house to paint. It takes less paint and not nearly as much time.
- Height – The height of the house has a lot to do with the cost of exterior painting services. If we need to bring in scaffolds or a lift, it will cost more than if we use ladders to paint the highest points of your house.
- Ease of Access – For exterior painting, common obstacles are trees and landscaping, your neighbors house, challenging elevations, and more. The more difficult the access, the longer it will take our professional painters to safely access the components of your house that need painting.
- Type of Paint – While we always recommend that you use the highest quality paint possible for our exterior painting, there are many different types to choose from. Some types are more expensive than others, so that will factor into the cost of the work.
- Condition of the Surfaces – The conditions of the surfaces we’ll be painting makes a difference in preparation cost. If there is peeling paint, rotten wood, or other paint failures, we’ll need to add more time to your quote to properly patch the damage.
- Colors – Will you be changing colors? Sometimes if you’re changing colors to something much darker or much lighter it will require more coats of paint to cover over the old color. In general, we quote projects with 2 coats of paint if they are the same or a similar color to the surface paint we’ll be covering. We’ll need 3 or even 4 coats if we’re painting over very different colors, (for example, if we’re changing the color on a yellow wall to brown or painting an accent wall with a bold yellow or red will always take at least 3 coats).
One thing that won’t affect your price is Our in-home designer who helps you choose colors. Our professional color consultant will spend time with you to learn more about your vision and make sure your color scheme works with that of your neighbors. This is a free service once you choose us as your painter.
Tips to Control Costs for Your Exterior Painting Project
Determining Your Budget
First, you must determine your budget so that we can tailor your proposal to match your budget. Exterior painting should generally be redone every 5-10 years (an average of 7 years). Decks should be redone every 2-3 years. The durability of your paint job primarily depends on the existing condition of your house. An old rowhome with many layers of paint will inevitably start to crack and peel faster than newer surfaces that have fewer and only more modern paints applied to it.
Use High-Quality Paint
Using Cheaper Paint is usually not the best way to reduce costs. We recommend using the Sherwin Williams Emerald product line. This is Sherwin’s highest quality paint. There is a small price increase but you’ll certainly see a return on investment due to the increased longevity of the paint.
Prepping Your Area Before The Painters Arrive
Our customers will typically help prepare their yard for our painters by cutting back tree branches or bushes that are up against the house, moving patio/porch furniture, and removing mailboxes and street numbers from your house. Our painters can certainly do these things for you but it may take more time and increase the cost of your project.
Include Multiple Projects Into One Big Project
Some of our customers request that we break up their projects into multiple, smaller jobs spaced out over a few months to ease cash flow. We can do this but it does increase the cost slightly due to multiple mobilization charges and we find it’s more of an inconvenience to our customers to schedule multiple projects instead of having it all done at once. Alternatively, consider using our EZPay Financing from ACORN.
Assumptions that accompany these prices:
The pricing below is for ‘stand-alone’ projects. Our professional sales consultants are trained to account for efficiencies when we’re painting the entire house. The more surface area we paint the more efficiencies our professional painters can take advantage of. This means a lower price/sqft for you!
These are just some of the factors that contribute to the price of painting the exterior of your home. Below you will find some examples of some common exteriors in DC. All prices are based on 2 coats of paint and include labor and supplies. When you invite CertaPro Painters to your home for a painting estimate, please let us know your budget so we can provide professional suggestions to keep your costs under control.
Exterior Painting Example A
| FL2 Soffit | $400 |
| Brick | $500 |
| Unpainted Brick (Add Prime Coat) | + $200 |
| FL1 Porch Ceiling / Headers / Pillars / Railing | $750 |
| Two-Pane Windows + Window Frame | $100 ea |
| Window Frames | $40 ea |
| Front Door + Frame | $200 |
| Powerwashing and Preparation | Min $250 |
| Total for this house (repainting all surfaces previously painted) | $2900 |
Exterior Painting Example B
| FL2 Soffit | $500 |
| Brick | $800 |
| Unpainted Brick (Add Prime Coat) | + $300 |
| Four-Pane Windows + Window Frame | $130 ea |
| Window Frames Only | $40 ea |
| Front Door + Frame | $200 ea |
| Metal Stairs and Railing | $300 |
| Window Bars | $75 ea |
| Powerwashing and Preparation | Min $250 |
| Total for this house (repainting all surfaces previously painted) | $3750 |
Exterior Painting Example C
| Soffit and Fascia around entire house | $1250 |
| Brick around entire house | $4800 |
| Unpainted Brick (Add Prime Coat) | + $1800 |
| Sixteen-Pane Windows + Frames | $200 ea |
| Front Door + Frame | $200 ea |
| Door + Frame | $90 ea |
| Garage Door + Frame | $350 |
| Powerwashing and Preparation | Min $500 |
| Total for this house (repainting all surfaces previously painted) | $11000 |
Deck/Porch Example
| Deck and Stairs | $700 |
| Railing | $1000 |
| Powerwashing and Preparation | Min $300 |
| Total for this deck | $2000 |
Requesting a Free Estimate Is the Only Way to Know the Cost of Exterior House Painting Services
The only way to really know how much you’ll have to pay for exterior house painting is to request a free estimate. We say ‘free’ because there is no obligation to use our services if you request one. It’s simply for your information to consider.
If you decide the cost of our exterior house painting is fair, we will set up an appointment for our exterior painters to come to your home. We always provide an estimated time of completion, so you know when to expect them to be done.
Find out how much your house costs to have the exterior painted by calling us at 202.849.7050 or clicking below to submit your request online.
Project Information
By clicking next or submit you agree to receive phone, email, or text communication from us per our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Message/data rates apply. Consent is not a condition of purchase. We will never share your personal information with third parties for marketing purposes.
