How Much Does it Cost to Paint the Exterior of a House?

Reviewed by Joe Roberts remodeling expert. Written by Fixr.com.

How much does it cost to paint the exterior of your home?

There’s nothing better than a fresh coat of paint to increase your home’s curb appeal and refresh its appearance. Unfortunately, this home improvement project can be fairly expensive. On average, it costs between $6,242 and $11,617 to repaint the whole exterior of a house. These prices include all the labor and materials involved.

Be aware, though, that these are just average prices, and your total costs could fall outside this price range depending on various factors. For one thing, the material your home’s siding is made from will significantly impact your project costs. Painting brick is usually cheaper than painting wood, for example.

The size of your home will also affect your price. If you have a single-story home, you’ll generally pay less for this project than someone living in a three-story or two-story home. Additionally, the state of your walls will also factor into your costs. If your walls are in good condition and require minimal prep work, your costs will likely be lower than average.

Because each factor will be unique to your situation, it’s impossible to pinpoint what you’ll pay until you get a quote from a painting contractor. We can help you calculate a ballpark estimate beforehand, though. Keep reading, and we’ll break down the various cost factors in exterior home painting.

Factors that affect exterior painting costs

The size of the surface area you’re painting

On average, it costs between $2.84 and $5.28 per square foot to paint an exterior wall.

The size of your home is one of the most important pricing factors for an exterior paint job. The larger your outside walls, the more surface area they’ll have the more gallons of paint you’ll need to cover them. Additionally, larger walls take longer to paint, increasing labor costs.

This is why homes with more stories tend to cost more to paint, but even if your home only has one story, you should expect to pay more if you have a large floor plan. A 2,200-square-foot home will almost always have larger exterior walls than a 1,700-square-foot home, even if they’re both two-story buildings.

Measuring your walls

To get an idea of what you might pay to paint your home’s exterior, you’ll first need to measure the square footage of all your outside walls. Start by measuring the width and height of one wall and multiply the two numbers together. That’s the wall’s square footage. For example, a wall that measures 20 feet wide by 15 feet high has a square footage of 300. Repeat this process for all the walls and add the numbers to find the total square footage of your home’s exterior. 

Once you have this number, multiply it by the per-square-foot prices we listed above for a rough estimate. Alternatively, refer to the table below for a ballpark price range.

Exterior house painting costs by square footage

The type of siding the home has

If your home’s old paint is chipping and peeling away, but the siding beneath it is still good, you can simply repaint it instead of replacing the siding. If your siding has started to rot, warp, or crumble, you should probably replace it before a painting project.

Different siding types require different prep work to paint over, and they also require different paint types, so the material your siding is made from will significantly impact your project costs. Find the type of siding your home has in the table below to determine what you’re likely to pay to repaint your home. 

House exterior painting prices by siding material

The condition of your siding

The prices we’ve listed include standard prep work like sanding, caulking, power washing, and masking. If your home’s siding is in poor condition, more extensive repairs will be necessary before painting begins. This will mean you’ll have extra material and labor costs.

On average, it can cost over 60% more to paint exterior walls in poor shape than walls that don’t require much TLC. 

The type of paint you get

As you might expect, getting high-quality paint for the exterior of your home will cost more than opting for low-end alternatives. Generally, acrylic paint is the best option for a home’s exterior, while oil and latex paints cost a little less on average. The downside of these cheaper options is that they tend to peel, crack, and fade sooner.

So, while you can save money right now by opting for cheap paint, you’ll likely spend more over the course of your lifetime because you’ll have to repaint your home more frequently.

Certain paint colors or finishes will also impact your price, but local market conditions will primarily determine this. Talk to your contractors about the current costs for different colors to determine which options work best for your taste and budget. 

Painting other exterior surfaces

If you want to paint more than just your walls—i.e., your trim, soffits, gutters, or fascias—you’ll likely pay more than average to paint your home’s exterior. These accents will add time, labor, and materials to this project, resulting in additional costs.

Alternatively, you can save money and still get a fresh look for your home by just painting your exterior accents instead of repainting the flat surface of each wall as well. To illustrate, painting a home’s trim costs between $2.15 and $3.99 per linear foot, making it more affordable than repainting the home’s exterior. 

While this won’t make up for cracked or peeling paint on your walls, it can add a fresh pop of color to your home, increasing its curb appeal.

Exterior painting pricing tiers

The budget option

To save money on this project, you can either opt for a low-end paint that works for your region and siding material (oil paints aren’t always permitted or recommended) or limit the scope of this project a little. 

You can do this by just getting your trim painted or repainting your walls facing the street. This won’t be as thorough as repainting your whole home at once, but it can refresh its outward appearance for relatively cheap.

Whatever else you do to cut costs, though, we highly advise against DIY exterior paint jobs, even if you’ve done some interior painting with your own two hands. Painting a home’s exterior is much more complicated and dangerous than painting a bedroom or living room. 

Additionally, since your home’s paint is an important part of its weather defense, an amateur paint job can leave your home at risk of water damage. All this considered, it’s best to leave the exterior painting to the pros. 

The mid-range option

If you can afford to repaint all of your home’s exterior walls at the same time, you should. It will keep them all in uniform shape and ensure the whole paint job looks good for years to come. You should only add accents like soffits and trim to the project if you have to, though, as painting these items can significantly increase the total costs for this project. 

The high-end option

Repainting every wall, soffit, and fascia around your home will likely cost you several thousand dollars more than just painting the walls, but it’s the best way to transform your home completely. If getting a fresh new look is your primary goal, we recommend hiring pros to completely redo every square foot of exterior paint. 

To get a style that will really pop, pick paint colors for your accents that will complement whatever color you pick for your walls. 

How to pay for your home’s new paint

The high costs of exterior painting leave many homeowners unsure of how to cover the project's costs. Luckily, there are various ways to pay for your new paint, even if you don’t have the necessary cash on hand.

The most financially sound option is to finance the project through your painting company. Contractor financing usually comes with the best interest rates and payback periods, though not all painting companies offer in-house financing. 

Alternatively, you can look into one of these other financing options:

• Personal loans
• Home equity loans
• Home equity lines of credit

Depending on the particulars of your situation, any of these methods may work best for you. The only payment method we recommend avoiding is paying with a credit card. Credit cards typically have steeper interest rates than other financing options, so they’ll cost you the most in the long run. 

Other factors to consider

Your HOA may object

If you live in a neighborhood with a homeowner’s association (HOA), you should get their approval for your new paint before the project begins. Otherwise, the association could stop the project or force you to redo the paint job once finished. 

Getting permits

While permits aren’t always necessary for painting your home’s exterior, you may need to get them in some cases, especially if you have to replace any of your siding. Your contractors can pull any needful permits for you, but you’ll have to pay for them. In most cases, this should only cost a couple hundred dollars. 

New paint can increase your home’s resale value

In addition to increasing your home’s curb appeal, repainting it can significantly increase its resale value and help it sell quicker in a tough market. Be aware that new paint may not always increase a home’s resale value enough to pay for itself, so you should only repaint a home you plan to live in for a few more years at least. That way, you can enjoy the paint you purchased for several years. 

Getting your home’s exterior painted

Your home’s exterior paint is an indispensable part of its defense against the elements and a key component of its curb appeal. Now that you know how much painting the exterior of your home is likely to cost, the next step is to get an actual quote from a local contractor.