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Exterior Painting Cost Calculator

Two exterior painting quotes for the same house can differ by a factor of two, and the reason is almost always preparation.

Last updated Free, no sign-upHow it works

Your inputs
Your house

Ground-floor area. We derive the perimeter and multiply by wall height.

Scope and finish
Location

Labor rates and prices vary enough by state to move an estimate substantially.

Optional. Used only to pick your state out of published labor and price tables. We never ask for a street address and nothing is stored.

Use this if you would rather not enter a ZIP code.

Results update as you type. Nothing you enter is sent anywhere or stored.

Estimated exterior painting cost: $3,350, ranging from $2,550 to $4,600.

Estimated exterior painting cost

low confidence
$3,350Materials and labor, before contingency
$2,550 lowhigh $4,600

What makes up the typical figure

  • Painting and preparation labor$1,800
  • Paint — mid grade exterior$680
  • Pressure washing$330
  • Staging, ladders, and masking$220
  • Everything else$300
  • United States average
  • +10% contingency advised
  • Assumptions 2026.07.1

Why low: no state was resolved, so national averages were used; the modeled range spans about 61% of the typical value.

Key figures

Surface area to paint
1,512 sq ftPerimeter of a 1,600 sq ft footprint times 9 ft per storey.
Cost per square foot
$2.20($1.70 – $3.06)
Paint needed
11 gallons
Estimated labor
29 hours
Share of labor that is preparation
18.2%Preparation is what decides how long the finish lasts, and it is the first thing a cheap quote cuts.
Materials only, if you do it yourself
$682($528 – $880)

Cost breakdown

Estimated cost of each component, with low, typical, and high values.
ComponentLowTypicalHigh
Paint — mid grade exteriorMaterials11 gallons for 2 coats over 1,512 sq ft, at 300 sq ft per gallon.$530$680$880
Painting and preparation laborLabor29 crew-hours at $63/hr billed, of which about 5 are preparation.$1,100$1,800$3,000
Pressure washingLabor$180$330$570
Doors (2)Labor$90$160$280
Staging, ladders, and maskingEquipment$90$220$480
Site protection and cleanupOther$60$140$300
Estimated exterior painting cost$2,550$3,350$4,600
Recommended contingency (10%)Exterior contingency is mostly for rot found behind failed paint — trim, sills, and fascia that need replacing rather than coating.$260$340$460
Total to budget$2,810$3,690$5,060

The low and high columns above will not add up to the headline range. Each line has its own uncertainty, and every line landing at its worst case at the same time is unlikely, so the total combines them as partially independent rather than summing the extremes.

What moved your estimate

  • Vinyl siding — decreases the estimate

    The fastest common surface to coat. Use a paint rated for vinyl — darker colours than the original can cause the siding to warp in sun.

  • Trim work — increases the estimate

    Trim is brush-and-cut work at roughly 26 linear feet an hour. On a detailed house it can rival the cost of the walls.

How this number was produced
  1. Surface areaperimeter × 9 ft × 1 storeys1,512 sq ft
  2. Paintarea × 2 coats ÷ 300 sq ft per gallon11 gallons
  3. Labor hourscoating + preparation + trim, × height and complexity29 hours
  4. Totalcomponents combined as partially independent uncertainties$3,331

Adjustments applied

  • Regional labor — national×1.00

    National 47-2141 Painters, Construction and Maintenance mean wage of $26.64/hr (BLS OEWS May 2025), times the contractor burden multiplier.

  • Vinyl siding×1.00

    Coverage rate relative to vinyl, which is the fastest common surface to paint.

  • Surface condition — chalking×2.10

    Preparation hours relative to sound siding.

  • Height and complexity×1.15

    Moderate — some gables, dormers, or wraparound, 1 story, easy — level ground all round.

Notes and sources3 notes, 2 sources

Worth knowing

  • Exterior coverage of 300 sq ft per gallon assumes previously painted, sound siding. Bare wood, stucco, and brick absorb considerably more.
  • We do not deduct for windows and doors. Cutting around an opening takes about as long as coating the wall it replaced.
  • Weather is not modelled and it matters: paint applied below roughly 50°F or in direct sun will not cure properly, which shortens the life of the whole job.

Sources

  • U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), State cross-industry estimatesprimaryMay 2025retrieved 2026-07-31
  • PlainTotal editorial baseline for exterior work, reviewed against publicly advertised supplier pricing, manufacturer specifications, and published trade guidanceassumption2026 national baselineretrieved 2026-07-31

Coating a sound wall is fast; scraping a failing one is not. This calculator prices preparation as its own line so you can see how much of the quote is the part that decides whether the finish lasts.

Methodology

How this calculator works

Working out the surface area

If you give a footprint and a storey count, we estimate the perimeter as 4.2 times the square root of the footprint — a shape factor for a moderately rectangular house — and multiply by nine feet of wall per storey.

No deduction is made for windows and doors. Painters generally do not make one either, because cutting around an opening takes about as long as coating the siding it displaced.

Why preparation is its own line

Coating rate varies about threefold across common sidings — vinyl runs at roughly 210 square feet an hour, wood shingle at 105. Preparation varies far more than that: sound siding needs about a tenth of an hour per hundred square feet, widely failed paint needs fifteen times as much.

That is why two quotes for the same house diverge so sharply. A cheap quote is usually not cheaper labour, it is less preparation, and it shows up three winters later rather than on the invoice.

What is not modelled

Weather, which decides whether the coating cures properly and is the single biggest determinant of how long the job lasts. Lead paint, which in pre-1978 housing brings containment requirements that can add substantially. And rot behind failed paint, which is what the contingency is for.

Location and data

Where the numbers come from

Location is optional, and we only ask for a ZIP code or a state — never a street address. A ZIP code is matched to its state using published postal prefix ranges, and that state is used to look up labor and price rows in the tables below. If you leave it blank, or your ZIP cannot be matched, the estimate falls back to a national average and says so on the result.

Nothing you enter is transmitted or stored. The calculation runs entirely in your browser, and the only place your inputs appear is in the page URL, so you can bookmark or share a result if you choose to.

  • primaryMay 2025v2025.05

    U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), State cross-industry estimates

    Hourly mean wage (H_MEAN) for each trade. These are employee wages, not billed contractor rates. Billed rates are derived in the engine by applying a documented burden-and-overhead multiplier; see docs/calculator-methodology.md.

  • assumption2026 national baselinev2026.07.1

    PlainTotal editorial baseline for exterior work, reviewed against publicly advertised supplier pricing, manufacturer specifications, and published trade guidance

    These are NOT published statistics. As with the interior material baselines, no public agency publishes exterior material prices at this granularity and proprietary construction cost databases cannot be reproduced. Every figure is material only, delivered to a metropolitan supply yard, before regional adjustment and before sales tax. Labor rates are crew-hours or per-unit production rates for a competent crew in normal conditions. See docs/data-sources.md for the full limitation statement.

Full detail on every dataset is on the data sources page. Spotted something wrong? Report incorrect data.

Calibration

The judgements behind this estimate

These are the figures we chose rather than measured. For each one we record the range of values found across references, what we selected, and why — because an estimate you cannot interrogate is not much better than a guess. The 1 marked high risk are the ones most likely to be wrong and most consequential when they are.

  • Surface preparation hours per 100 sq ft by conditionhigh risklow confidence
    Observed range
    0.05 — 3 (typical 0.3)crew-hours per 100 sq ft
    Why this value
    The widest-range assumption in this calculator and the one that most separates two quotes. Washing sound siding is under a tenth of an hour per 100 sq ft; scraping, sanding, and spot-priming widely failed paint can exceed three. We selected values across a fifteenfold band. Preparation is what decides whether the finish lasts eight years or two, and it is the first thing a cheap quote cuts.
    Applies to
    United States. Sun-exposed elevations in high-UV regions fail faster and need more preparation.
    Known limits
    Condition is self-assessed from a dropdown, and homeowners systematically underestimate it. Lead paint in pre-1978 housing brings containment requirements that can multiply preparation cost and are not modelled at all.
    Sources
    Published trade production-rate guidance and contractor estimating handbooks
    Last verified
    2026-07-31 · reviewed annual
  • Site access difficulty multiplierlow confidence
    Observed range
    1 — 1.5 (typical 1.12)multiplier on labour
    Why this value
    Level open ground round the whole house is the 1.0 case. Landscaping, decks, slopes, and overhead lines each cost setup time on the affected elevation. We capped the shipped high case at 1.3 because beyond that a lift is usually hired, which is an equipment cost rather than a labour multiplier.
    Applies to
    United States.
    Known limits
    Self-assessed from a dropdown with no objective definition. The weakest input on this calculator.
    Sources
    Published trade production-rate guidance and contractor estimating handbooks
    Last verified
    2026-07-31 · reviewed biennial
  • Exterior coverage per gallon per coatmedium confidence
    Observed range
    180 — 400 (typical 300)square feet
    Why this value
    Manufacturer labels state 300-400 sq ft per gallon on primed, sound siding. Real coverage falls to about 180 on bare wood, rough-sawn cedar, stucco, and unsealed masonry. We ship the lower end of the manufacturer band as a single value rather than a range, because the user knows their substrate and the calculator does not — and we say so on the page.
    Applies to
    Not regionally variable.
    Known limits
    A single point value understates gallons needed on porous substrates by up to 40%. Stucco and masonry users should expect to buy more than the estimate shows. This is disclosed in the notes but not modelled.
    Sources
    Manufacturer published specifications and coverage figures
    Last verified
    2026-07-31 · reviewed biennial
  • Coating production rate by siding typemedium confidence
    Observed range
    70 — 280 (typical 160)square feet per hour
    Why this value
    Spray-and-backroll on flat vinyl reaches roughly 280 sq ft/hr in ideal conditions; hand-brushing wood shingle with deep reveals falls to about 70. The selected per-surface values sit at the centre of each material band. The threefold spread across materials is larger than the spread across contractors, which is why this is modelled per surface rather than as one rate.
    Applies to
    United States. Crew skill varies more than region.
    Known limits
    Assumes spray application where the surface allows it. A brush-and-roll-only specification, common in dense neighbourhoods and some HOAs, runs 30-50% slower and is not modelled.
    Sources
    Published trade production-rate guidance and contractor estimating handbooks
    Last verified
    2026-07-31 · reviewed biennial
  • Exterior paint price per gallon by quality tiermedium confidence
    Observed range
    22 — 140 (typical 62)USD per gallon
    Why this value
    Shelf pricing spans roughly $22 for contractor-grade five-gallon-equivalent economy paint to $140 for top-tier exterior acrylics. We selected mid-band values per tier. Premium exterior paint holds film integrity and colour years longer outdoors, where the difference matters far more than it does inside — so the tier gap is a genuine durability choice rather than only a finish one.
    Applies to
    United States. Regional variation enters through the material index, not this figure.
    Known limits
    Sampled from advertised retail rather than contractor account pricing, which is typically 10-25% lower. Five-gallon pails are cheaper per gallon than single gallons and are not modelled separately.
    Sources
    Publicly advertised big-box and trade supplier pricing, sampled across several metropolitan markets; Manufacturer published specifications and coverage figures
    Last verified
    2026-07-31 · reviewed annual
  • Trim and fascia production ratemedium confidence
    Observed range
    14 — 50 (typical 26)linear feet per hour
    Why this value
    Brush-and-cut trim work runs 14 ft/hr on detailed multi-profile trim to 50 ft/hr on simple flat fascia within easy reach. We narrowed to 18-38 as the range covering typical residential trim. On a trim-heavy older house this line can rival the wall cost.
    Applies to
    United States.
    Known limits
    Trim length is user-entered and routinely underestimated — people count fascia and forget window casings, corner boards, and rake trim.
    Sources
    Published trade production-rate guidance and contractor estimating handbooks
    Last verified
    2026-07-31 · reviewed biennial
  • Site protection and cleanup per jobmedium confidence
    Observed range
    40 — 400 (typical 140)USD per job
    Why this value
    Drop cloths, plant protection, masking removal, chip collection, and disposal. Higher where lead-safe practices apply or landscaping is extensive. Selected band covers typical residential work.
    Applies to
    United States.
    Known limits
    Lead-safe cleanup in pre-1978 housing is materially more expensive and is not modelled.
    Sources
    Published trade production-rate guidance and contractor estimating handbooks
    Last verified
    2026-07-31 · reviewed biennial
  • Number of finish coatshigh confidence
    Observed range
    1 — 3 (typical 2)coats
    Why this value
    Two coats over a sound, similar-coloured surface is the standard specification. One coat is only adequate as a refresh over a recent identical colour. Three is needed for dramatic colour changes or porous new substrates. Exposed as a user input rather than fixed, because it is a specification decision rather than a property of the house.
    Applies to
    Not regionally variable.
    Known limits
    A one-coat quote against a two-coat quote is the most common apples-to-oranges comparison in exterior painting. The calculator cannot tell the user which their bidder assumed.
    Sources
    Published trade production-rate guidance and contractor estimating handbooks; Manufacturer published specifications and coverage figures
    Last verified
    2026-07-31 · reviewed biennial
  • Staging, ladders, and masking per jobmedium confidence
    Observed range
    60 — 800 (typical 220)USD per job
    Why this value
    Ladder-only single-storey work carries almost no equipment cost beyond consumables; three-storey work needing rented staging or a lift can exceed $800. We scale the selected band by the storey multiplier rather than exposing it as an input.
    Applies to
    United States. Lift rental pricing varies by metro.
    Known limits
    A boom lift, sometimes necessary on steep sites or tall elevations, is a step change rather than a smooth increase and is not modelled.
    Sources
    Published trade production-rate guidance and contractor estimating handbooks; Publicly advertised big-box and trade supplier pricing, sampled across several metropolitan markets
    Last verified
    2026-07-31 · reviewed annual
  • Pressure washing per square footmedium confidence
    Observed range
    0.08 — 0.5 (typical 0.22)USD per square foot
    Why this value
    Sampled washing-only pricing runs $0.08 to $0.50 per sq ft depending on soiling, height, and whether the crew already has equipment on site. We narrowed to $0.12-$0.38 because the extremes describe standalone jobs rather than washing done as part of a paint contract, where the mobilisation is already paid for.
    Applies to
    United States. Higher in humid regions with heavy mildew growth.
    Known limits
    Assumes washing as part of a larger paint job. A standalone wash carries its own mobilisation and would cost more.
    Sources
    Published trade production-rate guidance and contractor estimating handbooks
    Last verified
    2026-07-31 · reviewed annual
  • Exterior primer price per gallonmedium confidence
    Observed range
    22 — 70 (typical 40)USD per gallon
    Why this value
    Bonding and stain-blocking exterior primers span roughly $22 to $70. We selected a mid-band value. Primer is modelled as one full coat when selected, at the same 300 sq ft per gallon coverage as finish paint.
    Applies to
    United States.
    Known limits
    Spot-priming after scraping — far more common than full priming — uses a fraction of a full coat and is not separately modelled, so selecting primer overstates cost for that case.
    Sources
    Publicly advertised big-box and trade supplier pricing, sampled across several metropolitan markets; Manufacturer published specifications and coverage figures
    Last verified
    2026-07-31 · reviewed biennial
  • Paint waste allowancehigh confidence
    Observed range
    0.02 — 0.12 (typical 0.05)share of ordered material
    Why this value
    Exterior paint waste is low compared with sheet materials — it is overbuy and unusable remainder rather than offcuts. 5% covers the rounding to whole gallons plus touch-up reserve. Higher figures reflect colour changes mid-job rather than normal practice.
    Applies to
    Not regionally variable.
    Known limits
    Gallons are already rounded up to whole units, so this allowance is partly double-counted for small jobs. The effect is under 3% of the paint line on a typical house.
    Sources
    Published trade production-rate guidance and contractor estimating handbooks
    Last verified
    2026-07-31 · reviewed biennial

Cost factors

What changes the price most

Surface condition
The largest variable. Scraping and spot-priming failed paint can exceed the cost of the coats themselves.
Siding material
Vinyl coats twice as fast as wood shingle. Masonry also absorbs far more paint than the coverage figure suggests.
Storeys
Above two storeys a crew needs staging rather than ladders, adding setup on every elevation.
Trim and detail
Slow brush work priced by the foot. On a Victorian it can exceed the wall cost.
Paint quality
Premium exterior paint costs roughly twice builder grade but holds colour and film integrity years longer outdoors, where the difference matters more than it does inside.
Lead paint
Not modelled. Pre-1978 housing may require certified containment, which is a separate and significant cost.

Questions

Frequently asked

How much does it cost to paint the exterior of a house?

For a typical single-storey home with about 1,600 square feet of footprint and sound vinyl siding, expect a figure in the low-to-mid four figures nationally. A two-storey house with peeling wood siding can easily be three times that, almost entirely because of preparation. Enter your own details above for a state-adjusted figure.

How often should a house be repainted?

Typically seven to ten years for wood, ten to fifteen for fibre cement, and longer for vinyl that is painted rather than replaced. Sun exposure decides more than anything else — a south or west elevation usually fails years before the north side.

Is it cheaper to paint or replace siding?

Painting is almost always cheaper up front — often a quarter to a third of replacement. Replacement wins when the siding itself is failing, because paint over deteriorated substrate does not last and you pay twice. Our siding replacement calculator prices the alternative.

Do I need to pressure wash before painting?

Yes in nearly all cases. Paint does not bond to chalk, dirt, or mildew, and washing is cheap relative to a failed finish. The exception is badly deteriorated wood, where high-pressure water drives moisture into the substrate and hand cleaning is safer.

How many coats does an exterior need?

Two over a sound, similar-coloured surface. Three if you are making a dramatic colour change or coating a porous surface such as fresh stucco. One coat is only adequate as a refresh over a very recent, identical colour.