So What Does Exterior House Painting Cost?
I know you don’t want to read a long article on all of the factors that go into determining exterior house painting cost and I am not going to do that to you. What you came here looking for was Real Life examples so that you will have some kind of an idea of what your house painting project will cost. Below I have posted a few pictures along with would it would typically cost to paint the exterior of the home you see in the photos.
A few thing to keep in mind.
- EVERY project is different and requires different methods, so your home will be different.
- Every companies does things a little bit different, we bid every project by the square foot or linear foot. This ensures that projects are bid accuratly and consistantly.
- Paint Costs are always changing. We have seen over 8 price increases from Sherwin Williams in the past 3 years (Which is why we LOVE Hirshfields!).
On To The Exterior House Painting Costs!
This is a Minneapolis Exterior that we ended up painting a few years ago. This is a great example because this home involved a lot of different pieces of work to complete.
First, the home needed to be power washed. Power washing must be done to ensure a long lasting paint job, validate paint manufactuers warranty and so that we can honor our own warranty. Power washing on a home of this size, with moderate peeling paint will typically cost $200. Power washing will rarely go under $200 due to set up and trip costs, but will also rarely go over $300 for larger homes.
Scraping
Second, the home need some scraping to remove loose paint and ensure that the future paint job has a solid surface to bond to. This home cost around $350 to scrape loose paint as well. If you have excessive peeling, a home can easily cost $500 to scrape loose paint and if you have almost no peeling it may not even be a part of your paint job. If your wanting your painter to remove all paint from your exterior siding to give your home a “Brand New” look, you can expect to pay anywhere from $1000-$4000 just for that service alone (which is considered a complete restoration).
Priming and Repair
Third is the spot priming and repair portion of the exterior paint job. This portion is different for every home. This home had a few boards that needed to be replaced and all bare wood was spot primed to give us a well bonded surface to paint on. This portion of the project cost about $400 to replace the rotten wood and to spot prime all bare wood.
Prepping
The fourth part for our exterior house painting cost is the prepping. Whenever an exterior is painted whether by hand with a brush or using a sprayer and backrolling painters need to cover all windows, lights, concrete and vegetation to prevent over-spray and / or drips. This home cost roughly $400 to prep off in preperation for painting. This involved covering all windows with plastic (which is 90% of the prep work), covering concrete, vegetation, lights, doors and anything that could not get paint on it.
Painting
So far we are up to $1,350 for our exterior house painting cost and we are just about to get to the actual painting. Actually, the painting is not as big a part of the project as you would assume, yes the paint can be quite expensive, but if the prep work has all been doen well, the painting should go smoothly and last for years.
The cost of the actual painting of a project of this size depends a lot on the quality of paint that you wish to use. I would estimate a project of this size to take roughly 15-20 gallons of paint for two coats. Exterior paint is going to cost $20 a gallon on the absolute lowest end and up to $70 a gallon on the high end. On the low end, you may recieve a 10 year paint warranty or even no warranty while on the high end you should be recieving a life time warranty. So paint costs should range from $300 all the way up to $1,500.
The labor for applying the paint can also vary quite drasticallly depending on what your tastes are. If you want you home painted with only one color (which is a little dull) your labor costs will be greatly reduced. If you are going for a 4-5 color scheme you are going to be spending much more on your labor. Typically a home like this will include one body color, one trim color (for trim, windows, soffits and fascia) and an accent color for a front door (and maybe some window shutters). I am going to assume this 3 color scheme for the purpose of pricing out this home for you. With a 3 color scheme (body, trim & accent) you could expect to pay about $1,250 for your exterior house painting cost.
Check out our Exterior House Painting Idea Gallery for Ideas on your Exterior Painting Project.
Total Exterior House Painting Cost
If you add up everything I have gone through here you should expect a total cost of $2,900 to $4,100 for a typical Minneapolis, Mn exterior paint job. Remember there are always many different factor for every home that can increase or decrease the price.
NOTE: If your home was built on or before 1978, any paint contractor will need to test the exteiror of your home for lead before begining the paint job. If lead is found in your exterior paint, they will have to follow all state rules reguarding lead which will lead to a price increase. Typically these increases range from 10-15% on an average home.
Thank you for reading our Exterior House Painting Cost article, we hope that it has been helpful for you next project.
If you are looking for a painting company in Minneapolis or the surrounding Twin Cities area, please Contact Us for a Free Quote. We would love to be your painting contractor!
For more information check out our pages on: